tagged

Allie, Allie, Allie. Thanks for the tag, dear friend! Seriously, I had to think about a couple of these.

Five things I was doing 10 years ago
1. Just starting my last semester at Ricks
2. Filling out paper work and such to move to Berlin, Germany
3. I was rooming with my new roommate from Brisbane, Australia.
4. I was still wondering why Jenn moved out -- love you, babe. So glad we've mended those fences!
5. Writing for the Rixida, Rick's College's yearbook.
And I know now one else will care but me, but here are all the pages for the stories I wrote.
18-19, 26-27, 28-29, 48-49, 51, 53 (they put in the wrong bi-line), 55, 68-69, 70-71, 84-85, 86-87, 88-89, 96-97, 108, 118-119, 132-133, 138, 140, 143, 156-157, 164-165, 178-179, 207, 226, 366 (my picture)

Five things on my to do list
1. clean the office/scrapbook room
2. make invites for Tyler's party
3. clean the kitchen
4. wash the towels
5. give away a Book of Mormon the missionaries asked us to give away

Five of my favorite snack foods
1. cheese spread & crackers
2. chips & pico de gallo
3. apples & peanut butter
4. combos
5. my mom's crab dip

Five things I would do if I were a billionaire
1. get out of debt
2. put aside money for kids' college
3. spend a year traveling the world
4. pay off my siblings & parents' debts
5. retire to the alps

good news, and not so good news

Good news: Dallin was released as 1st Counselor in the E.Q. & was put in as the YM Pres. He also started school tonight

Not so good news: meetings, stake dances, Wed. night activities -- away from the family, meetings, Wed. night classes, homework, papers for me to read

Good news: We had our first Primary activity last Saturday, and it went very well.

Not so good news: Now I have to plan for the next one.

Good news: Tyler is enjoying school.

Not so good news: He comes home so tired, but I can't have him take a nap or he'll never get to sleep at night. You can imagine how enjoyable that makes him in the afternoons.

Good news: Adeline progresses every day in her development.

Not so good news: She can now take off her shirt, pants, socks, shoes, and diaper. I have to keep a onsie on her so she doesn't get the diaper off -- she hasn't figured out the snaps yet. But I often find a trail of clothes throughout the house. You can tell where she has played throughout the day. She is also strong enough now to drag a table chair over to the kitchen counter or the piano -- since we still don't have a bench. She can also climb onto said chairs -- and the toilet and consequently the bathroom counters. The kitchen counters are still too tall for her to climb on them. But if anything is within reach on the counter, she'll grab it. She can also open twisty lids, zippers, Ziploc bags, and Tupperware.

Good news: The baby is doing well, and we heard the heart beat again yesterday. The Dr. also gave me a date for my c-section -- Tuesday, June 23. Lest you think I influenced this decision, I did not. My due date is June 25, but that is the Dr.'s day in the office. He does his hospital rounds on Tuesday.

Not so good news: I only have 5 months before my life becomes crazy!

Good news: Tomorrow's high is supposed to be near 40 -- and after -45 wind chills last week, I'm looking forward to it.

Not so good news: It's going to be 22 the next day and 9 the day after that...I am so ready for spring!

cutest blog on the block

Just thought I'd let everyone who uses Ashley's site for their blog backgrounds that their server is down. I kept getting some crazy authorization thing, so I did some googling. Here's her blog with the explanation about her server crash & some cute Valentine's Day backgrounds.

finally updating

I finally have updated this blog -- so scroll down a ways. There are lots of pictures! I apoligize to anyone whose day was ruined because I failed to update you on our family. (*HA*) I have been busy with Primary, and I'm tired all the time -- details below (see: Christmas -- the rest of the story.).

just some fun pictures to share

Here are just some fun pictures from the last few weeks.

