I just read my youngest sis's blog and she tagged me. Normally, I would prolong doing a fill-out, but I'm bored and my husband is hunting and I am sick and I should be doing other things, so I will do it now.

8 Fave TV Shows (I type these knowing that you WON'T judge me or my lack of taste):

1. So You Think You Can Dance (soooo much more entertaining than crappy Stevie Wonder night on AI)

2. America's Next Top Model (I can't help it. I'm sucked in by waif-ish, bratty, young ladies seeking jobs that make non-waif-ish ladies, like myself, feel completely and utterly ginormous)

3. Brother's and Sisters

4. The Office

5. Biggest Loser (I'm also sucked in by severely obese whiny people trying to shed 100+ lbs)

6. Arthur (that's right, the Aardvark)

That's all I got... and that was stretching it

8 things I did yesterday

1. woke up at 3:30 am for no apparent reason

2. calmed my son who woke up at 5:15 am for no apparent reason

3. went to playgroup and socialized

4. worked with my madre' on painting the base and case in the remodel

6. played with stink-bug (Hayden)

7. ate pizza because I was too tuckered out to cook

8. chatted with B while he packed for his hunting excursion today

8 things I look forward to:

1. the holidays--so warm, so cozy

2. moving upstairs

3. finding out the gender of child in the womb

4. Halloween

5. seeing my first neice on the Ras side: Abigail (seriously, this kid is CUTE! according to the pics)

6. Ali to come home and continue to make me jealous with stories of her exploits in London

7. Janna having a girl (it has to be a girl--because I said so)

8. getting over this nasty cold. i am not a good sick person... i get really whiny.

8 Fave Restaurants:

1. Blue Plate

2. Cucina Toscana (yummy)

3. The Red Iguana

4. Lonestar Taqueria

5. Red Robin (I crave hamburgers alot)

6. Z Tejas

7. Aristos

8. um.... basically if the native people who eat the food are round and happy I like it: Mexican, Italian, Greek. Not so much on the Asian thing. The people are so austere and severe looking, and not very round--except for Buddha, but...

8 Things on My Wish List:

1. World peace

2. for the damn elections to ooover.

3. finding a good present for B. this Christmas

4. a house that magically cleans and organizes itself

5. the remodel to over and complete. down to the last nail and blade of grass

6. a pony

7. my family to come back to Utah and find jobs they love (even if it is in politics)

8. H. to get over his milk and peanut allergy. I wish Gabe would get over his allergies, too.

8 People I Tag:

The first people to read this. You know who you are...

Recent happs:

1. Went to Odyssey Dance Theatre's Thriller performance with the hubby on the 24th. Loved it. If I could come back in the next life with some major talent I would want to be a dancer. I L-O-V-E dancing as it is, but I'd like to actually be good at it. And be able to say, "Why yes, I dance. Here are some moves." Sadly, what I have to say is, "I like to free-style it. You know, do whatever the music moves me to do." Which is really code for: "I couldn't be taught a dance step to save my life." Enjoyed the show, though. Also enjoyed the fact that my parents watched H. for the evening (the entire evening and into the morning...). I was worried about his first "sleepover", but he apparently did very well and didn't miss us at all.

2. Coerced my husband into trying out the social thing again. Baby steps is all I ask, really. So, we went to the ward Halloween party. And, woo-hoo! I got him to stay for 45 minutes rather than the 20 we stayed for at the Christmas party last year. He did, however, look like he was taking a bullet the entire time we were there. I don't know that we'll ever have couple friends. *sigh* My dreams of having people over for games and such are slowly drifting away.

3. Am perfecting the art of the "hunting widow". I won't lie, it's not my favorite part of this time of year. But how can you deny a man the happiness that is "walking around Wyoming in beautiful weather with a gun"? I can't, which is why I am alone most weekends starting in September through the end of October. And let me tell you doing the church thing with no back-up and a mobile 15 month old is NO picnic. Who decided they couldn't go to nursery until 18 months? Probably the nursery leaders...

I believe that is all. I'm sure there will be pics of Halloween forthcoming as H. is the CUTEST pirate I have ever seen.

Went to the doc today to get the routine monthly check-up on baby. Nothing big other than the baby kept kicking and moving making it hard to get a good heart beat reading. In fact the OB said, "Hold still, kid." This makes me laugh because H. was never a big mover in the womb (which is why I believe he wasn't mobile until 12 months... he had never cared much about moving before, why be in a hurry now?), he was always very mellow and continues to be so today. His cousin, Noah, on the other hand moved quite a bit (from what I understand) and man is that kid an explorer! Anywho, it just makes me wonder, if at 18 weeks this kid is already movin' and groovin' what's he/she gonna be like when he/she gets here? Hold on Brent, we may be in for a wild ride!

A problem: if I sit H. down to take a picture he immediately scoots away. I end up with a lot of pictures like this.



