No Two Flakes Alike

Happy 5th Birthday Bright!

2012-01-18T12:42:00.004-07:00

I know people say it all the time, but it's crazy how fast kids grow up. I can't believe she's 5!!! She's a KID!
Here are some things about Bright as a 4 year old:
Favorite Color: Light turquoise and Bright pink
Favorite Foods: quesadillas, peanut butter sandwiches, blueberries. She'll say candy, but she's really not that much of a sweet tooth. She's like her daddy where she can have 1 piece and be satisfied. Not like her mamma!
Favorite Movies: Toy Story, Despicable Me, Megamind, Tangled, The Grinch
Favorite Thing to Play: Barbies, her swing in the playroom, games with mommy
Things about her: She entertains herself so well! She doesn't watch a ton of TV and instead just makes up games and scenarios and just plays all the time. She's starting to try to rope Deacon into her pretend world now.
- She goes from calm to MAD in 1 second flat. She has got a major temper and does not put up with crap from anyone!... This is bad because she needs to learn how to take instruction from adults and she has a really hard time being told what to do by anyone.
- She's really creative and really unique! She can be in her own little world a lot... kinda spacey like me!
- From everything I've read, she's a lot more like a 2nd child than a 1st child.
- She hates wearing jeans! She prefers sweats or leggings and skirts. And when I force her to wear jeans she'll insist on wearing a skirt over the jeans! She usually dresses herself, which at this point I just allow and sometimes she comes up with these great outfits and sometimes it's a disaster! It's like my own private Project Runway.
I didn't want to do a big party for her this year because she's had some major discipline problems, so I let her bring one friend to Chuck E. Cheese, her friend Westley from across the street, who I don't think we got any pictures of! LOL
After the party she was being a big ungrateful and entitled, so we took 2 of her presents that she opened at Chuck E. Cheese to the women and children's shelter. I was hoping she could meet a child there to give it to, but they were all gone, so we just left it there and got a short tour of the shelter. I hope it sunk in a little bit...
Then, I wanted to make her a cake for the first time EVER, but it seemed like such a waste to have a whole cake to ourselves, so I invited some neighbors and friends over to share the cake. It was overall a really great day!

Heavy Heavy Hangover thy poor lome.

Christmas In Pictures

2012-01-18T11:03:00.008-07:00

For Christmas this year we went to my parent's cabin in Island Park. It was rough cause we all wanted to go to utah but there was no where we could all stay together in Utah, so Tami, Heather and I and our families went to I.P. Once we got there, it was awesome. However, in Rexburg, grocery shopping, I lost my will to live temporarily and only regained it once things were unpacked in the cabin. We did learn that without our mom, even three adult women are helpless! Christmas Eve fondue didn't quite happen because Heather forgot her pot and I forgot a piece to my electrical cord.... and it just didn't go quite as smoothly as it goes when mom is there, even though she did provide everything to make it happen. Here are the pics:
Norrah and Bright in their christmas Eve PJ's from Nana. They weren't quite BFF's this trip though. It was strange, they just kind of stayed away from eachother, which was fine because I didn't have to deal with the DRAMA! Instead she was obsessed with Cannon who she cries about on a weekly basis because she wants to be "married with him."

He's so sweet to be patient with her being all over him all the time.

The Loot from Santa.

Bright got her "makeup" that she

wanted. The only other thing she wanted was a "My way Toothbrush and toothpaste" that you can decorate with stickers. This is what happens when you only have PBS and no cable, you don't see a lot of commercials. So when she saw the My Way toothpaste, she was instantly hooked. That's what she's hugging in the next picture.

Car shoes

Aaron was WAY more into this car track than anyone else! Deacon really loves it too though. I thought he would love the BBall hoop more, but he loves the cars. They run on batteries and last a whole half hour before dying.

Deacon opened Buzz Light Year first from us, and then pretty much was not interested in opening anything else. In fact, Bright didn't open all her presents in the morning either. There were so many people and presents to get through, she's not that patient! They were all open by the end of the day though.

Aaron got all the kids into the Car Track.

A bit of snow!

Swimming at the club house. I love Deacon in this picture. Aaron always gets "crazy eyes" when trying to get kids to smile for pictures. It's like the crazy mouth women get when applying mascara. It just can't be helped.

It's a GIRL!

2011-11-14T11:36:00.002-07:00

So excited to blog-nounce that I'm having a girl! (And since that's the second time I've used the word blog-nounce, I'm officially declaring it a word that I made up.) Our ultrasound tech was named Tea-tow... like Tea-towel, without the l's. I wish I had a pic, but the only electronic things they gave us were video files. Did you know that the most outside hits for my blog come from people searching for pictures of boy ultrasounds? Back from when I posted Deacon's explicit ultrasound. (He had a proud papa.)
Now since this blog is all about the dirty truth. I think it's about time I talked about some things that happen to you when you're pregnant that no one tells you.
- The spreading of the hips/buttocks. This may only happen the second and third time around but my behind is SO pregnant. Now I'm not claiming that this has nothing to do with the two frozen chimichangas I'm currently ingesting. The horrible part about morning sickness is that you get REALLY sick if you don't eat like on the hour, every hour. And a carrot stick just isn't going to cut it! Some people throw it all up, so it doesn't matter. I, however, highly medicate myself with Zofran so I don't throw up all day, so it all migrates to the booty. But it's not good booty like Kim Kardashian.
- The gigantic NOSE- I firmly believe that Heavenly Father gave me "pregnancy goggles" the first time around so I wouldn't notice how absolutely horrendous I looked. I don't think I could have shown up for work and been on live TV every day if I had full clarity about the size of my nose. But after seeing pictures, I can no longer deny that my nose is like a pop up thing on a turkey and it tells me when the baby is fully cooked and ready to come out! (I really should go through my other computer files and post a really embarassing picture.)
- The crying: OK they do show that on things like movies where the woman is crazy emotional. But holy cow, I'm really going through that this time.
- The burps: I was going to say "the gas" but suddenly I got too lady-like and didn't want to embarrass my mom. For me, I burp ALL the time and it's so gross. Aaron loves it.

On other notes: Brighton has become my caffeine police. When we were going through In Vitro I told her I couldn't have any pop because of the caffeine and now EVERY time I get a drink she asks if it has caffeine. And if, for some reason, I decide not to lie, she says "Mom, do you want to have a dead baby?" I told her I drank so much caffeine when I was pregnant with her, maybe it causes a sassy attitude and I SHOULD probably stop.

Names we're considering:
Lucy
Piper
Oaklee
Stella
Blythe (Which, how awesome is this- includes the initials or first 2 letters of me, my mom and my 3 sisters.)
Hadley
Rozlyn
Marlee
Penny
It will probably end up being something not even on this list yet. This concludes my pregnancy post.

Halloween 2011 and subsequent bedtime woes

2011-11-02T10:21:00.011-06:00

Are you super impressed by my timeliness of getting Halloween pictures posted? It's partly cause I'm still a little embarrassed about my last post and don't want it to be front and center anymore! Also cause Aaron gave me a hard time. :)

First Brighton. This child- bless her heart- has to put her own spin on everything! She is SUCH a non-conformist. She's the girl who always has to wear a skirt over her jeans (when she's forced to wear jeans, which she HATES.) Or she'll have to wear 2 headbands, etc. So instead of just being an adorable Minnie Mouse... she was "movie star Minnie Mouse" for Trunk or Treat but then she didn't want to be Minnie Mouse for Trick or Treat. She wanted to be a Panda Bear, which sorry- but I can't whip out a Panda Bear costume in a day. So I found my wedding veil and she was "Bride Minnie Mouse" which satisfied her.

And of course she had to have a Mickey Mouse to marry! Deacon was so excited when I put him in his costume. I don't know how he knew that meant something sugary was to follow, but he immediately started running back and forth as if he was already on a sugar high. He's getting into the "posing" phase of toddler-hood. He wants to do everything like Brighton, and if we say smile he closes his eyes and does a cheesy grin. SO cute.

Also- don't you wish that gnarly cat was real?

More pics:

So every year I say I'm not going to dress up and then I just can't help myself! I went to D.I. trying to find a rockin' 1960's maternity dress... like a sailor dress with a big bow over the belly. But alas, I couldn't find one. But I found this 70's dress, which was cool. So I decided to stuff my belly and be a 1970's pregnant prom queen. I knew it was risque, especially at a function where my ward would be but this man, who TOTALLY reminds me of my dad thought it was hilarious. So even though my real dad disapproved, Denny thought it was okay which made me feel better. His wife mentioned how I was the prom queen the next day in Sunday School and I'm pretty sure she didn't realize that I was trying to be funny with the whole pregnant thing. (Which is probably a good thing!)

NOW to the subsequent bedtime woes: Pregnancy and Aaron's late hours have made me a terrible mother when it comes to bedtime. (and meal time, and bath time, and play time) I'm great at TV time. I gotta give myself kudos somewhere! Anyway bedtime has been getting later and later and for the last 2 nights my kids have gone to bed at 11 pm! That's later than Aaron and I usually go to bed! Last night I spent 5 hours putting together an Ikea dresser and then Aaron and I re-arranged the whole room in order to fit in the dresser and then realized the only way it worked was exactly the way it was and put most of it back. Then we're trying to just let Deacon cry in his crib for a few minutes and next thing I know I hear footsteps and he's out of his crib! Do any other parents get slightly creeped out when this happens the first time? You hear small footprints and all I can think is "Please be Deacon, Please be Deacon! Don't be a zombie baby!" (Zombie babies are by far the creepiest Halloween decoration.)

Then again this morning he crawls right out of his crib. He's 19 months today! It just seems a little early! Crafty little bugger.

Finally, a breakthrough!

2011-10-07T11:57:00.001-06:00

Well, I figured out how to make Brighton into the sweetest, most helpful, loving girl in America. All I have to do is yell "S**T BALLS!" at the top of my lungs and lock myself in my bathroom for a half hour, whilst sobbing.
I should back up. It's just been one of those weeks. First off, remember how I'm pregnant? Second- it's been raining all week. Third- Aaron has worked until 8 or 9 EVERY night this week and I'm a horrible single mom. So the day was going fine. In the morning I did the quarterly changing of the kids closets where I put away all the clothes that are too small and get out all the next season's clothes that I've been stocking up on during sales. Feelin' good about my bad self. Then during Brighton's dance class I took Deacon with me to the dollar store to buy some umbrellas. My patience went down to 80% cause Deacon wanted this basketball and every time I gave it to him he did what any 18 month old boy would do. He threw it. Then some old lady told me I was stupid for continuing to give him the ball. She was right- but still! Then since I was out of the house and wearing a bra I decided to run to Old Navy to replace some tights I bought for Bright that got a hole the first time she wore them. Now- Brighton is obsessed with mannequins. All of them. She calls them her "family". So when she sees all the adorable mannequins at Old Navy she has a hay day giving them all hugs and talking to them. Everyone around her finds it adorable but it's just gotten really old for me! And yesterday since I was just going to grab the tights I decided to let Deacon walk with me. Big mistake. After trying to get Brighton away from "her family" and trying to chase Deacon around the entire store, we were quite the spectacle. At the end I was literally yelling at Brighton to "stay with me!" and trying to hold Deacon as he was trying to wiggle away and pay... patience level down to 50%... chances of someone in Old Navy calling CPS also 50%. (PS- this pic was not from yesterday. It's like a year old.)
We get home and those two trips took it out of me! So I make ramen noodles with egg for the kids and canned soup for me. We're in that phase where Deacon wants to do everything himself and eating is quite the chore. I'm trying to let him feed himself because honestly feeding babies is the worst- but he slaps his hand down in the bowl and the noodles go FLYING all over the place which he finds delightful. Then I ask Bright to put her bowl in the sink and she tries to throw it! So again... soupy eggs all over my cupboards and rugs. Patience level 30%.
Now comes the regular fights between the kids, and injuries. Brighton hits her head in the playroom and Deacon steps on a thumb tack and it goes ALL the way inside his foot. Deacon grinds a banana into the carpet and as I bend over to scrub it out my pajamas split down the middle. Great for the old self esteem. Patience level 15%.
Then as I finally sit down to try to watch Thursday shows Deacon gets a cup of water that I foolishly left on the shelf and dumps it all over me. Patience level 0% and thus the CURSE word comes flying out of my mouth and I retreat to my bathroom for a good sob.
When I came out- Brighton started cleaning her messes, giving me loves, putting on her pajamas, brushing her teeth, helping her brother, I've never seen her so good in my life! So if yelling S**T BALLS gets that kind of result, I might turn into a real potty mouth!

Drum roll....

2011-09-13T14:42:00.002-06:00

Since I recently learned that a person besides my mom reads my blog... and since this is documentation for future generations (or giant ants that invade the planet but know how to read) I shall blog-nounce that I'm successfully knocked up! Yay! But seriously- we're probably the luckiest infertile couple on the planet and I feel bad for ever whining. For people with.003% chance of conceiving naturally it's just so awesome that we're going to have 3 kids! 3!

I'm almost 14 weeks now and do feel like blar but I just said I shouldn't whine... but that's haaarrrdd! Ok this next bit isn't a whine-fest it's just a sad story.

The WEEKEND of FLAKE plague!
SOOOO- we had a trip planned for labor day to go to the Flake ranch to see Aaron's whole family. Aaron's parents are going on a mission so this was our last chance to see them before they head to the outer-regions of the earth (Istonia?) for two years and our chance to see the rest of his family that we only get to see like once a year. So we were supposed to fly out Thursday at 1:19 p.m. Wednesday I got a call from pre-school that Brighton had thrown up all over herself. So I went and got her and she ended up being really sick all day.. That night at about 7:00 p.m. it felt like more than just baby-sick and I ended up with the stomach flu ALL night and thought I was going to DIE. Honestly- I know I over-share on this blog but no one should have to know what went on behind those doors.

So the next day I was still SO sick. Like the sickest I've ever been in my 32 years and Aaron was trying to convince me to try to fly to Az. I had just resigned myself to the fact that I couldn't and they would have to go without me when I hear barfing from the other room and now Aaron is sick! So we spent the day like Grandpa Joe and Grandma Josephine from Willy Wonka. The next day we were both better and the airline said there were 3 seats on the flight to Arizona but since 2 of our tickets were from credit card miles we had to go to the airport and fly standby. So we threw things in suitcases and ran to the airport only to find that there were only 2 seats. We all went through the gate and in the end Aaron and the kids were able to get on the plane and I had to stay behind.