Our library does a Winter Reading Program. Each family can sign up, and they are given a chart to keep track of their reading for -- I think -- 3 weeks. After 3 weeks, you get your chart stamped and you can enter you family into a drawing for a large gift basket. There is a new drawing every week, so you could potentially win more than once. This last week I got a phone call from the library letting us know that our family won the basket for that round. Yeah! The kids were so excited to go pick it up. And it was a lot of stuff! The theme this time was snowmen -- obviously. I noticed the theme for the next basket is Valentine's.

Okay, you see that blue ball in the basket in the previous picture? Dallin thought it would be fun to do this to Adeline:

She thought it was pretty funny, too, because she was laughing and wouldn't let us take it out for a while.

Here's my pretty girl all dressed up. She's wearing my shoes, the jewelry she got for Christmas and the purse/bag I made her for Christmas.

more dubuque

New Sunday outfits from Grandma. This was the only picture I could get of Adeline in her dress. That girl has a mind of her own!

I had to get one of Tyler in his train sweater!

Dallin wearing what used to be my grandfather's hat, but is now my dad's hat.

I really wish my kids would get along more! ;)

Hiding out under the bed.

Uncles Alan and Jared playing a grueling game of Chinese Checkers. We played a lot of games in the week we were there!

My matching "super heroes." I mentioned to Dallin and Tyler they they matched, and that a picture might be cute. Then Dallin said they were "super heroes" and told Tyler to pose like one.

"But it's my turn to take a picture, Mom!"

New Year's Eve. Here are the real partiers, playing some Pigs. Tyler won, by the way, by a landslide!

Alan's little get together downstairs. We only visited the lower level because they had all the food!

Here I am ironing the binding for Tyler's quilt. It was monotonous, but I got a lot of thinking done!

We had a lot of fun visiting Grandma and Grandpa! We were able to stay an entire week with them. We played a lot of games and ate a TON of not-so-good-for-you-but-oh-so-yummy food! We are so grateful they fed and housed us for so long, and we hope we didn't wear out our welcome!

national mississippi river museum, dubuque, ia

The day after Christmas we went to visit my family in Dubuque. We had a 2nd Christmas when we got to open all our gifts from my family -- but I didn't get any pictures because it was a little nuts. The order we had at home opening presents was non-existent at my folks' .

While we were there Mom and Dad took us to the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium. We had been there before, but not for a couple years. It was so nice to have teenage uncles who were nice enough to watch the kids for me so I could actually enjoy capturing some moments with the kids.

Here is an alligator from the Mississippi Bayou. He doesn't look as big in this picture up against the glass. Uncle Brian was watching Addie for me, and he said when they got to this tank Addie was watching the water all calm and cool until the alligator came swimming up to the window. Then she turned around and took off!

This is a mammoth sized turtle! He probably doesn't look as big here as he is in real life, but he's massive! That is a life size rowboat in the tank with him, if that gives you an idea of how HUGE he is!

The museum had a tank with giant fish in it -- mostly catfish. Apparently there was a catfish in there that weighed about 400 pounds! I think you get an idea of how big the fish are compared to my little princess! This was her favorite exhibit! Every time we took her away to see something else, she'd always find her way back here again!

Barge simulator. The museum has some really neat hands-on exhibits that teach you about the river past, present, and future. It is really fascinating. One of the things they have is a barge simulator. You actually get to drive a barge up the Mississippi through different cities and complete several challenges. It's a good thing the museum was virtually empty that day because Tyler and his uncles dominated this simulation room!

Another part of the museum deals specifically with the history of the river. Here are the kids and Dallin steering a life-size model of a steamboat helm.

Riding the logs down the river.

I love this exhibit! It is a model of an old steamboat. It has sections of the boat cut away so you can get a glimpse of what it was like inside the boat. The detail on this thing is amazing!

The boat from the front.

The boat from the back.

Here is a desk on display.

The museum always has a traveling exhibit on display. This past exhibit's theme was Venom.

Addie checking out rattlesnakes.