Keeping with tradition, Hayden, Michelle, Taytum, Brock and little Mia visited a pumpkin patch on Friday. Okay, it wasn't really so much a patch as a little square of nicely decorated asphalt, but H. doesn't really know the difference so we'll continue to visit such places at this time of year.

Just a side note. I don't really get the whole putting a graveyard in your front yard as holiday decor-thing. I find it kind of weird and creepy all at the same time.

i just joined facebook. weird. very weird to request a friendship from someone and feel all kinds of giddy when you receive an email that says "Mr. X has accepted your friendship." it's almost like entering high school again. feeling all meek and what-not. approaching people... can i sit at your table for lunch? hoping they'll say "yes". can i say awkward? but hey. if you are ever in the neighborhood of facebook. drop me a line... i'll totally be your friend.

I recently took Hayden out in hopes of getting some photos of him. As you can tell by the first photo, which was taken moments before we left the house, H was NOT happy about the idea. But, I persevered and off we went to the park for some time with the camera. We had some moments of serious un-cooperativeness both from the camera and the boy. First he wouldn't look at me when I was trying to get him with just the flowers in the background (or the trucks in the background for that matter), when he finally looked he scowled. We tried a different locale which led to several pics of the child scooting away. Finally, I gave up and took him to swing, which he loves. At least he's smiling.

As the house stands now. Front o' house. The Garage and Back o' house. As you can see we stuccoed over the ug yellow brick and that helped tie the addition in nicely. We still need to paint the dormer shakes, the garage siding, and stain the doors and window frames, but other than that the outside is finished. Yippee. Oh yeah and the landscaping and concrete. I think that will have to come next year, though.

The inside is also coming along. With tile almost finished. Carpet and hard wood on the way and appliances to be installed next week-ish. When that fun stuff happens I'll post pics of the inside. Right now, however, it is still a bit of a mess.

Good times. Good times.

More photos. Here we have the framing in progress. Top you can see the garage where the shed was. Middle is looking into the mud room/kitchen area. Bottom is the master suite. Please excuse the shutter shadows. My camera was having issues.

Sorry this posted out of order. I should've thought of that when I started, but I didn't. Plus, I don't know how to fix it because I am a medium-low in the tech savvy field.

Kelly requested pics of the remodel. Here is where we came from.

Front of house.

The upstairs kitchen before. Actually this is after we had already taken out the appliances and were using it for a storage room/mud room. But you get the gist of it's tininess (sp?).

The backyard looking at it from the driveway. Again, this is actually a photo of the remodel already in the process. The carport's been removed and Brent is in the process of taking down the shed at the back of the property (all of the various stuff from said shed is now in my front room upstairs...nice).

Backyard, again.
Back of house.

there is nothing sweeter than watching a 14 (almost 15) month old explore the room that he's explored dozens of times before with rabid enthusiasm. okay, maybe not rabid, but definitely enthusiasm. as he does this he talks to himself and makes the sounds of various toys and laughs and just overall enjoys himself. when he really wants to get a kick in the pants (figuratively not literally) he'll scoot on over to where the cords from the tv and vcr dangle down then, as he reaches toward them he'll look my way to see if i'm looking. i immediately say, "no!" and start across the room at which point he giggles and pulls the cords until i reach him. i know. i know. not a super safe game, but he really gets a kick out of it. that kid is just darn-tootin' funny, with a seriously developed sense of humor.

aaah. the pride of a first time parent.

is it wrong if i am tired of politics? because i am.

random thoughts on what-nots

* i drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon today to deliver payroll to B. (he's working on a house up by Donut Falls). can i just say, B-U-tiful?!? holy cow! the higher you go the more brilliant and amazing the colors were. laws, i LOVE this time of year.

* recently read The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. this was a fab book and i absolutely recommend it. such a refreshing take on a way to tell and narrate a story. fabulous. i also recently read The Memory Keeper's Daughter. the jury is still out on my actual feelings towards this story. it was sad and depressing and the ending seemed to be too neatly tied up for it to work with the rest of the story. it also gave a rather grim picture of marriage and most of the characters were completely self-absorbed making it hard to like any of them.

* i read Breaking Dawn not too long ago as well. true to form with the Twilight series i read it in three days. don't let this fool you into thinking it was a good book, because truthfully, it wasn't. it was one of those books that i kept thinking how ridiculous it was as i read it, but couldn't bring myself to put it down. i keep trying to explain this phenomenon, but can't. also, the end....blech! "we're going to kill you all!!!! oh, never mind, i guess we'll just see you later." LAME-O.

* the remodel goes on. and on. and on. and on. and on. and on.

* i absolutely loved/enjoyed the LDS General Relief Society meeting last Saturday. especially Pres. Uchtdorf's talk. i'm just wondering, why can't i get it in printable form? all of the ladies' talks are up and available.

* finally, for those of you who don't know. i am with child (but don't expect to see any floating babies to the left anytime soon). yay for babies! i think there must be a population explosion going on because there are 5 other chicas in my area (read: ward) who are also with child and due not long after myself (which is end of march, first of april btw). crazy. crazy.