Normally a weekend to myself would have been awesome but I was so excited to see everyone and relax at the ranch that I was just devastated. I held in my tears like a brave warrior on my way to the car and then bawled the whole way home. Sadness, right? So I spent the weekend disinfecting my entire house from the plague and shopped a little and ate out by myself and saw two movies by myself. I do have friends but all of them were either camping or also sick. :( Probably my fault. Sorry.

So that's the story I wanted to tell. We've had a good summer though. We really didn't do much this summer, mostly because of the reproductive business and my morning sickness and Aaron being super busy. We did go to Lagoon with my family which was REALLY fun and I didn't feel too sick that day, but felt horrible the next day trying to travel home. From that I realized that sushi isn't the best road trip food.

If you can't say something nice....

2011-07-12T23:12:00.004-06:00

...you shouldn't blog at 11:12 p.m. But I'm gonna. And you can't stop me. This is going to be a total whine-fest. But maybe I'll say something nice first- I got a piano! Hip hip Hooray! Now I need to get a book of Elton John's greatest hits and Ben Folds Five and start playing something besides hymns!

I was quite literally on my way to bed just now...taking my pills and doing the other thing I have to do before bed which I won't mention because I know the meaning of the word propriety (Watch What's Up Doc if you haven't. My favorite movie ever!) and I just felt like blogging my woes to the www. Maybe this is bad luck. eh.

I just have a sense of impending doom! I got some embryos put in my lady parts and I'm just waiting to see if they'll go from cells to fetus and I'm a nervous wreck and my body feels like it's falling apart! Last time I just KNEW it would work. There wasn't a doubt in me. This time- well it all started when they told me I had 4 embryos left and they'd have to thaw all 4 in the hopes of getting two goodies. Turns out only one thawed well. The other one had like a 2% survival rating but I had the Dr. put it in me anyway since she was down there and all. So we have a 22% chance of conceiving which just sounds impending doomish. (Yes, I used to be a journalist. No, I didn't use words like doomish and lady parts back then.) And now we have no embryos left and I want 27 babies! I wonder if I could have babies easily if 3 would sound like an okay number, but now that I can't I want 46. I want so many that they make a new reality show after me.

I had to lay down for 2 and a half days, but the Dr. said it takes 3 or 4 days to implant, so I pretty much laid or sat for 4 days and now my neck is sooo stiff I can't even check my blind spot! It hurts like mad and I can't take anything for it. On top of that I have to get these 2 inch long needles stuck in my butt every day and it looks like a bruised pin cushion and is sooo sore! The progesterone is making me SOOO dizzy and it's 170 degrees outside and I can't go to the gym so I went to the mall yesterday and spent (bleep -censored in case Aaron reads this) dollars! I'd like to bear my testimony- I know retail therapy is true.

I do have wonderful friends though who helped watch my kids and brought me food while on bed rest. That's a happy part. :)

Aaron says I exaggerate.

Oh and the picture at the top is Eggbryo the Embryo. He's my lucky mascot made from a real hardboiled egg, potato head arms and T-rex legs. My friends Jake and Abbie made that for me. :) haha.

Tee-ball Vs. Ballerina class

2011-06-16T13:29:00.004-06:00

One day i was sitting around, as I often do, and I felt like a bad mom for not putting Brighton in any organized activities. (Although every day at the Flake house is like an organized sport) so I decided to put her in both T-ball and ballet class. Sure, why not?
Well T-ball was a big fat disaster. She HATED it! I'm not even exaggerating. She would cry when we would go to practice, refuse to put on her mitt, refuse to throw the ball, make birds nests in her hat with the grass, etc. She liked running around the bases... in the opposite direction. And during her game, instead of running to first base, she chased her own ball down the field.

Notice I said her game, singular. During said game, I had to stand out there with her just to keep her from sitting down or playing with the chalk lines that were completely fascinating to her. This was actually like an exhibition thing and not a real game. So in full disclosure, she did go to one real game where I had to make sure Deacon wasn't wandering onto the field instead of watching her. So halfway through an inning Coach Matt yells to me that Brighton is gone. She had wandered off and was two fields away catching bugs with some other little girls. At this point I finally realized, "What am I doing?" Torturing both of us? So I paid $7 for a trophy and called it good. No regrets there!

Ballet on the other hand was fabulous. She still had major distraction issues i.e. the gigantic mirror and all her cuteness. She has a hard time focusing and watching her teacher but it was fine because she was having a blast. Let's just say she's a free spirit like her mama! The funniest is when they are supposed to be all graceful and do ballet moves that they want to do, she practically closes her eyes and tilts her head up to the ceiling while she dances. She says it looks graceful. And she always goes down to the floor for her final pose. Her dance class was called Studio Motion and I totally recommend it for just $20 a month! Perfect for a first-timer. We'll go again next year, for sure.

Oh the DRAMA!

2011-06-16T12:51:00.002-06:00

I have always thought of myself as a rather laid-back person. I never liked involving myself in drama in jr. high or high school and I sure don't like it now in my 30's! So a) why has it found me more than it's fair share in the last four years and b) HOW on earth did I get the most dramatic 4-year-old EVER?
The answer to A just hit me. Two words: Desperate Housewives. Not that I ever watch that show but I am totally Susan (cause things that would never happen to regular people happen to me, especially whilst camping). And I totally have a friend who's Bree and a total Lynette. Ok so maybe I do watch...every week... and Tivo it... and own the box set. Don't take away my temple recommend, k?
This weekend I full-on yelled at my friend's husband (and friend of mine too) that he was driving me crazy. And not in a funny way. Went off for like 23 full seconds about it. What. the. heck? So not like me! But now I'm pretty sure they hate me. I shouldn't be around people while on estrogen shots. That's all I'm sayin'.
And speaking of Drama-mama herself, Brighton. uuughhh!! Why is everything the end of the world with her? I swear I can't even handle it anymore. Just now she cut her leg on her box-o-shoes that lives under her bed. (Which wouldn't have happened if she'd put on pants like she was supposed to! Instead she was trying to construct a dress out of 4 skirts) Anyway, she said "It hurts so baaaadddd! It feels like having a baby without any medicine!!!" That cheered me up!
Deacon has been pretty dramatic this week too- since he got 19, count them yes, 19 mosquito bites on his head and face while camping! His head feels like the Rocky Mountains. I think a mosquito was stuck in the tent with him during his nap and just went to town on his head. Poor guy has been miserable! His other drama moment is his baby doll stroller that he pushes everywhere. He tries to get it around every corner and through doors and up and down steps and has a mini-tantrum every time it gets stuck. It's actually pretty amusing too.

Originally when I started this post I was going to write down all of Brighton's drama moments all week, or really it might only take a couple days to get a dozen. But I'm too impatient. And I want some chocolate.

Jump rope Vs. Bathrobe

2011-03-03T10:44:00.004-07:00

Brighton inter-changes the words jump rope and bathrobe. So random right? I've told her multiple times it's her bathrobe and she consistently calls it a jump rope. She also calls litter "glitter" which is silly but at least I can understand that one. Although litter is ugly and glitter is magnificent. Litter should be no where and glitter should be everywhere. So really- they're opposites. From now on- the opposite of litter is glitter.

P.S. After I posted this she called her thumb her pumpkin. What the? I was like "What did you call it?" And she was like "this finger- my pumpkin. I can't really memember what it's called."

Update: Mar 10: A new one: She calls Rice Krispy Treats Ice Frizbee treats.

LOVE listening to Bright

2011-02-25T13:32:00.003-07:00

We all know that Brighton cracks me up.... but I LOVE the way she plays. I think I heard my sister ask (while watching Toy Story 3) if any kids actually play with their toys like that. Brighton absolutely does. This is probably a result of a lazy/busy mom who spends way too much time at her computer.... but it results in hilarity.
So right now at this very minute I'm listening to Bright
In a low pirate voice. "ARG" don't even think about it.
In a high voice: "Oh somebody please help me... please help me"
"No! No one help her! Peter Pan don't help her! Peter Pan is here... something about stupid... You should be tied up by now"
"Oh no no no! I don't want to be tied up.. nonon o don't do it!"
(wierd toot sound)
"no nono dont' ever!"
"Ha! that's better"
High Voice: "No it isn't! You should help me first. Peter Pans here and Tinker Bell!"
"Mommy pause the game" (She had me tie a bandana around a baby doll's mouth who is Wendy)
"Now she's making a muffled talking noise"
"Put her on the boat!"
She is now dressed up like a pirate and has fashioned a pirate ship out of a clothes bin and a stool.
So this isn't a particularly funny dialogue but it just happens to be what she's playing right this very minute. But I always over-hear her playing in her playroom with Barbies or her princess dolls or her doll house. And she's constantly talking. Usually it's even funnier but it just is so cute. I'll take some pics with my phone:

Oh now she changed from the pirate to TinkerBell and saved Wendy:

Disney Vacation

2011-02-10T10:06:00.004-07:00

Ok Brighton is at preschool and poor sicky Deac is sleeping at 10:00 a.m. So while I actually have some work I need to do, I'm going to take a few minutes to blog. So my parents are the most generous people in the world. Really, they are. I can't really even talk about everything they've done for us but their generosity amazes me and I only hope that someday I'll have the means and the selflessness to help my kids if they need it. OR- to take my entire family on an all expenses paid trip to Disneyland and a 7 night Disney cruise!
Highlights of Disneyland:

Seeing my entire family together at the same place!
Riding the storybook rides with Brighton
Going to Toon Town an hour before it opening and having the place virtually to ourselves
Brighton meeting Tiana (her favorite princess) Ariel and Jasmine in the princess castle and then hearing a Snow White story followed by dancing with the princesses.
Eating a corn dog!
Not being pregnant so I could ride the thrill rides like space mountain, Screamin' over California and Tower of Terror.
Watching Brighton LOVE the scary roller coasters like Thunder Mountain Railroad and Space Mountain. She takes after mommy and daddy.
Watching Aaron's face on Soarin' over California.

Highlights of the Disney cruise:

Sitting on the back of the boat eating dessert right after we got on the ship and basking in the sun. Brighton was sitting on the ground eating ice cream and the grown ups were all sitting around and I just had a feeling of complete and utter BLISS!
All the amazing dinners/desserts we had. I tried lobster, swordfish, escargot... didn't really like any of them. But I tried them! My favorite was the vanilla bean creme brule. Holy yumminess.
Again- meeting the princesses. Seeing Brighton get so shy and excited was so fun. All the other characters were fun too. Brighton had all her princess dresses that she wore to dinner each night.
Trying to punk Tami and having it backfire in my face! Tami and Marthea- you better watch it!
All of our port adventures including the Pirates of Penzance, Gordo Lele's, Lover's beach, the Dolphin show and shopping in Mexico.
The departure party, the pirate party, the midnight dessert buffets.
The shows! Oh goodness gracious, the shows. I LOVED the Toy Story show even though I think the Disney Dreams one was supposed to be the best one. The Golden Mickeys was awesome... all of them were SO good! The beat-boxing juggler- awesome.
Having some adult time while Brighton was in the Oceaneer Lab. (don't have a dirty mind!)
Just being with my family!
Singing "Time of our lives" karaoke to my parents.
Karaoke- "If I had a million dollars" with Heather.

Did I mention everything? It was just so incredible and almost surreal. I missed Deacon like crazy but not so much that it ruined anything. Only when I saw other babies did I think about him. However- it was heartbreaking when I went to pick him up, expecting a warm welcome and he did NOT want to leave grandpa's arms. It took a couple days for him to love me again. We took about 1200 pictures- for realsies. Posting pictures takes forever on this blog, but if you want to see them, visit aaronflake.com Here are the few I have on my laptop

Sigh.... best. week. ever

2011-02-04T16:32:00.002-07:00

Just returned from the most magical trip ever... I don't even have time to officially blog about it yet and I realize I haven't blogged even Christmas or anything but just have to capture the magic in my heart before it fades. As a mother- there's nothing better than seeing your 4-year-old daughter in complete and utter Girl-Heaven as she met all of her favorite princesses. Or playing in the sand on a Mexican beach... or dancing with Mickey Mouse in the Walt Disney Theatre. Two days at Disneyland could have been enough magic to last a year, but we had an additional week on board the Disney Wonder cruise ship. Magical pictures to follow.... thanks Mom and Dad for an amazing trip of a lifetime!
Love, Brooke

Funny Girl

2010-10-08T12:06:00.004-06:00

Sometimes Bright says things that end up being SO funny just because she's little and naive. But lately, she's saying funny things on purpose.

Example of a funny thing she said on accident: Yesterday we were at the zoo and there was a big leopard or something. But I didn't know what it was yet, so I said, "Oh Bright look at that big guy!" Well, there just happened to be a rather "large in stature" man also looking at the leopard and Brighton looked at him and back to me and said in a quiet voice, "Mooomy- He's not a zoo animal!" I about DIED!

Example of funny thing she said on purpose: We were at the grocery store and a lady asked me if I knew where to find spaghetti and spaghetti sauce. I told her on Aisle 7 and she said thank you and Brighton looked at her, saluted and said "At your service!" I cracked up and the lady just looked at her and walked away. It was dang funny.

Two week trip!