A scorpion fish. You know, it's kind of frustrating how animals just don't understand that in order for me to get a good picture I have to turn off my flash and keep the shutter of camera open longer. Consequently, I need them to hold still longer. Grrr...

Sea anemones with a couple "Nemos."

Yes, they did have a cobra there, but he didn't cooperate. He was too busy hiding and sleeping. This was the best I could do.

After taking the pictures above, Dallin and Addie went ahead of me in the exhibit. They turned the corner, and Dallin said, "Oh, look, Honey, a Black Widow." That's when I decided to turn around and go back to hang out with the snakes. I didn't think I needed a refresher course on all the poisonous spiders in the world!

Dallin and Addie after surviving the venomous spider exhibit!

Christmas -- the rest of the story

While we kept Christmas a happy day for the kids, Dallin and I felt a little less excited for the day. We thought we might be miscarrying. I had gone to see the dr. the Tuesday before Christmas, and everything was okay, but we weren't able to hear a heartbeat, but I was only 13 weeks, so that's not too surprising. Thursday morning didn't look so hunky-dorey. I called the dr.'s office, and of course it was closed, but their answering service was still working, thank goodness, and also thankfully, my dr. happened to be the one on call that day. After giving me the 411 on what to do during the day and in case I did miscarry, he then said he wanted to see me first thing the next morning. So, our plans to head back to Dubuque Christmas afternoon were thworted. By Friday morning the threat of miscarriage had seemed to be gone, but we went in to see the dr. anyway. We called some members in our ward who live just a block or so away -- such a blessing in our ward -- and they watched the kids for us. While at the dr.'s we were able to hear a heart beat! Yeah! I told the dr. many fervent prayers had just been answered, and he mentioned that he had almost given up looking for the heart beat when he found it. Otherwise I would have had to have an emergency ultrasound. He gave me the okay to travel, so as soon as we left the dr.'s, we picked up the kids, packed, and hit the road!

Last Monday, I had my first ultrasound. I was only 16 weeks, but the dr. had mentioned during my first visit that I was measuring large for my due date, and he wanted me to get the baby measured & to make sure there was only 1 of them. He said there could be a chance of twins. Monday morning Dallin came with me to the ultrasound. We found out there is only one baby, and it is only measuring 1 week older than the projected due date. We also got a healthy heart rate. So, my first due date was June 25, but the baby says it's coming June 18. So, somewhere in there we will have baby #3.

Christmas -- finally!

Christmas Eve we read the Nativity story and Tyler and Adeline acted it out as best they could. Then we watched the Church's Nativity movie -- you know the 5 minute one? Then, Tyler insisted that they try again. So, we acted it out again.

Ornaments. Every year Grandma Ensign (my mother) gives the grand kids a new ornament. It's the only present they are allowed to open before Christmas. In fact, they can open them as soon as we get them.

Tyler's

Addie's

And my Mom also got us this ornament.

Christmas morning's loot. The quilt on the couch is one I made for Tyler for Christmas. It didn't get wrapped because it wasn't 100% finished. But it is now!

The stockings and the Santa gifts -- the kids got slippers & a nice letter from Santa.

In my family we always had to wait until everyone was awake before we could go open presents. We've decided to keep that tradition with our own family. We made sure Tyler knew that rule the night before -- and even made him repeat it to us many times! So, at 6:00 a.m. Tyler came into our room and asked if we could go open presents. Addie was still sleeping, so I made Tyler wait an entire 30 minutes (oh, the horror) just so Addie would get a little bit more sleep! Here are the kids lining up in the hallway. Addie is looking at the floor because she literally woke up just minutes before we took this picture, and her eyes are still adjusting to the light!

Notice Dallin's hand on Tyler's shoulder. Dallin had to keep holding Tyler back so he wouldn't bulldoze over Addie.

Checking out the Santa stuff.

Opening the stockings and the presents.