I achieved something I never thought possible!

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!

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)

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

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

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!

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

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!!