2010-08-23T11:04:00.006-06:00

The kids and I took a nice long trip at the beginning of this month. Aaron was going to be gone for high adventure, so we took off for Idaho Falls. We spent a couple days there and then went to Wyoming to see Tami. Autym was auctioning off her 4-H lamb, which I still believe was a goat, but apparently I'm wrong. I've probably looked at lambs thinking they were goats all my life. This thing did not look like Mary's little lamb. Anyway, so we spent some time at their fair. The most exciting thing in Brighton's life happened. Well, the story starts last year at the Idaho Falls fair when Brighton wanted to go on the "Dragon ride." It's like a dragon rollercoaster. But alas, the carnie-lady measured her and she was a couple inches too short. Well, Brighton is like an elephant and never forgets! ALL year whenever anything about her being too big or too small comes up she mentions the dragon ride and how she is so sad that she was too small for the dragon ride. I must have heard about the dragon ride once a week for an entire YEAR! I swear I'm not kidding. Once in a while in a sleepy-stupor she'd even start crying about the dragon ride for no reason. It was THAT dramatic! So we see the dragon ride at the Wyoming fair and what do you know- Bright was big enough to ride! She was so excited!!! Happy Day. We took her on a few other rides. The big one that I went on with her she was so scared the whole time. We got done and she said "That was so scary.. but in a good way." Then her and her cousin Norrah sweet-talked their way onto another ride for free. We look over and all the sudden they're just riding!
After Wyoming we went back to IF again.. went boating.. saw Eclipse (again) and then went to the Ballard and Lois Hale reunion in Island Park where it was 60 degrees in August! So we stayed indoors and played Minute to Win It games. And too bad Tami has my pictures of when we went to Beauty and the Beast at the Playmill Theatre (where Tami used to perform) because Brighton was the most star-struck little girl ever when she got to meet Belle. It was the cutest thing EVER!

Here are the trip pics!

The fair had this "Kids Zone" with free things for kids, and Brighton kept saying, I want to go to the "Kids Song!"

Tall enough for the Dragon Ride!!

The scary ride!

This is the one they snuck onto!

My dad was going to fast and Brighton still kept putting her thumb up to say "faster!"

Dad unrolling a whole roll of TP

Norrah putting penne pasta on spaghetti

Aunt Julene playing don't blow the joker

Jennifer doing Candalier

4th of July and other Summer fun!

2010-07-29T13:35:00.000-06:00

Summer is going by too quickly! Our next trips this summer were home for the 4th of July and then to Cherry Hill last weekend. 4th of July was as magical as ever. There is just something about being home on that holiday that brings back so many great childhood memories. The parade is basically the same as it was growing up, but the fireworks have gotten so much better! I love watching Brighton exprience things that I experienced as a child. Don't let the sweatshirts fool you- It really was 4th of July. So typical in Idaho Falls. :)

Valley Girls:

Haydn doing an awesome karate kick:

Here are some more misc. summer pics that I took with my camera. Aaron takes all the artsy, cool photos and I just document the every day. So mine aren't fancy-schmancy but it's what I have!

At Eagle Island State Park: (That's Aaron and Brighton making a sand castle in the background)

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Brighton got stung by a bee... in the eyelid! (Actually I'm starting to think it was a wasp and it bit her, because it wasn't that bad.)

The ONE picture we got at Cherry Hill.

Her new jeep. This is her friend Anila from across the street.

Riding our bikes to get snow cones.

Ode to Summer!

2010-07-01T14:00:00.014-06:00

Oh how I love thee summer? The sun, the heat, the long days, the water.... I think I am soaking up every day of summer because we had such a yucky cold wet Spring. It's already July and it feels like the first week of summer!
We recently got back from our first summer vacation- Aaron's family reunion in Southern Utah. It was the "Jones" reunion- his mom's side and it was so fun to meet all these aunts, uncles and cousins that I've heard so much about. And I love hanging out with Aaron's immediate family because it doesn't happen often enough. What I found really cool was sitting in this A frame cabin singing these songs and listening to songs that his family has grown up singing. The Jones family is SUPER musical. I thought my family was the VonTrapps but everyone in the family sings and plays piano, etc. Aaron's mom made a song book of all the songs Grandpa Jones used to sing and he actually wrote several of them that we now sing to Brighton. I just love long family traditions like that and songs and stories that get passed down generations. Hearing stories about how two siblings joined the Jones family was really touching and made me understand why Aaron's mom is the way she is- very giving and loving. I really married into a great family!
Anyway, mushy stuff aside. We went to KodaChrome, Bryce Canyon and BrianHead summit. The road was closed so the family just decided to hoof it up the mountain. I had Deacon in a sling on my chest and when it got to these huge rocks I was afraid I would eat it and land right on Deac, so I went down but Brighton was determined to get to the top! It wasn't easy either! She's a little mountain goat!

Here are some of the sights we saw. Bryce Canyon was my absolute favorite. So beautiful!

Other highlights of summer have been "The Beach" -Eagle Island State Park and the neighborhood pool...

My computer is taking forever to load pictures, so I'll have to do more later!

Deacon's blessing

2010-06-14T11:52:00.005-06:00

Here are some pictures from Deacon's blessing. Everyone who attended from our families isn't pictured, but my whole family came except Heather's huband and kids, but Heather flew in from Vegas and Gregg and Marthea, Lynzi and Ron, Tami's family, mom and dad and Robert and Anne all came. It was awesome. :)

I love you to the moon and back

2010-06-14T11:28:00.005-06:00

All my nieces and nephews have always played this game where they compete for how much they love their moms and vice versa. So the kid will say I love you "this much" and the mom will say I love you to the end of the street and back, to grandma's house and back, etc. So I tried playing this with Brighton and we got really far. It usually ends with "to the moon and back" but I decided to throw in "I love you to Heaven and back" and Brighton who was going along with the game just fine says "Well that would just be weird." But she was good with the moon and back. Finally to end it all she said "I love you how much daddy loves me.. and that's really far." She cracks me up.

She says at least 5 super funny things every day and I always forget by the next day! I'm so lame not to write things down so I want to try harder. Somehow she thinks our sliding glass door is the portal to Heavenly Father. She always yells prayers out the window. The other day she yelled "Heavenly Father (which sounds like Henly Fater, please, please, please make it stop raining!" And then it did stop! I told her Heavenly Father answered her prayer but she told me she didn't really believe me. Where's the faith? LOL She often leaves drinks of water and cookies for Heavenly Father by the back door.

I need to write down her funny sayings of the day more often.

Deacon Newborn and Two Months

2010-06-01T10:32:00.005-06:00

Deacon is almost two months. Aaron snapped some great shots Sunday morning. He likes taking pictures while I'm sleeping in! Also I never posted newborn pictures, so first are the newborn and then are 2 months so you can see how much he's changed!
Newborn:
You can really see how yellow he was in this shot.

Two Months: His eyes are very brown!

I guess I had a baby... Deacon Jett

2010-05-05T10:59:00.004-06:00

I think I'm still in denial about having a baby. I know that sounds REALLY weird but it's true. I haven't blogged about it because it's still weird to me and I'm still a little out of whack emotionally. NOT that I'm not thrilled because I couldn't love him more and I now understand what people mean when they say they were instantly in love with their babies. (With Brighton I was too traumtized and exhausted to even care for about 2 days) With Deacon, I instantly loved him.

So here's the story of the birth: (It's long)

It was April 3rd, the day before Easter. My sister Tami and her family were in town on their way back from Spring Break in Oregon and my mom was here because she "felt like she should come a few days early" (Inspiration!) So we were in the middle of re-modeling my kitchen and we went to the tile store to pick out tile and I almost had a nervous breakdown. I was having mild contractions and I just couldn't deal with picking out tile. It never would have happened without everyone's help. So then the girls all went to lunch at Smashburger and then shopping. We were walking around Target and I was having some pretty strong contractions. I was feeling pretty yucky so I told my mom and Tami I just needed to go home and lay down. (Now I have to tell this part just to tease my mom.) So after that, my mom wanted to go to one more Target to pick up something for Lynzi's wedding. So I'm driving around the Target parking lot timing the contractions and they're coming every 6 minutes and lasting a minute. So we finally go home and Aaron and my brother-in-law Jason had just started putting up the tile backsplash and I was sure I was in labor but was downplaying it just in case. But I really didn't want to wait too long to go to the hospital because I didn't want a repeat of Brighton, so we went. (I started crying before we left because I was almost in a panic.)

So we get to the hospital and the nurse checks me and tells me I'm not in labor and I almost threw a speculum at her head. This was exactly what happened with Brighton and I was freaking out. So we have to walk for an hour and I was SURE I was in labor. Either that or admit me and put me in a medically induced coma. Aaron's all "they're not very strong, so maybe she's not in labor" and at that point I REALLY almost threw a speculum at HIS head! So the nurse checks me again and I AM in labor and she admits me and I put a rush order on the epudural and all is well in labor land.

The epudiral didn't go in very smoothly and I couldn't stop shaking until I gave birth but it was so much better than last time. Right after I got the epirual I was dialated to a six and my water broke. Aaron went to get something to eat and to pick up Tami and a few minutes later I felt like I was fully dialated and ready to push but the nurse didn't check me until like an hour later and at that point I was at a 10 (plus 2- she said on the phone to my Dr. whatever that means) and ready to push. BUT neither Aaron nor the doctor was there! So they had me wait for them to get there and then I pushed through one contraction full force. Then on the next two contractions I just pushed halfway and let my body do the work and out he came! It was so easy I couldn't believe how great I felt!

We hung out in the hospital for two days and ate SO much chocolate cake and just relaxed as much as you can in a hospital. I noticed the baby didn't eat very often but just thought maybe he was getting so much during the feedings it was lasting a long time. He went six hours one day and I thought it was a good thing. (shows how dumb I am) The second day we were there he didn't pee at all but the nurse said it could have been because he was circumsised that day. He had jaundice and before we left she checked it again and it had gone up so she called my pediatrician, Dr. Ally and she said to come in the next day just to make sure it was ok. So we went in and after we weighted him and checked his bili ruben she said "I am SO glad you came in today. You need to get to the hospital right NOW." She said if we had waited until the day we were supposed to take him in he would have been needing a blood transfusion. She said she'd never seen bili ruben go that high that fast or a baby lose so much weight so fast. I was SO freaked out but just went into business mode and got him to the hospital. They had to put an IV in him to hydrate him because he STILL hadn't peed in 2 days when we took him to the hospital and was severely dehydrated. They put him in the little light box with this mask to protect his eyes and we could only take him out to feed him every 3 hours. I was so worried that he'd be in there crying and we wouldn't be able to hold him but he didn't move or make a sound for TWO DAYS. It was good that he was content and slept for 2 days straight but it really freaked me out. I even had to wake him up to eat. After the second day we took him home and treated him with a bili blanket. He's now a month old and still has jaundice but I haven't taken him in to check his levels again. He has gained a lot of weight and eats really well now though. He's actually getting a little chunky!

When he was born he was 7'15. He got down to 7'1 in the hospital and at his 2 week appointment was up to 8'8! Holy cow! He's probably almost 10 pounds now, seriously. Well that's enough for now, I'll post pictures soon!

Super Girl!!! (Or Super Grill as Bright would say)

2010-03-23T17:38:00.005-06:00

I love these pictures Aaron took of Brighton Sunday morning. Sorry for the
partial nudity... but it was much worse before she put on her tutu. ;)
Look at how graceful her legs are with her toes all pointed perfectly! I think
she's going to be a dancer!

So typical Brighton

2010-03-23T16:55:00.004-06:00

I'm sure all toddlers are quirky but Brighton really likes putting things in lines and rows. I think she's going to have some kind of OCD and I'm really hoping it's the kind that makes you a clean freak. (Except then I would drive her nuts.) This is just SUCH a typical thing for her to do, I had to take a picture. She got her pants out of her room and made them into a row in the hall. She has this "treat" box that she gets to choose prizes from when she's a good girl and once she got it down and put all the prizes in a straight line and then put it away. Please don't tell me she's a freak- let's just say it's cute, k? ;)

Also, she's adorable:

All my dreams have now come true

2010-03-22T10:23:00.008-06:00

There is beauty all around.... when you put in new floors... there is joy in every sound, when you're walking on a hard floor.
Yay! I just could not handle the icky carpet under my table anymore, so the project of putting hard wood there spilled out into the rest of my house in my high-traffic areas and I'm so happy about it! I think it turned out so great! Now I just need new countertops, new sink, new blinds and a new chandelier and we're set!
Here are before and after. Yes, even I helped! (Well I pulled out staples.)

Look at that nasty carpet!

Aaron trying to be as tough as Sheldon.

All done!!!

Back door

Kitchen

View from front door

Help me!!! Poop-tastrophy

2010-03-09T12:24:00.004-07:00

I know blogs are supposed to be all "look at my cute, fun, easy life" but seriously? There are tons of cute, fun, easy things but right now my life is surrounded by poop!! Literally! There is a reason I've never had a dog, people! As my mom always said and I quote: "If you can find a dog with a cork in it's bottom, we can get a dog." Right now I'm thinking if I had a 3-year-old little girl with a cork in her bottom life might be easier. Right now you're probably thinking not just "What is wrong with Brighton?" but more like "What is wrong with Brooke?" I'm a little bit mental from mopping up pee and poop!
So last week I decided to take her to the doctor to make sure she doesn't have some kind of urinary infection that is limiting her ability to control her bladder. (wishful thinking) While in the waiting room she poops in her panties!! And she's wearing a skirt, so it's seriously EVERYWHERE. I thought I was going to die. I'm bawling in the waiting room trying to get it all taken care of. Turns out she doesn't have an infection. So yesterday my little puppy daughter poops on the way out of Costco.... wonderful!!! So I stick her in the bath when I get home and I'm on the computer and I go check on her and seriously... gross out alert..... don't read any further if you're eating.... the bathtub is full of poop! ALL over the place. So I try to drain it but my drain is kind of clogged and going really slow and it's seriously like the biggest nightmare I think I've had as a mom and she's freaking out because I'm telling her to help me wash it down. Hello, child. you were sitting in it!!! LOL. I know this is the worst thing to blog about but I'm seriously just trying to laugh about it all so I don't go insane. I'm going to have two kids in diapers in a month! SERENITY NOW!
PS. I should mention after hearing about my poop-tastrophy, Aaron came home with a rose and a bag of Hershey's Bliss dark chocolates for me. :)

Salt Lake Aquarium

2010-02-23T15:45:00.005-07:00

We had a day in Salt Lake after Grandma Child's funeral, so we decided to take Brighton to the aquarium in Utah. We went to the big Aquarium of the Pacific in California last year, so this didn't quite meet my expectations, lol. But there were some way cool things. I thought we had more cool pictures of the sting rays and jellyfish and octopus but I don't see them! I hope I didn't delete them accidentally!

Kissing the frog, hoping it would turn into a prince!

On another note, why do they call them the "terrible two's?" I think they should be the "tricky twos" and the "TOTALLY terrible threes!" geesh! I don't know if it's that I'm pregnant and emotional and/or lazy/tired but Brighton is trying my patience every single day! I know she is pressing the limits and my lazy parenting is not helping because it's hard not to just walk away when she's screaming at me instead of disciplining her, but she has days where I just want to put her in her room and forget about it! The afore mentioned lazy parenting is also not helpful in the fact that she has 100% regressed in potty training. She was fully trained in about July and didn't have an accident ever. Well now she has accidents all. the. time! Like multiple times a day. Thankfully it's just pee but I am at my wits end about it! We just got the sleeping through the night back under control and now we have this. Anyway, I'm just venting but I sure hope things get better after the baby is born and my brain isn't so mushy. Or will my brain just get mushier? I've tried to help Aaron with homework lately and I'll read a paragraph and it just does not sink in! I'm so glad I'm not in school! Anyway, I should probably read some parenting books or something, lol.

PS. Do you feel as cool as I do when you get done typing something and you spell check and there are no errors? (except the words that I maybe made up?) I rock.

String cheese babies

2010-02-19T14:17:00.003-07:00

So I had a dream last night that I had my baby, except it was triplets. I remember it totally didn't hurt and I was walking around the mall/hospital (it was the same place) showing off my new babies. Only they weren't babies.... they were three pieces of unwrapped string cheese! And I had already eaten half of one of them!

This dream however is not freaking me out like the food-baby related dream I had while pregnant with Bright. I dreamt that she came out a baby but then I forgot about her and kept her in the closet in a duffel bag... really freaky... and then when I finally remembered her she had turned into a frozen loaf of french bread dough. It was so traumatizing and I had to poke holes in the dough to make eyes and a mouth to try to feed her. It was SERIOUSLY creepy. The string cheese one isn't haunting me like that one did. :)

Beautiful Brows

2010-02-15T11:46:00.003-07:00

So I get my fashion advice from Sesame Street characters- namely Bert and Oscar the Grouch. That's cool, right? I mean my mom gets 100% of her fashion and beauty advice from Oil of Olay Commercials so what's the difference? I look hot! From, Brighton

Free stuff on Craigslist- too funny!

2010-02-03T14:16:00.005-07:00

I LOVE Craigslist. Aaron and I love getting a good deal, as most people know, but the free section of Craigslist can provide hours of entertainment.
Ok how about this one.
Free teacup and saucer. No, not a 6 piece teacup and saucer set. Just one teacup and saucer. Yes, hello Margaret, I'm here to pickup your free teacup and saucer, thank you!

Ones coming from BSU campus also crack me up like a free old frying pan one student is offering to the free blue towell another one just can't bear to throw away. This kid got a new towell, so he doesn't need his old one, but it was washed once a week so it's still in great condition. Hm, how about keeping a backup towell for guests? Just a thought.

OK what the?

These items apparently came out of a grab bag from a garage sale. I know we're an environmentally concious people but really, throw them away! I'm not going to drive to Parma to pick up a button with the date of President Bush's last day in office, or a squid fishing hook! (OK maybe the squid thing is kinda cool.)

There are a lot of broken electronics, dirt, boxes, bubble wrap, etc. There's also the people offering a free massage. That sounds safe! There are occasionally some good things on there, but the weird things keep me laughing!

Here is a "connection" for a sony walkman.

Ok I searched some other cities to see if they had funny things and I think Boise wins the prize for the most random things in the free section. It just makes me laugh to think about someone going through the trouble to go to someone's house to pick up a 3-ring binder. LOL.

One more... I don't even have words for this thing. Apparently a ham hat?

Boring Political Post Alert- disregard if you wish

2010-01-27T21:17:00.003-07:00

I kept talking to myself and wishing my dad was here while watching the State of the Union, so I decided to take notes because I am a huge dork. I wasn’t able to watch the whole thing because my Tivo wouldn’t let me rewind all the way or pause but here is what I thought about what I heard.
Sustainable energy. Awesome. He talked about building clean nuclear power plants which I am a huge supporter of and increasing offshore drilling which I also support. He mentioned global warming but honestly I don’t even think of global warming when I think about clean, sustainable energy- I think about the fact that America is in a much better position when we are not relying on the Middle East for our energy. That just makes sense.
I don’t really understand what he was saying about exports. He “pledges” to increase our exports by 50% in a year, I think he said. That just sounds like a number he threw out there, to me. I don’t understand how we can be exporting more goods when other countries are producing goods so much cheaper. I’m not saying I agree with the way other countries run factories or pay workers, I think it’s horrible. But it’s a sad truth that the U.S. can’t compete in many areas because of these injustices.
Tuition stuff sounds great!!! He’s talking about giving families a $10,000 tax credit for a 4-year education and forgiveness of student loans after 10 or 20 years. He said no one should be in a financial strain because of the decision to go to college. That sounds so awesome but I’m still facing the problem of trust when it comes to this administration. It’s been a year since he’s been in office and I think, as a Republican, I really went into last year with an open mind, hoping for the best but also keeping my eyes and ears open. Up until this point I haven’t seen him accomplish much, except run us another trillion dollars into debt. A trillion, in a year people! The tuition part of the speech sounded a little like “I’ll make coke come out of the drinking fountain” in a Jr. high election. I’ve heard a bill has already passed to relieve public servants of student loans after 10 years but that it will never get funding. So apparently just passing those bills doesn’t do a whole lot if the money isn’t there- which it’s not.
Now he’s talking about the deficit. He’s talking about a 3 year spending freeze that will save us some odd billion dollars over the next ten years. How does it make sense to calculate the savings over 10 years when the freeze is for 3 years? Then he mentioned the freeze won’t take effect for another year. I heard some sarcastic chuckling in the audience over that one.
Tax cuts- says he will extend tax cuts to middle-class but Aaron says our taxes already went up. I guess we’re getting $16 less a month in our checks because of income taxes. Weird.
Sick of him talking about “the last 8 years” ugh. Just move on.
Talking about health care reform. What he talked about sounds more like health insurance reform which I am all for… but what isn’t he telling us? Why was this so debated? I think everything he talked about competitive options for health insurance, etc. is what we need. However, the last thing I want is government run hospitals. I hear people who have lived in other countries talk about the government hospitals and they are so scary and take so long to get into. Some of them have private hospitals but they’re way too expensive for the average person to afford. It’s stories like that that really scare me about this “health care reform.” He says if anyone has a “better idea” he’s ready to hear it. But I’ve heard lots of better ideas out there and he doesn’t seem to be listening.
Absolutely agree about lobbying money. Elections shouldn’t be paid for by lobbyists.
Also all for earmark reform.
National security. I’m actually surprised and glad that he’s taking national security so seriously and increasing troops in Afghanistan. From what I’ve seen that area is still very far from under control. It’s an interesting shift to see how he was going to yank all our troops before he got elected and how his tone has changed. Just goes to show that he now has intelligence as President that he didn’t have as a senator. Either that or he just wanted to win the election by saying he would end the war.
He says we’ll be out of Iraq by the end of the office. That’s another 3 years. We’ll see. The army generals aren’t applauding when he said that the war is ending and all the troops are coming home. Interesting. So glad he told America to support the troops when they come home. Now the generals are applauding. Largest increase for veterans in decades last year. I am all for supporting the vets. There are a lot of cuts I’d make to support the vets and military families.
Generals also didn’t clap for the allowing gays in the military thing.
Threat of nuclear weapons. Arms control treaty. Good.
Oh don’t you squash the pundants… He’s talking about the media and kind of insinuating that the media critics, aka people like Glenn Beck, Rush and all the other conservative talk show hosts are fostering negativity in the country. You know what, the media is the check and balance of the government and if we don’t have people speaking out against the government, that is when things get really scary. True, some are extreme, but cynicism is healthy at a time like this. How many people are going to take the time to do the research these talk show hosts do? Hardly anyone. I, myself, rely on them for the “other side of the story.” It scares me that he would even bring up the media because any government control of the media is downright terrifying.
Well that’s it. I know, I’m a dork. But now I’ll remember what my political views were in 2010, lol.

Playing Princess

2010-01-14T18:31:00.003-07:00

Playing princess is a regular occurance in our house. What's NOT so regular is that Aaron got to be the princess! This was all Brighton's doing and yes, he is wearing lip gloss. What a good sport! Is it weird that he's actually a little pretty? LOL.

What Divas!

Three-year-old Checkup

2010-01-12T16:50:00.002-07:00

Brighton went to her three-year-old checkup today and after crying for 15 minutes before even going, she did great. We brought her little doctor kit, so she could see what they were using and our doctor who I *love* Dr. Alli, used her little pink tools before the real ones. So at 3 she weighs 32 pounds, which is 75% for weight and is 38 1/2 inches which is 85% and her BMI is 15 which is 25%. She got three immunizations and now she's all caught up. She was so brave, she whimpered a little but she said she was going to be really brave and she was! She didn't even cry!
The Dr. did the screening tests to see where she's at and she said she's more on the level of a 4 or 5 year old because of how smart she is, recognizing all the "hard" shapes and recognizing letters and starting to write letters. She does walk with her feet slightly in and has a lisp, which could be a result of the 2 years of binkie usage. Whoops. She said she'll grow out of it though. After we were done I took her to the "Lollipop Stop" by our house and she got to pick out a sucker. Ok I've adequately documented her 3-year-old milestones. ;)

Brighty's Third Birthday

2010-01-11T16:20:00.005-07:00

I can't believe little Bright Bright is 3! How did this happen so quickly? The thing that sticks out in my mind about Bright right now is that she is a VERY grateful child. I decided to count today to see how many times a day she says "thank you" and she was at preschool this morning so from the hours of 1-4 pm she's said "thank you" about 15 times. She says it ALL the time and she is so sweet. We've been really lucky that we don't have many problems with her. Sure, when she doesn't get enough sleep we pay the price because she gets whiny and can throw the occasional tantrum, but she really didn't have bad "terrible two's" I don't think. She's usually just a happy, imaginative girl. She just makes up little games all day and talks to her "friends" all day (stuffed animals, dolls, wooden spoons, whatever)... she loves to color, play play-doh, dress-up and mostly make-believe. We're constantly playing "You be the (blank) and I be the (blank). She's the mommy and I'm the little "grill" or she's the princess and I'm the evil queen or she's Nanny (her preschool teacher) and I'm Brighton, etc. At her birthday party at my parent's house over Christmas break before she opened any present she would ask who it was from. Then she'd get this very excited face and put down the present and run and give them a hug and a kiss and say thank you. She did this before every single present. It was hilarious. At her first ever "friend" party she wanted to make puppets, so I found some easy foam puppets at Walmart. Then we played pin the tail on the donkey and duck duck goose and freeze dance and then decorated and ate cupcakes! It was very fun. I'm so excited to have this next baby but also a little sad that our Brighton and mommy alone time is coming to an end. I think the bond I have with her will always be special because of all this time we've had by ourselves every day just the two of us. (weep, weep, wail, wail, gnash teeth.. ok it's not THAT dramatic.) I love you Budah-bear. (She hates when I call her that.) But she calls me Booger and Brooke, so it's fair game.

Christmas!

2010-01-06T14:49:00.008-07:00

Christmas felt really different this year! We had to stay home because Aaron was on call at work, so we just did our own little family thing. We did fondue Christmas Eve which is a Hale tradition and then we made a gingerbread house and opened PJ's from Nana, read a book from Nana and watched "The Grinch". Christmas morning we just spent it opening presents and playing with new toys! Then the next night we headed to Island Park to be with my family. It was all wonderful!

Aaron's seafood fondue.

Santa's setup.

Remembering Decmeber... in pictures

2010-01-06T11:34:00.007-07:00

I recently told someone about how I was working like 4 very part time jobs, three of them freelance writing. They said, "No wonder you never have time to write on your own blog!" So very true. I have things I want to write about but never the time! But I have 25 minutes until I pick Brighty up from preschool so I'll post some pics and commentary.

Brighton is so imaginative! She comes up with the most random things. Notice how there is a piece of styrophome she lovingly put in her backpack and she's holding a wooden spoon she referred to as "Buddy" that day. She loaded up all her priceless items in her shopping cart and then wanted me to pull them all around. Also, it's not rare that she's not wearing any pants, LOL.

Since we don't have a truck or big SUV, we got a Christmas tree still bundled up and took our chances on what it would look like. When we got it open it was a mess! We had to cut off all these huge random branches and then the thing would NOT stay standing up. It was the poor, leaning Christmas tree all year. We had to shove water bottles in the stand to keep it from falling over

We were at the mall for something and noticed Santa Claus was there. It was a weekday and no one was in line, so I took Brighton to see him. She was so scared the last two years she said "I'm going to be a big girl this year and I won't be shy of Santa Claus." and she wasn't! She sat on his lap and told him she wanted a race car, which was really random, and a guitar with pink sprinkles. Santa gave me a weird look and I just shrugged.

You can see where Brighton gets her imagination! Aaron made this little fort out of work boxes!

So since Brighton "wasn't shy of Santa" at the mall, I thought she'd do great at the ward party, so I dressed her up all cute for pictures and then she wouldn't leave my arms! She had a serious death grip on me but told him she wanted a doll house.

Dancing with daddy at the party to "Two Pants Suit" our famous ward rock band! :)

Dancing with cutie Owen.

CHOCOLATE!

2009-11-24T17:21:00.005-07:00

Two chocolate related items.
Today Brighton walks out of my closet with a sheepish grin and says "I didn't eat anything." I said "What didn't you eat?" " I didn't eat the chocolate from Jesus." She had destroyed our advent calendar and eaten all the chocolate. But these pictures are from the brownie batter I gave her. :)

It's a Boy!

2009-11-18T14:59:00.004-07:00

Yeah, sorry that the only picture Aaron scanned is of his "proof" of gender. LOL. Anyway, Weird! We're having a boy! It's still hard to get used to the idea that all my cute girl clothes and things aren't going to get re-used (at least this time around) but it's going to be a fun change! We had the ultrasound yesterday and the second the bottom-area came up on the screen we KNEW it was a boy, LOL. Today the doctor said, "you're obviously having a boy!" I've thought we were going to have a boy next since before we conceived and at 12 weeks the ultrasound nurse said she thought it would be a boy, so it wasn't a big shock.

Brighton did a little pout when we said it was a boy but she's still convinced that "maybe it's a girl." I tried to explain boy and girl anatomy but there's only so much a 2 year old can understand. :) She is also CONVINCED that the baby will be named Jokala. pronounced like Joke a lot but without the T. She came up with this name before we even conceived and she gets full-0n angry when we talk about names. She says "NO! My baby is Jokala!!!" So now we just refer to him as Jokala around her. She might call him that for his entire life.

So serious honesty here... I need to get excited about the idea of having a boy. There's nothing adverse about boys to me, but I just always think about what would be the most fun for the kids and for me, I just wish Brighton could have a sister to play with. BUT- I had tons of fun with my brother Gregg (but we were less than 2 years apart) This baby will be about the same age span as me and my sister Lynzi, so I just kept picturing that. But it's ok... brothers and sisters have a special bond too and I need to remember that. I just think about all the fun girl things I do now with my sisters and I just want that for Brighton. So that's the deal! Aaron is really excited though. Now he'll have a real "boy scout" and won't have to try to petition to take Brighton on father-son campouts. I'm sure Brighty will be a real outdoorsy girl too though. They can all go on their campouts while I go on spa-weekends (in my fantasies). Here are the names currently in consideration: (in order of popularity in our house)

Oakley Aaron

Jett (Aaron or Reuel or Joseph Thomas as middle names... )

Talmage

Deacon

Gavin

Jonah (my fave, so I have to include it even though Aaron doesn't like it.)

Here are my issues: Oakley is also a girl name, which is a little bothersome. Jett sounds like a "wild child". Talmage is just a little weird, but sounds like a serious, successful person. Gavin is good.. Aaron doesn't like Jonah. If I had my way Edward would also be on the list but that's not even up for consideration. :)

Time for another episode of... things I'd never do.

2009-11-04T11:29:00.004-07:00

Before I was a mom I SWORE I would never let my kids say a word wrong, and even encourage it, because it was cute. No way, I thought! Teach the kid the right way to say it. I remember my nephew Haydn saying ice cream in a cute way but I can't remember what it was because I was so bothered that his mom didn't correct him! But now... I have to repent. Brighton says skeleton "scare-eton" and it cracks me up! On Halloween she was talking about scaretons and then heard Aaron call them skeletons and corrected herself and I was seriously mad/sad! It IS super cute sometimes when kids say words wrong and I can admit that I was wrong. I do however try to get her to say regular words that she doesn't pronounce right.. like sometimes she doesn't pronounce s's at the front of words like sky and scooter. And she says yellow "rewow" which is weird because she can say Y's... she just refuses to say yellow. And this has been another episode of... things I swore I'd never do!
Oh and here are some pictures of ward trunk or treat and Halloween. Yes, I am wearing a gigantic rabbit fut coat and a poofy slip. We were both totally sweating all night because I bundled us up way too warm!

Pumpkins

2009-10-29T11:01:00.005-06:00

Aaron wanted me to get the pictures of our pumpkin carving up here, so here they are! We have carved pumpkins with our friends Ryan and Natalie for the last three years, since Natalie and I were both pregnant with our first babies!

Here we were back then.... (super embarrassing picture of me.)

Here are this years! It was super funny because Brighton looked at me for a second and said, "mommy you look pretty!" which was weird because I didn't... and so I said "thanks... ?" and she said "You look pretty in your pumpkin making dress!" So funny. I was wearing an apron circa 1950 that my grandma gave me!

Natalie is making a "Twilight-New Moon" pumpkin. I made a Snow White one for Brighton and a regular jack-o-lantern for me. Aaron free-styled his and it was the awesomest!

Fall fun

2009-10-27T11:14:00.006-06:00

Part of me loves fall because I love the colors, my birthday and getting to pull out fall clothes. Shallow, huh. ;) But I dread it because it means winter is coming! And now that I don't do much snowboarding, winter is just a drag! But fall is great, while it lasts.
We took Brighton to Linder Farms which is this huge, awesome pumpkin patch. Brighton went through the hay maze like five times and we had fun picking out pumpkins. Lately it is a total challenge to get her to look at the camera for pictures. She is openly rebellious about it. I guess almost three years of constant picture taking is wearing on her!

This past weekend our friends hosted a Halloween carnival where each family did a booth. Aaron has recently discovered a talent, nay, a passion, for balloon tying. He spent all of Saturday looking up different techniques for making balloon creations and he was a hit at the party!

Brighton was a Superhero Princess... a costume I envisioned in my sleep one night. She had silver superhero arm and leg cuffs and a belt and a cape and a princess skirt and a crown and her favorite part was getting to wear the makeup mask.

I've totally become the nosy neighbor

2009-10-13T14:03:00.004-06:00

Aaron talks about this neighbor they had that they loved to provoke because she was always watching them and would periodically call the police on them. He and his brothers have some funny stories about her..sister.. someone.
Anyway, that's totally me. There used to be two teenage boys living across the street and now one is graduated and one is living with his mom. So today I come home around lunchtime and there are four boys sitting in the bed of a truck, hanging out in front of the house and I totally gave them the stare-down... the stink-eye if you will. Now I keep looking out the window to see if they're still there because I know they should be in school! LOL. Why do I have nothing better to do? A while ago they had a party while their dad was out of town and I kept watching to see if they were bringing in keggers or something. How lame am I?

But I guess I would want neighbors watching out for my kids... Growing up I could never figure out how I ALWAYS got busted for stuff when my parents were out of town. Did they have surveillance cameras watching our comings and goings? How did they find out when I took the car for a drive around the block before I had my license? Well I know now, it was Brother Fillmore. LOL. Then there was the time that was so coincidental it was not funny. My brother Gregg had his license but I didn't. After school I begged him to let me drive and he finally said I could drive for like 5 seconds in the mall parking lot. So I got in the driver's seat and drove up ONE row of cars and who do you think pulls up behind me? MY DAD!!! How he just happened to be in the mall parking lot at 4:00 in the afternoon at the same time is still beyond me but I was SO BUSTED! It's funny to think about all the things I never got away with when I was a teenager. I'm sure I'm in for a handful if there is such thing as karma!
P.S. I love Halloween because I love those little boxes of DOTS so much!

Gum Recycling Can? What?

2009-10-06T11:40:00.003-06:00

What? Is this.

I am all for being environmentally concious. In fact, you would have thought it was my birthday yesterday how excited I got over our new great big co-mingled recycling bins in Meridian. But a gum recycling can is just going too far! LOL.

Ok. Starting.... NOW.

2009-10-05T12:38:00.005-06:00

I know I said on Thursday that I wanted to blog every day for two weeks and now it's Monday. But I have a good excuse, for realsies. Thursday after I blogged I was feeling spontaneous and Brighton wanted to go to the zoo, so we went! It was way fun. Then I was still feeling spontaneous so I decided to drive to Idaho Falls. We were planning a girls weekend at the cabin and it kind of fell apart but Heather was still flying in from Las Vegas, so I decided to drive over and Tami and Autym came and we all went to the cabin and chilled all weekend. I scrapbooked the entire time and got tons done and it was basically really relaxing. I left Bright with Aaron for the weekend and I think they had way too much fun with balloons. So now I'm back!

Here is Brighton at the zoo. She is OBSESSED with that yellow dress. "Mountain Grandma" (Aaron's mom) sent it to her and she loves it. She fishes it out of the dirty clothes to wear it and wants to wear it every day. It is her "rerow dress". So she spotted it in the laundry pile and said "My rerow dress!" but it was only like in the 50's that day but she was so determined to wear it I had to put long sleeves and tights under it. :) Still super cute. I really didn't know a two-year-old could be SO obsessed with clothes!

Back to blogging the basics

2009-10-01T10:33:00.003-06:00

Blogging feels like so much pressure to me, which I know isn't the way it's supposed to be. It's like "blah-ging". Especially if I'm going to blog about my family life, I just need to keep it to the simple memories I want to remember. SO- I have a new goal. I want to blog at least a sentence a day for at least two weeks. It will get me in the habit of thinking of things to blog about and hopefully will help me see the shining spots in my day.

Aaron and I were talking about what it's like to stay home with Bright and although I love it, the days can be monotonous. So this will help me find humour in everyday life... I hope.

Also, sweet Aaron bought me a camera for my birthday. He has a big-honkin' digital SLR and every time I want to take a pic of something during the day I have to drag it out. So he bought me a tiny Kodak easyshare, which is perfect. I keep it right on the kitchen bar so I can whip it out and take pictures.

PERFECT!- As I was writing Brighton came in the room and said, "watch this!" She was attempting to pat her head and rub her tummy at the same time and actually doing a pretty good job, so I snapped a picture. (Yes, she's still in pajamas, but aren't those the cutest PJ's ever?)

Yesterday's picture was of her sleeping on the couch, but you'll notice she's wearing a diaper over her pants. She wanted to play baby and so I put a diaper on her, lol... And the funniest thing she said yesterday was at Costco. We had just had a sample of soy milk (I could write a whole blog post about Costco)... Anyway then I went to buy milk and Bright says "but you just had milk." Me: "This milk is for our house." Bright: "But I thought houses couldn't drink milk." :)

Also, I promise every day won't be solely about the funny things Brighton says. Actually, I can't promise that. Maybe nothing else funny will happen. But I'll try. Promise.

Prediction for the next 9 months

2009-08-12T13:50:00.003-06:00

One of the best things about pregnancy is that it's like a "get me out of everything" or "get me into anything" card. It rocked with Bright. Once like a week before I gave birth I got pulled over for speeding. The officer walks up and I had left my license in Aaron's car for some reason and didn't have proof of insurance or registration or anything. The cop walks back to his car to call in my plates and I got my DL# from Aaron. So I get out of my car and waddle on the icy road back to the cop wearing my HUGE Deseret Industries coat to read it to him. He gives me this pathetic laugh and tells me that I'm off the hook. He said he knew he could find me later if there was a problem. (As if my huge body were detectable by police radar or something.) It was sweet.

HOWEVER- I don't see this pregnancy being quite the same, at least not at home. Here are predictions of words sure to be uttered by me and the response sure to be garnered by Aaron.

Me: "I'm going to barf."
Aaron: "Don't complain, at least you're pregnant!"

Me: "I'm SO tired!"
Aaron: "Yeah, but be happy that you're pregnant!"

Me: "Holy cow, my ankles are the size of Maine."
Aaron: "But wouldn't you rather have fat ankles than not be pregnant!"

You get the picture. True, it's hard to feel bad about the fact that at 5 weeks I already look 12 weeks pregnant, when I'm just so GLAD I actually am pregnant! I am just disappointed that I'm not going to get as much sympathy from Aaron simply due to the fact that my gratitude should outweigh any negative side effects of pregnancy. And there are many!

Also, I am not a cute pregnant person. My face gets all puffy, I get acne, cankles, not to mention that the progress of my pregnancy can be measured by the size of my nose. Can I say how grateful I am that I'm not on TV anymore! That was NOT attractive. Ratings were probably high that period because I was the side-show freak that people liked to see. "Hey Vern, let's see how big this anchor's nose is this week!" Like those squishy rubber bugs you put in jars of water and they grow 1000%. But maybe this time I can actually answer "yes" when people in public say "You MUST be having twins." or "You must be due ANY day." (No, I'm 7 months along.)
But hey, at least I'm pregnant!

They attached! (Well at least one of them.)

2009-08-04T18:10:00.002-06:00

Most people already know that we found out Saturday that we are pregnant!!! I think I am still in shock. I'm like "technically" pregnant but it doesn't feel real until I'm barfing! We were walking through the Boise farmer's market and I gave my phone to Aaron because I wanted him to answer it because I was too scared. The nurse told him to put her on speaker and then said our numbers were great and that we are pregnant! My first "beta" count, which is my HCG levels was 15 on day 8. She said they look for it to double every two days and on day 10 it was at 80! Then two days later (yesterday) I was at 565, so I am definitely pregnant! yee-haw!

Attach Feti, Attach!

2009-07-30T12:16:00.003-06:00

The feti are in me! (Feti, being plural of fetus) Although I know they aren't even fetuses yet, but we still call them "the feti". Anyway, just wanted to post the cool pics we got of the embryos before they did the transfer. I did a blood test today and they'll do another one Saturday and then will be able to tell me if my eggo is preggo. I'm SO tempted to go take a pregnancy test, but I don't even know if it would work and don't want to get the wrong answer. So I'll be patient. Maybe.

49 shots!

2009-07-21T09:15:00.002-06:00

I counted on my calendar today and today marks the 49th shot I've given myself. And I just found out yesterday that these horrible progesterone shots I just started continue for months after I get pregnant! I'm trying not to think about that because they kill!
So everything went well with the egg retrieval. They put me under for the surgery and they said they got 15 eggs. He said 60% will fertilize and then half of those will be "good". So we're looking at having about 5 embryos when all is said and done. Hopefully we'll implant two and freeze the rest. :) Science is so crazy, right? My future children are chillin' in a petrie dish right now. What a trip! ha ha.
They plan to do the transfer tomorrow around 1:00, which I won't be put under for, but I'll be given some Valium, which I'm stoked about. ;) I'm just glad it's almost over and I know the two-week wait will be horrible waiting to see if it worked, but we're just really confident that it WILL! I have felt all your prayers, which I am so grateful for!

My daily poke and prod

2009-07-15T13:06:00.002-06:00

And shame on you if you think that title is dirty! (heh heh)
So not many people read this that I don't regularly communicate with, except maybe Jonathan (allegedly) but I'll update anyway about what's going on this week. Basically I have to go into the Dr. office every morning for my daily poke and prod. I get blood drawn to check my estrogen levels and I get an ultrasound to check the size of all my "follicles" which are the soon to be eggies. (And don't be fooled into thinking it's a nice ultrasound like you see pregnant women get. No, this is more "invasive" shall i say? Gal pals will get it.) This morning the tech said my uterine lining was gorgeous and I said "I get that all the time." She was not amused.
Anyway, my follicles are not developing as quickly as anyone would like, so I'm on the max dose of hormones and we're still a day or two behind for the egg retrieval. I have 14 eggs right now, so that's fair, not great, but good I guess. They said anything over a dozen is good. When she said that I pictured my eggs in a Styrofoam egg carton. So they don't know how much more hormone I need so I have to call the pharmacy in Arizona every day and have them overnight the drugs, which are like $400 a day. Yikes. So pray that these eggies start maturing quickly!
Lynzi is coming today to help me. yay! We thought the retrieval would happen Thursday or Friday so she's coming today, so we'll just get to have fun for a few days except I'm ordered to keep things at a "slow pace" which I've taken to mean, no rigorous house cleaning. I think it's starting to smell. ;)

I don't know of the hormones are making me crazy or just the waiting and stressing. I think it's just the stress. (And the dirty house, which I'm going to try to slowly clean today.) Stay tuned.

She tried to eat the remote

2009-07-09T16:45:00.003-06:00

Oh how the little things crack me up. Brighton fell asleep as I was working at the table and she was on the couch eating a gogurt. I took the gogurt out of her hand when I noticed she was asleep. About a half hour later she wakes up and I'm peeking in on her. She reaches down and grabs the remote control and with her eyes still closed starts going to town trying to eat the remote. The entire thing was in her mouth and she was just sucking away. Then she threw it on the ground and went back to sleep. This just happened so it might not be as funny tomorrow, but it's halarious to me!

Well since I'm here I might as well do some journaling. I just got back from a fun week in Idaho Falls where my entire family was there. I LOVE that. 4th of July is seriously a close second to Christmas at our house. It's probably just that we're always together that makes it so special. Bright had SO much fun just spending time with cousins and I love that she's old enough to play with them now. When I was in labor I was trying to picture happy thoughts and three things kept popping into my mind:

1. My mom walking through the hospital door. I REALLY wanted her there and knew I'd feel a lot more calm once she got there.

2. My friend Katie and I sophmore year of college having a blast. Just random memories to make me smile.

3. A 2-year-old Brighton with my whole family at the 4th of July fireworks. Of course she looks nothing like I pictured. I pictured her with really dark, really curly pigtails. But I just couldn't wait to see my own daughter experiencing what I had loved growing up.

One highlight of the trip was doing a 5K race with Lynzi. Lynz is awesome and has lost like 85 pounds and looks incredible. She has the tiniest little waist now! So her goal was to run a 5K and I just went along for the ride. It was a rush!

Another fun thing was boating with the fam. After spending two days on the lake we were almost out of gas and ready to go but Tami and I really wanted to do a crazy tube ride. We decided we are the only two grown women who LOVE tubing. ha ha.. Or maybe just the ones who'll admit it. So we're going wild and laughing and screaming like kids when all the sudden my dad goes over the wake going Mock-10 and Tami goes FLYING off... well Lynzi and Heather were supposed to be watching but were apparently engrossed in their conversation and NO ONE saw her fly off. I start screaming (which I had been doing anyway) for like an entire minute and finally they look and I'm doing the turn-around sign and they STILL don't realize Tami was gone until I pointed to the vacant space next to me. There Tami's little head was (she actually does have a really small head) bobbing in the water just waiting for us to turn around. It's a good thing the lake was pretty empty that day or she likely would have been decapitated. It was dang funny though.

Pictures:

4th of July! God Bless Idaho! I mean America!

Brighton pondering on the consequences of our forefather's actions and our resulting independence from a far away tyrant.

Eh, life's too short:

I just had my permanent eyeliner done, so I look a tad freaky.

Oh Also, happy Anniversary to US today! 5 years! Crazy!

My InVitro FAQs

2009-06-17T13:25:00.003-06:00

I'm not the most private person out there. Those years of "Sounds" Musicals and District Musicals, getting dressed in a big room with a bunch of other women made me quite immodest in general. And growing up with my awesome parents and siblings where no subject is "taboo" made me pretty open about my life. I like it that way.
Anyway, so that explains why I want our friends and family to know what we are going through with our infertility issues. Coming up in just a few weeks we're going through with In Vitro. I should know if that's one or two words, but I really don't. So here are my FAQ:

FAQ #1: "Why don't you just 'let your love blossom' and see if you get pregnant on your own?
Answer: While "let your love blossom" is probably the best euphemism I've heard for "doing it" lately, we were told by the fertility specialist that we have a "snowballs chance in hell" of getting pregnant. I've never met a snowball who went to hell and came back to tell the tale, so I'm getting those aren't good odds.

FAQ #2: "Well how did you get pregnant with Brighton then?"
Answer: Who the heck knows? The Dr. guesses that when we got pregnant 3+ years ago, Aaron probably had the minimal number of sperm needed to get pregnant. Probably 20 million or so, and then over the last three years they've just gone down so much and now he literally has about 20. His last sample they found two motile guys. That's also why we're doing it so soon. We really can't wait longer because if his numbers are decreasing that much, there might not be ANY left in a few months, let alone years.

FAQ#3: "So how does it all work?
Answer: Basically I go on all sorts of crazy drugs. Three injectable drugs, two pill forms to make my body produce multiple eggs in one cycle, instead of just one. (Not really produce, but just develop into a mature egg.) So after I've been on the drugs for the set time they'll start doing ultrasounds every day and when all my eggs are mature I go in for an out patient surgery where they take out as many as I have, hopefully 20 or so. Then since Aaron has limited spermies, they'll literally poke a tiny hole in the egg and inject each sperm into each egg. Then they incubate for a few days and then they put them back in me! Yay! Then we just hope they implant to my uterus. That's pretty much the jist of it.

I'll have to be on total bed rest for two days and then modified bed rest for 10 days. If you know me, you know it's really not that hard for me to take it easy so I'm guessing it won't be too bad. :)

This all will happen around the middle of July, so I'll try to keep everyone updated. I'm guessing I'll be partly psycho with all the hormone drugs, so you might want to lend Aaron some support right now! LOL.

Love you all! Please pray for us that this works!

EW! Spider season

2009-06-03T17:38:00.004-06:00

I hate spiders more than almost anything. I know most women, well most people in general, hate spiders but I'd like to say that my hatred for them goes a little deeper than most.
To me, there's nothing scarier than trying to kill a spider and having it escape, only to live another day. In general, I believe they are more afraid of us than we are of them but the tides turn when they survive a homicide attempt. Don't trick yourself into thinking that they just run away. They're still in your house but NOW.... it knows what you look like! It used one of it's 57 eyes to catch a good look. It's going to send a spidey-signal out to all it's eight legged friends that there's a would-be killer on the loose and it's not going down without a fight. That creeps me out big time. I also think it sends out a spidy-signal right before it gets killed (if the shoe makes the connection.)
Once I heard that the average person eats like three spiders a year in their sleep. I can't get it out of my head. Every time I dream about being attacked by spiders (which is probably like once a month) I'm convinced I'm dreaming that because I either ate a spider or am being crawled on by a spider.
I lived in this house in Salt Lake one summer and it was right at the mouth of some canyon. (Don't quiz me on which one) but it was Spiderville. (Oh and I'm also convinced that every spider in my house is a hobo, if it's not a daddy long-leg.) So we had all these hobos everywhere and I had to vacuum every night just to calm my head about spiders but it made it worse because I literally vacuumed up like three spiders a night. My brother-in-law Mike came over and sprayed for spiders for me and I swear more varieties of spiders came out of hiding than I'd ever seen before. I shutter at the thought. One night my roommate came home at like 1:00 a.m. and there I was, huddled on the couch with my knees pulled into my chest because I was too creeped out about the spiders to walk to my bedroom.
Oh, then there was the time this past fall that there was the BIGGEST gi-normous spider EVER by my front door. When I spotted it, it stopped moving and held perfectly still. I swear we were having a standoff... I wasn't moving... he wasn't moving... we were eye to eye. Actually I was clear across the room on a chair. I probably stared that monster down for 20 minutes, trying to get up the courage to put on my boot and stomp on it. Finally I approached... slowly, don't want to startle it... when I got close enough to it I realized that the thing was as huge as giant dead maple leaf! Oh wait, it was a giant, dead maple leaf. See how paranoid I am?

I'm not even going to post a picture of a spider to go along with the post because then I wouldn't be able to open my own blog.

Funny things of the week

2009-04-03T14:46:00.002-06:00

Every parent thinks their kids is HI-larious! I realize that... and Aaron and I awknowledge the fact that the things I tell him about Bright everyday that are SO funny to us, really aren't funny. But just when she says a phrase for the first time or does something cute, I don't want to forget! And with Aaron's memory (think Dori from Finding Nemo) I better write a few things down each week so we dont' forget.

Her voice gets all low and manly when she's trying to talk for someone else like her dolly or a toy. It's really bizarre. And her fake drinking noise when we're playing tea party is also manly and it sounds more like "rar rar" in a really low voice.

She gets the questions "How old are you?" and "What is your name?" confused. So someone will say how old are you and she says "Bright Bright, which actually sounds like Bight bight". She has never once referred to herself as Brighton. And now when someone asks her name she says two. So just now she was talking for her Dora doll in her manly voice and I asked Brighton her name and at first she said "two". Then when I asked how old she was she said "Dowa" and I said, "What is your full name?" thinking she would say Dowa the explowa and she said "Dowa Flake". Hee.

So I totally jacked up my foot at the gym and had an ice pack. The next day I was trying to get her to follow me into the other room and all the sudden she saw the melted ice pack and said "Wait, I found something! A bag of water!" It was like her biggest treasure ever.

She's started to call Aaron and me "guys" and if we're even joke fighting or raising our voices she runs in the room and says "Be nice guys!"

Well I had to take a break from blogging right now because we've been potty-training all week and #1 is going GREAT. No accidents for two days and she's going on her own. #2 is a different story. She is totally anti poop on the potty so we have to run what we call "poop patrol" to make sure she's not going in her poop corner where she hides to poop. So I put her down for a nap while I was blogging and I heard the poop grunt. I ran in there as fast as I could but the damage was done. Why oh why child? What is so traumatic about pooping in the potty? We even went to the toy store and picked out this dolly that crawls and coos and it's up on top of the lamp just waiting for her to poop in the potty so she can play with it. It's motion-sensored so everytime a car drives by the thing goes off! She was holding it at the store and kept patting the doll on the head saying "good boy". (totally pink)

Anyway, so I thought maybe I'd make the poop in the panties seem traumatic, so I put her in the tub and the poop got on her leg and on the tub so I was trying to make her wash it for me... totally didn't phase her to wipe the poop off the tub. On one hand- bonus. I have a kid who can clean up her own poop. On the other hand- Dang! I was trying to freak the kid out with her own poop.

Well sorry the poop story took over the funny stories but people who weren't here might find it amusing. :)
I'll try to post some recent pictures soon too. :)

Another Totally Inappropriate Post

2009-03-25T14:46:00.005-06:00

Baby-makin'... no way to really talk about it "appropriately" seeing as it involves the "S" word and that Aaron's parents probably read this blog and conceived all their children immaculately. But seriously, my parents did it at least five times (they made the sacrifice because they loved us so much). So we really love Brighton, yadda yada... want to spread the love.. yada... need more babies... but somehow it's been like 14 months and somehow (won't point any fingers, Aaron) the job isn't getting done.

Why does it seem more taboo to talk about it if it is the man's "fault". (not blaming you sweetie... ) I know that Aaron wears pink shirts and cares more about a beautiful sunset than he does about March Madness. True he likes snuggling and long walks on the beach but our Dr. has reassured us that his metro-ways are in no way related to his swimmers. (Ouch, did I just hear a shriek of disbelief coming from Arizona?) I know, it's totally inappropriate to talk about my husband's low sperm count on my blog. There. I just said it. Low. Sperm. Count. To be honest, I was flat-out relieved when I found out it was him and not me. I'm sure 20 years down the road all of Bright's crazy antics will easily be pointed in my direction, so it's nice to have some of the pressure off.

But to be serious for a sec, it seriously is a bummer. I picture all my little eggs in my little ovary basket... getting older... shriveling. And on the wall next to their nest is one of those really sterile-looking clocks that they had in your high school... just ticking away... You're 29... now you're 30... soon you'll be 40.... The eggs I have left now have at least 12 fingers or two heads. Besides the fact that my next child will probably look like an alien, everyone talks about how much harder it is to have babies in your 30's. True, I won't have much to compare it to, but let's get this show on the road, folks! I've always wanted kids close together too... (mostly so they could entertain eachother and I wouldn't be stuck playing "Dora".) I wanted three or four kids all close together in age. Now we're looking at having two kids at LEAST three years apart.

I think the Big Guy upstairs really knows what he's doing though. He probably reads my blog and sees how incompetent I am and knows that I'll do better with a few years in between the kidlets. I understand. Right now it's just a test of patience! OK Could I BE any more inappropriate? But hey, seriously 10 people even read this blog and they're all close family and friends and it's the only journal I keep and this "infertility" thing occupies a good 75% of my thoughts and it feels good to vent and laugh about it at the same time!!! So send me fertility vibes everyone!!!

Three Days without a shower

2009-03-09T16:39:00.003-06:00

Why not confess totally random and disgusting things on my blog? I see no reason not to share the fact that it's 4:40 PM and I don't recall having brushed my teeth yet today. When did I become the crazy person who stays in their gym clothes all day? YIKES. I'll tell you when I became crazy lady... the minute we moved Brighton into her "big girl bed". Right now I'm really regretting not getting a big sheet of plexi-glass, drilling some holes in the top and caging that little girl in the crib. We could add a food bowl, one of those water dispensers and maybe even a wheel she could run around in for exercise.

Another confession: it's now 4:42 PM and Brighton has had like 3 pieces of toast, two bagels and two glasses of apple juice today.

She did have about a 45 minute nap on her floor behind her door but I had to take advantage of that precious time to get some work done! Work is pretty busy these next few days and I'm also getting ready for my parents to come into town so there's just no time for a shower! Most days I have to decide between working during nap time or showering. It's a good thing I only need to wash my hair once a week. Again, why I feel the need to confess these things is beyond me. :)

4:48 PM confession: I'm on my 3rd can of diet Dr. Pepper today.

Yes, this is a cop-out blog post. 25 random things!

2009-02-24T11:59:00.002-07:00

25 Random things and I mean RANDOM
1. I don't think there are 25 interesting things about me, but I am RANDOM by nature, so I'll try.
2. My feet grew 1/2 inch while I was pregnant. I think all my fat squished them out.
3. I really like it when TV shows call themselves "events". Like a premiere event. It makes me feel like I'm all dressed up attending an event, as opposed to what I'm really doing- lounging on the couch in pj's.
4. I think Q and C are wastes of letters. Q could be accomplished with a "kw" I mean you need to pair a U with it anyway and C is really just S or K. Americans are so wasteful.
5. Speaking of waste, I consider myself an environmentalist and do what I can to stay "green" without going over the top.
6. I miss my family so stinking bad it hurts, but love living in Boise.
7. I went to three different BYU's. Idaho, Hawaii and Utah and then did a BYU internship program in New York City
.8. I could probably eat an entire bucket of red vines by myself in about a week's time.
9. I'm addicted to the gym.
10. I RARELY cry and never cry at movies. Sometimes I do cry during books though.
11. Sometimes I miss doing TV news but love staying home with Bright and doing Public Relations.
12. I kill plants. Not on purpose, but I do.
13. I have like 30 purses but always use the same one.
14. I had fish named "Joe Black and Damnit" in college and a lizard named Truman. May they rest in peace.
15. I get a little creeped out when I see Elmo's full body doing something like riding his trike. Can't explain it.
16. I got over my fear of heights by bungee jumping, hang gliding and sky diving.
17. Now about the only thing I'm afraid of is trains and spiders.
18. I overuse the word freaking. What is it, 1999? I also overuse (...)'s. I think they're called elipsis.
19. I've had two Elton John mugs and either lost or broken both of them within 24 hours. I love Sir Elton.
20. I'm really sad about the death of the sit-com. I love sit coms. Really, let's be honest, I love TV.
21. I buy care bears more for myself than for Bright.
22. I CAN'T stay at home all day. I'll make excuses to run errands just to get out of the house.
23. I was a vegetarian for like eight years and now I'm a full-on meat eater.
24. I'm not going to tag anyone in this note because everyone on Facebook has been tagged a billion times.
25. I haven't heard Brighton for a while and she just ran in the room buck-naked. Nice. yay, I'm done!

Holy Terrible Two's (Out of the gates with a vengeance!)

2009-01-13T14:54:00.005-07:00

Holy Moley, I am entirely unprepared for this.
I know "normal" and "good" moms post happy pictures of their kids birthdays.. opening presents, blowing out the candles, the messy chocolate cake face. But I've never claimed to be "good" or even "normal". Here's what I got for ya:

This was literally on her second birthday. It was so ironic (in the Alanis Morrisette, not really ironic but just annoying way) that she acted like this on her birthday. Full on, stomping, screaming, throwing self on the ground tantrums all day. Pulling out one braid, refusing to put on a shirt... The "normal" mom might explain why she was so grumpy but I'm chalking it up to hitting the age of two.

I swear I felt like the paparazzi trying to get pictures of a scantily-clad Brittney having a crazy night on the town. She was trying to hide from me and even tried to push the camera out of her face, but I managed some shots. I was just laughing, which just made her even more mad.

Speaking of laughing when she's mad: I have real issues with this. Last night she was full-on attacking me. Pulling my hair, trying to hit me and I was seriously mad. I busted out my meanest, angriest voice and looked her straight in the eye and told her to STOP!... I was coming as close to yelling as I even can and she just started laughing! It was like this mouth closed, cheeks puffing up, trying to hold it in laughing. I was so mad, yet when she laughs at me I find it funny and it took all my might to hold in my laughter. (It was even harder not to laugh than it was the other night when she grabbed Aaron's "goods" and wouldn't let go. That's the stuff America's Funniest Home Videos is made of.)

She did have an awesome birthday party though, the week after Christmas while we were at Nana's house. She got the coolest-ever remote control pink dinosaur... a bath blizzard https://www.asseenontv.com/offers_on_demand/kidkl_bth_bliz_ood_ontv.html?gid==
which should be sued for false advertising, but fits in with Lynzi's and I's rule to only give "as seen on TV gifts". Also these possessed care bears that communicate with each other (super rad)... and a lot more. My recent favorite is her "felt farm" with all the animals and the farm. I like to try to mess her up by role playing the cow laying the eggs and the chicken being milked. She's already too smart for me though.

I'm Full of Vitamins and Minerals!

2008-12-17T15:09:00.002-07:00

There is really nothing intersting going on in the Flake's world but I don't want to neglect my blog. So because my work laptop crashed, I'll spend some time writing about nothing, AKA Commercials that FREAK Me Out.

I really do not care for commercials that "alter" the human face, or turn the human head into something it was never meant to be. Clear back in high school I always cringed at the Afrin Commercial where the head turns into a giant nose. Think of the giant boogers!! Then recently I noticed another commercial that freaked me out where the human head turned into a giant stuffed Tedd Bear Head. Turns out, Afrin was re-creating the altered human head campaign (much to my chagrin.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3A4Hh8IoPQ EW. Just EW.

I don't like Star Trek or Planet of the Apes or any of those movies due to the altering of the face issue. Sure, the Apes are not supposed to be human but deep down I know it's Marky Mark.

However, I DO like it when they make that baby talk. I know that goes against everything I believe in, but when that little baby trades stocks and talks on the cell phone it's stinkin' halarious! I love the clown one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdfvWAp5GUw

On that same note, clowns to NOT freak me out. And yes, I've seen "IT". I always kinda thought that girls saying that clowns scared them was really just a pitiful attempt at making the man feel big and strong. Personally, I think most "fears" that silly girls have are just to make the guy put their arm around them and "protect" them. Except my fear of trains. That one is very real.

I lose a little bit of sleep over the Burger King ad. I think it's the fact that the giant King guy doesn't talk that gives me the heebie jeebies. He just stands there... kinda like the creepy guy in the raincoat on the movie, "I know what you did last summer". If you want to creep someone out, I am of the belief that you can just walk up to them and not talk.

The best commercial ever (except for the fact that I can't remember what it was advertising) involved a little orange cartoon guy who jumps off the Orange Juice bottle to say Hello to the unsuspecting family eating breakfast and they all FREAK OUT. Remember that? Then he chases the screaming family yelling "I'm full of vitamins and minerals!" I'll have to see if I can find it. HERE IT IS!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fA8ad71n94

And there you have it, the most useless and random blog post yet! Happy Wednesday!

NEWS FLASH- Toddler sleeps without binky

2008-11-19T14:28:00.008-07:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE- Breaking news just in this afternoon. An Idaho toddler, who previously has been attached to a binky, has gone to sleep without it. Authorities involved don't know what caused the sudden shift in behavior but believe it may be due to the introduction of a pillow into the crib.

The family of the toddler is too stunned today to comment but a family spokesperson released this statement:

"While the miraculous event might be a one-time occurrence, the parents involved are obviously very pleasantly shocked at the recent developments. Party music and dancing has been seen at the residence today. I, personally knowing the parents, believe it is the work of an amazing mother, who uses her beauty, her instincts and sticks to her guns. Also, sheer dumb luck."

The toddler involved had this to say, "Mama, dada, nana, bampa, elmo, carebear, snowman, Pffhslhhh."

I believe...wait... yes we do now have some pictures coming into the newsroom that we'd like to show you...

This photo illustrates how attached this toddler is to her binky and what an amazing phenomenon it is for her to sleep without it, something we might not see for many months to come. Kinda like a solar eclipse.

Childhood DejaVu! (This one's for Gregg)

2008-11-11T21:02:00.003-07:00

One thing I'll always remember about my childhood is this weird "game" Gregg and I used to play when we were really little. I know we must have been really young because neither one of us could read. We had this great toy box with a bookshelf on top of the big toy area. Still the coolest toy box ever and probably way bigger in my head than it actually was. So we would sit on the bookshelf and hold the books and pretend that we were singing in church. It seems like one of us would lead the music and then we'd make up songs about whatever books we were reading. (Maybe you had to have been there, and maybe Gregg will remember it better than I do.)

So today as I was straitening Brighton's room she crawled up on the back of her toy box and at first was just sitting there with her stuffed animals, and then (with no prompting from me, I swear) started reading books! It just melted my freaking heart and I had to take some pictures. Gregg will surely appreciate this!

I achieved something I never thought possible!

2008-11-06T21:23:00.003-07:00

Tonight I did something that I've heard legends of, but never really believed possible. Sure, other people might be able to do this miraculous feat, but not I. (Like a marathon, or a 10 mile run on the treadmill.) But sometimes we surprise ourselves. Sometimes the one thing we think we can never accomplish; we do. It just takes hard work, dedication and an incredible support system.

Tonight I....

Overdosed on candy corn.

I've heard people say how they can never eat candy corn because they once OD'd and I thought, no way... I could never eat so many candy corn that I'd never want another sweet morsel again. But now it's a reality. If I eat one more candy corn I will vomit.

Walgreens 75% off Halloween candy sale, You are the wind beneath my wings! Thank you for helping me flyyyy... so high I almost touched the sky.. thank you...thank you.. the wind beneath my wings.

And Toto Too!

2008-11-04T11:09:00.005-07:00

I forgot that part of doing a "family blog" is posting pictures of recent family activities. So here we are on Halloween. I have known that Brighton was going to be Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz and I kind of wanted to do the "Good Witch" thing... but I've been feeling lazy and un -spirited, so I was going to pass. But then Aaron was all, "I don't want to do the scarecrow if you aren't going to do Glenda" and so I'm all, "fine". So this was a reject bridesmaid shirt from my wedding and the skirt Lynzi wore at my wedding. The shirt is glittery and super itchy, so my sisters better thank their lucky stars and me (by sending me chocolate in the mail) that I didn't make them wear these hideous shirts. And I thank my mom for putting up with me and having the good shirts made special. (This was my one Bridezilla moment that I felt entitled to.) Anyway, I digress. I was too lame to make a cool Glenda crown and wand, so this crown is my friend Natalie's son's Lego King Crown. I looked like a weird reject princess.

And can I just say how much I love Boise? In Idaho Falls you have to plan your costumes to fit over snow suits and here she didn't even need tights or a coat! It was awesome.

Oh PS, you can see a little video of Halloween under our videos. I'm still trying to figure that little video section out, cause right now its linked to Aaron's YouTube page, which has snowboarding stuff on it, so I'm in the process of making my own page with family videos, although the snwoboarding ones are awesome Aaron.

PPS. I just watched the Park City snowboarding video and realized that watching Aaron snowboard is totally HOT, so I'm keeping it up.

Peeing With The Door Open (And other things I swore I'd never do)

2008-11-03T12:33:00.002-07:00

I was a total backseat mom, before I had kids. If not vocally, I was in my head. I would see the horrendous things other moms were doing and swear to myself that when my perfect child came into the world, I would NEVER bribe them with fruit snacks. But then again, my child wouldn't need bribery because of her flawless obedience.

I've only been a parent for 22 months and 2 days and here are a few things I swore I'd never do. And I'm eating my words, just like Bright is eating those bribery fruit snacks that I buy in bulk at Sam's Club.

1. Pee with the door open. I always thought, let the kid cry at the door, geez lady have some pride! Pride? Doesn't that go out the window during labor, never to be regained? I remember before Bright was tall enough to see into the bathroom drawer she'd reach her little arm up and rummage around, then when she pulled out an old tube of chapstick, she'd go "ooooh!" Like she'd found the lost treasure of Atlantis. That's worth my pride, right? And hey, it might help with potty training soon. For the record, I also shower with the door open and sometimes she'll just stand there holding the shower curtain open staring at me. That's the worst.

2. Flavor my kids milk. After I stopped nursing a few weeks went by and I realized I should probably still be giving Brighton some whole milk or something! I started trying to give her milk in a sippy cup and she about gagged! So after a couple weeks (ok maybe a day) of trying I bought some chocolate Ovaltine and never looked back.

3. Let her watch Barney. I thought she would only watch the shows that don't drive me crazy, like Sesame Street. But when you work from home, a little more TV is needed! I draw the line at Calliou. That kid drives me nuts. You're four and totally bald? Grow some hair and stop whining!

4. Go a day without showering. Need I say more? It happens. Get over it.

5. Make my kid talk to people on the phone. (Before they can talk). "Say hi to daddy!... (squeak). I think she just said hi to you!" Let's document this on video and put it up on YouTube!

6. Food Bribery- I've covered this but let me just say the first thing Brighton says when we walk into target is "popcorn!" Isn't shopping SO much easier when the child is contently munching on popcorn. And when we're at Walmart I'm not above cracking open a new bag of Goldfish that I will pay for at the checkout. (If she doesn't dump out the whole bag in front of the bed spreads). Don't worry, I used my foot to shove them all under the shelves.

7. Stage things for photo ops. "No, I swear, she put on that chefs hat and just climbed herself into that big soup pot!" Isn't she SO cute!!! "Oh no! I just caught her putting bright red lipstick all over her face! What a stinker!" Come on, every mom needs a picture like that. What am I going to do, wait until she does it herself and risk ruining my carpet?

8. Let my baby drink caffeine. What kind of monster would let a one-year-old drink Dr. Pepper? That is just wrong! Ugh, fine, one sip. Okay fine... have the whole dang thing. I'm sure she had enough in vitro to last a lifetime.

And when Brighton turns 3 and still has her binky and isn't potty-trained. I'm sure I'll have another list of things I swore I'd never do!

Time To Renew My Vows

2008-11-02T20:18:00.002-07:00

Well, only one vow. The most important one. The one where I vow to actually blog, for time and all eternity. Blogging should be a gospel principal, under the category of family history. That leads me to my next revelation. I am too busy/not creative enough to blog about nothing. So, even though gaining a plot killed the finale of Seinfeld, I must now succumb to a blog plot. Not only that, but I must join the millions of other mom bloggers who blog about the doings of their family. I know, right?? But because I'm so busy (remember, that's code for not creative enough) I don't scrapbook anymore and I don't write in a journal, so I guess I'll blog. I'll understand if my many subscriber (code for my mom) is dissapointed, but I know she really just wants to know about Brighty-Bright anyway. And let's face it, I only had two non-Bright related posts anyway. We all knew this was going to happen. And by all, I mean my "many subscriber".

The Ten Day Road Trip

2008-07-23T13:17:00.004-06:00

How is summer going so quickly? This has been such a fun summer. I now have an excuse to play like a kid all summer, going to waterparks and the park and pool. Oh, it's such a sacrifice to be home with Brighton all day!
We recently got home from a long road trip that took us from Boise to Idaho Falls- the ONLY place to spend the 4th of July (in my opinion). From there we met Aaron's family in Island Park where we stayed at my parents cabin, floating the river, golfing and taking the boat out on the reservoir. Next stop, Wyoming! Since my sister Tami lives there I got to visit with her and spend time at Aaron's uncle's house- it's an old LDS church that they turned into a house in Grover, WY. It's super cool. He owns a riding and rafts business, so some of the family rode horses and we took a raft up to a little mountain lake. It was gorgeous. Like I said in my last post, even though my heart belongs to the beach, Wyoming is just one of the most beautiful places to be in the summer. Just don't catch me there in the winter!!! Poor Tami. :(

I have to blog for a second about the one of the nuttiest things. You know how they say when you have a good experience you tell one person, when you have a bad experience you tell 10? Well I'm telling the whole blog world because this made me SOOO mad!! And if you know me, you know it takes A LOT to make me mad. We went to this little pizza place called Gunnar's Pizza, which used to have really good pizza. We went at 9:00 and when we saw that they were open until 10:00 pm decided to change our order to stay. The worker said it was fine, but the waitress was obviously not happy that we were there and she didn't try to hide her distaste!! She was so rude, snapping at everyone and pulling out the attitude. I brought in some little corn puffs to keep Brighton occupied so she didn't disturb the whole restaurant, and the waitress full-on took them away from her!! (And not in a nice way). She did the same thing to my sister-in-law with her Diet Coke. She just kept making little snaps at the kids and was just not nice.
So when we left, Aaron thought it would be the right thing to do to explain the situation to the manager and explain why we were only leaving a 10% tip (which is more than she deserved for throwing some paper plates on the table and bringing out the pizza). We even had to get our own water. Anyway, they threw a fit and said there was a mandatory 15% tip for parties over 8. They were so rude and then got our license plates and threatened to call the Sheriff!!! I'd like to hear that call "Yes, sheriff, a customer just left a 10% tip, instead of 15%, could you arrest them please?? LOL. Anyway, they charged our credit card for the tip, unauthorized, so just be careful if you ever get a hankering for pizza in Alpine, Wyoming! We laugh about it now, but we were all so mad that night! (Ok, we were laughing about it as we drove down the road.)

Well the trip ended with Sara's wedding in Logan. I must say, I've never seen a bride look so beautiful!! She was just glowing. Aaron did the photography and got some great pictures. We drove down to Ogden to spend the night and decided spur of the moment to go to Lagoon. It was so fun! My BFF from college Katie and her son Mac joined us, as well as my BFF sister Lynzi. It was such a fun day. May summer live forever!!

Give me the beach any day!

2008-06-17T22:39:00.004-06:00

I was once with a group of about five Idaho women when the question was raised, "would you rather live/spend time in the mountains or at the beach?" I was the only one who said at the beach. I CRAVE the beach... there is some part of my soul that just longs to be near the ocean. I don't feel small when I stand beside the ocean, I feel bigger. I feel more complete and whole.
Unfortunately for this part of myself, I live in Idaho, near the beautiful majestic mountains. When I'm in the mountains I absolutely have an appreciation for their beauty, but after a couple days of dirt under my nails, I'm ready to go home. So hopefully one day we can have a cabin in the mountains for my mountain man, Aaron. And a beach house for my inner beach bum.

This picture is from California, when we went to Disneyland. I had to take a few hours to spend on the beach. This was Bright's second time at the beach. We went to Mexico on vacation when she was about 5 months old.

Our Weekend of Free Stuff

2008-05-19T11:35:00.004-06:00

Anyone who knows my husband, Aaron, knows he is the KING of getting free stuff. He's actually just the king of getting whatever he wants, which usually include free things or favors. It's seriously nuts. But this weekend set a whole new level for the rest of us to live up to.

First let me say, I think Aaron hid this passion for payola until we got married. And in the hopes that you'll still like my husband after reading this entry, I think I'll downplay his obsession with getting free things. ;)

His motto is "you never know until you ask". So he asks, and asks, and then asks more.. And if that doesn't work, he'll ask in Spanish. He once was about to miss his plane, so he kept asking the airline worker if there was anything she could do. Finally he found a nice one who told him "doesn't your knee hurt?" and pointed at a wheelchair. She proceeded to push him through the airport security line in the airport. Smooth.

Also recently he got some $250 snowboard bindings for $10!!! He was in a snowboard instructional video and agreed to drop the business name in the video. :) There are so many examples that just make me laugh and shake my head. But I love him!

So this weekend we went to Idaho's largest garage sale at the Idaho Expo. It was ok... we got some good deals. A new softball mitt, some toys for Bright, a sweatshirt. Then we hit some neighborhood garage sales. But we did it the way of 2008 on a hot day, from our car! We just kind of drove around and "car-window shopped" because Brighton was asleep. The first house Aaron gets out of the car because he saw a sign that says "FREE"- a word that sends chills down his spine. We ended up getting a free little mini vacuum that I wanted to use under the high chair.

Then the next house he saw a little kid helmet that he thought would be good for when Bright learns to snowboard, so he just leans his head out the window and asks about it. The girl just walks over and says here, Merry Christmas. It was hilarious.

Aaron must have been on a free-high because he couldn't just end it there. When we stopped at A&W he used some Spanish charm to get employee to give him free cookies.

Then the Gods of Free Stuff were really with us. Sunday we were going out for a walk and our neighbor who is moving was giving away a free Little Tyke slide and one of those green turtle sand boxes. Aaron thought he'd died and gone to heaven! :)

Aaron's little "quirk" with free stuff is so known within my family that whenever someone "works it" to get something, we call it "pulling an Aaron". He is just so darn endearing, no one could ever turn him down!!! Hey, is that how he got me to marry him? ;) Love you Aaron!

P.S. If anyone has any Aaron getting stuff stories, post them here so I can remember!!

My Homage to "Juno"

2008-04-22T17:10:00.004-06:00

Before all the Juno hype, my good friend Katie called me up and said "you HAVE to see Juno. I thought of you the whole time.. it's totally your sense of humor." So for months I kept trying to see it but haven't had the chance to see a movie in the theatre since Titanic (practically).. so I just got around to seeing it a couple weeks ago (and then renting it again this week). Katie, you're right, I DO love it.

For those of you who haven't seen it, it's about a witty, cynical teenager who gets pregnant and then gets involved of the life of the couple who intend to adopt the baby. First of all, I think it's wonderful that Hollywood showed a movie about a girl making that choice. I'm actually surprised it got four academy award nominations with that theme. Since when did choosing adoption become non PC anyway? I thought it was great.

As far as the humor, a few people have told me that Juno's sense of humor is a lot like mine. Well, I'm not 1/34th as quick witted as she is, and I don't have that teen angst that her character has mastered, but I think that's a compliment. (Even though no one talks like that in real life. That's why it's a movie, and why Gilmore Girls was a hit.) It does make me wonder though if I've lost some of that personality that I had in my "youth". I now have to watch what comes out of my mouth before spouting off some witty remark. My family always tells me "Only Brooke can get away with saying that."

Maybe it all started when I asked the doctor giving me my tetanus shot "Did you even GO to medical school, Doogie?" He told me I shouldn't be on antibiotics because... "it.. ugh.. does something bad". How could I resist? Unfortunately, (or maybe fortunately) I've learned to hold my tongue in situations like that. So although I'm glad I didn't have to go through a teenage pregnancy, I guess I'm a little glad that my friends still think I have a bit of Juno in me. Now if I could just find sunglasses like hers, I'd be set!

Disneyland Through the Eyes of a Child

2008-04-13T22:40:00.008-06:00

Disneyland was a blast. I think Brighton will enjoy it much more in a year or two, but she was just so wide-eyed and fascinated with everything, it was like seeing the world through the eyes of a 15-month-old. I've never seen that girl scared of ANYTHING until we wanted to get pictures of her and the oh-so-scary Goofy. :) She was also a little nervous on the Pirates of the Carribean ride. And sometimes she was more interested in holding the steering wheel of the ride than she was the actual ride itself.

It was also really fun being there with my nieces and nephews ages 2, 8, and 9. And sometimes visiting an amusement park with my dad is as good as being there with a child. I swear that guy could start going on rides at 8:00 am and not want to stop until the last churro was sold.

Ahh, my one Disneyland regret, not eating a churro. Autym and I searched frantically at 10:59 pm on our last night there until we found the last remaining churro stand still open. Then, to our UTTER dismay the woman in front of us turned around and said, with a smirk, "I'm getting the last one!". I hope you inhale some of that sweet succulant cinnamon dust and I hope it makes you cough! Oh, how spiteful of me!!

I'll miss you churro!, Uh, I mean Disneyland! Oh and if you need directions, ask Jason. He'll tell you to banana right. :)

Thrifty Car Worked for Me!!!

2008-03-26T18:53:00.007-06:00

This post has nothing to do with Thrifty Car Rental. :) It's just something cheesy I like to say when I sound like I'm randomly endorsing a product.

Like the other day I went off on Aaron about Clorox anywhere spray.. how you can use it on anything, around food, the baby and how I love the smell. Then I put up my thumb and said "Thrifty Car Worked for me!"... Lynzi will get it.

Sometimes I also like to say "I'd like to bear my testimony, I know Clorox anywhere spray is true".. or whatever I'm loving that day... Mormons will get it.

Here's stuff I love recently:

Chocolate Almond milk- It's made from almonds! "nuts, huh!"

I always bear my Proactiv-amony. You and me, Jessica Simpson.

Recently I bared my pre-paid legal-amony when I got cited for driving with a suspended license!! I had no idea, I swear. Hint: Change your address on your license when you move, it will save you the headache of having the "Doogie Howser" of Idaho State Police troopers almost arrest you. I swear, he was 12!

Redbox movie rentals

Sonic Diet Dr. Pepper with vanilla

DVR

Clairol Root touch-up. What can I say, I'm cheap. "No, honey, we're FRUGAL," said Aaron.

Peeps and Cabury eggs. (Hey, are Cadbury eggs smaller than they used to be??)

The Baby Who Didn't Know Mickey Mouse

2008-03-26T16:40:00.003-06:00

AKA: We're going to Disneyland! My sister and her family are going for Spring Break, along with my parents so I decided to take Bright to the Happiest Place on Earth! I realized, though, that she'll have no idea who any of the Disney characters are. So yesterday I dug out all the free Disney Scholastic books I got in the mail, but she wasn't too interested in anything besides "The Little Mermaid". So today I went and rented all the Mickey movies I could find at Hollywood Video. I'll get that little girl ready for Disneyland! :) I don't know how much she'll enjoy, but I know I'll have a blast riding those teacups! I'll post pictures when I get back!

Warning to Readers: My thoughts are like one of those spider charts

2008-03-19T15:01:00.003-06:00

Remember in high school English when your teacher would have you make a spiderweb chart to brainstorm ideas? I loved that! I could fill a whole page in a minute with all the different legs of directions my ideas could go.

So far, my blog entries remind me of one of those charts and I've decided to officially let it be that way. I need a place for my web of thoughts to untangle and I think this blog might be great for that! So I apologize if an entry takes an unexpected turn.

An entry about scrapbooking could turn into thoughts about religion, or a cute picture of my daughter could turn into a life lesson. Who knows?! But I've decided I'm just going to let it go there, and I don't think I'll ever go back and edit blog entries. I'll fill up an entry as fast as I can fill a brainstorming web, fast! So I guess this isn't as much an apology as it is an explanation for my random thoughts. :) Thank you!

Missing Old Friends and Mountain Dew

2008-03-18T14:29:00.000-06:00

Rainy days always get me too introspective. Sometimes that's good, but today it has me missing old friends. I'm sure this is worsened by the fact that I've been finding old friends on Facebook and missing them, and the times we had.

Most people hated high school, but not me. I loved high school. I had the best friends, many of whom I'm still friends with today. But I miss the ones I've lost touch with. It's strange though how although I was confident in high school, I keep seeming to have these strange dreams where I'm back in high school, but I've lost the confidence I had there. I'm always lost. Looking for a class, looking for a friend, looking for a place to fit in. It makes me wonder if I feel like my adult life has become that way. I'm stuck in between the place where you're single or without kids and most of your friends are from work because all the "moms" at church don't have enough in common with you to invite you places. Now that I am a mom, most of my friends have older kids, so I'm still not quite fitting in. I wonder if that's where these high school dreams come from.

Maybe I'm just missing how free and easy things were in high school and college. Friends would come over, we'd take off in the car, have a fun Saturday or night out. Summers were the best in high school. How did my parents ever let me get away with so little responsiblity! I'm glad, though, that my memories are of long, easy-going, Mountain Dew drinking, cookie dough eating days, instead of being the one serving the Mountain Dew at the drive-through.

Here's to old friends and Mountain Dew! I miss you both!

There's Always A Reason

2008-03-17T22:44:00.000-06:00

Now, I'm not the poster child for keeping in touch with old friends. In fact, I kind of stink at it. I've had a wedding announcement from an old roommate, Nora, in my drawer for about 3 years. It's made 3 moves with me because I keep thinking "I really want to send her a letter to get back in touch!". Now it's next to an old gummy lifesaver and a scrunchie in the junk drawer in my kitchen... just waiting.

I digress, keeping in touch with old friends isn't the reason I'm blogging, if you can call it that yet. Basically it's a big learning experiment for me. (does this thing have spell check?) I've recently made the transition from TV news to PR and some of our clients need assistance with blogs and I'm SO out of touch these days. So I need to jump in the blogesphere... (I'm sure that's a word, right?)

So here I am world, a 29 year old PR girl who is behind the times when it comes to blogging! So my second reason, is to seem hip. Now I can say, hey, check out my blog. How long will it be before people are putting their blogs on their business cards? Is it already happening?

See how much I don't know?

Don't be surprised if this blog is just me rambling. I need some kind of outlet and a way to get all this stuff out of my head, and writing in an actual journal takes too long. So there you have it, a few of my reasons.

This is a Test, this is only a test

2008-03-17T22:37:00.000-06:00

In the event of an actual blog post, you would find creative monologue, pictures and video, and a writer who knows what the heck she's doing here. If you encounter any future posts on this site, contact your friends and alert them, because something strange has happened.