Anna's turning ONE!!!

My baby girl is going to be turning one in a couple of weeks. I can't believe it, time sure has flown by. She is walking around now and getting into everything. I have been calling her hurricane Anna lately. She usually hits my kitchen twice a day at about 11 and 4. This is what the aftermath looks like. I'm glad she is having fun helping me out in the kitchen:)


We also have had lots of fun decorating our Christmas tree. The bottom third is Anna proof so she can play with all of the ornaments she wants. Sometimes I think the cats have about as much fun decorating the tree as we do.







Anna also got her one year portraits taken yesterday. I think they turned out great. She was kind of a bear in the beginning and then she decided she wanted to move around all over the place so I'm surprised we got as many good ones as we did. She sure is a photogenic little squirt.







I love my baby girl. I can't believe she is already a year old. She is a joy to raise.

Never Give Up

I'm only putting these pictures up here because I know everyone who reads this loves me:) and has seen me at my worst times. Sometimes in my quest to lose weight I get very frustrated. I think that nothing is coming off and it infuriates me when weeks go by and I haven't lost a single pound. I'm not to my goal yet, I'm still working on it, but I thought I would show these pictures because I was impressed by the results that I didn't think were there. When I get frustrated I need to get on here and take a look at these, and then get back on the horse and keep going. I guess that's the new theme for my life, never give up.

Here are some pictures that I took in Feb. 2010. I still had a little baby weight on, but not too much.




And here are some pictures of me I took on Nov. 5.




I believe my weight loss for this time period is 29 lb. I think I'm in the best shape I've been since high school. I still have about 20-30 more lbs. to go. I know it's going to be hard, but when I get down on myself and think that nothing is coming off, I need to take a look at this and remind myself to never give up-it will happen. Sorry for rambling on about myself, but I just felt I needed to.

Halloween Fun

I love Halloween. It is probably one of my favorite holidays. I think it is so fun to dress up, I guess I'm just a very large kid:) We had a Halloween party at my house this year and had lots of fun. Anna dressed up as a spider. Her favorite song is the Itsy Bitys Spider so I had to find her a spider costume, which wasn't easy. I ended up ordering it online, but the good thing is that she can wear it next year too:)



Mark dressed up as the mad scientist who made the giant spider and I was the web that the spider made. I always like coordinating our costumes.



Here is me carving a pumpkin, I have to carve a pumpkin on Halloween, it's tradition!


I know I get a little crazy with making things around the holidays. It's just something I like to do and it makes people smile. Well this year I fell in love with these one eyed goblins with york peppermint patties inside. I call them Mike Wakowski's because they look like the one eyed monster in Monster's Inc. I made up a bunch of these to give people and had a lot of fun doing it.



I though this was hilarious. The other day Anna got stuck in our table. For awhile she thought it was fun, but then she couldn't figure out how to get herself down. Being the good parent that I am, I took a picture instead of helping her out:) It took both Mark and I to get her out without bonking her head on something.



I think I have a little too much fun with Halloween, but what's life without having a little fun:)

Beautiful Autumn Day

You don't get many days as beautiful as today. Go out and enjoy it!

Anna's 9 month portraits

Well, I went into Target with the plan of getting the $7.99 package at the portrait studio...let's just say that didn't happen. My girl is too darn cute!!! Here are the pics.


This one is my favorite.

Birthday fun and Color Me Mine

Well it has been awhile since my last blog. I celebrated my b-day back in July. It was lots of fun, we went to Red Robin and I had my favorite Bonzai burger.

And my parents made me a wonderful carrot cake...yummy:)

Anna also hit another milestone. I was talking on the phone the other day and I turned around and she was standing in her playpen. Now she is pulling herself up every chance she gets. She prefers to be standing. She also got her first tooth on Saturday. Now both of her lower front teeth are poking through. She hasn't been fussy yet so we're greatful for that.

Here she is in her cute white dress that we just got. She is so adorable.

I also have had my niece here for the past couple of days. She is a lot of fun and has been a big help around the house. We went to Color Me Mine yesterday. It is soooo much fun. You get to choose from hundreds of different pottery pieces and then paint them however you wish. They have all sorts of techniques for helping you paint. It's a little on the expensive side, but I totally recomend it. I painted a hot chocolate mug and Cindy painted a unicorn.


It's been a fun month. Hopefully life will calm down a bit so I can blog a little more.

What a difference...

Mark and I have lived in Brigham City for four years now. I recently found some pictures on an old camera that we never uploaded onto the computer until the other day. I am amazed by the changes that have taken place in our little family since we've been here. It doesn't seem like its been that long until you look back and realize all that has happened. I need to thank Heavenly Father for all that He has given to us.

Have fun looking at these:)

Leroy and Capt. Nemo as kittens,


and here are the beasts about 10x larger, they still like to cuddle together.



Here is what our house looked like a few months after we moved in. There were no other houses in the neighborhood, we actually had some trees in our yard and absolutely no landscaping.


And this is what it looks like today. Our neighborhood is full and we ripped out all of the trees and decided to plant a xeriscape througout our yard.


Here is a picture of Mark back in 2006, fresh out of college working at A.T.K.


And here is a picture of him today, 4 years older, wearing new glasses (which he doesn't like yet:), and getting ready for a new job at Northop Grumann in Clearfield.


Here is a picture of me in 2006,


and here is a picture of me 2010, 60 lbs. lighter. I have worked very hard to lose the weight. I'm not to my goal yet, but I'm working for it. It's all thanks to eating right, working hard, and Jazzercise:)


And finally here is our little family back in 2006,


and here we are today. We welcomed little Anna into our lives in December. She is a fiesty little girl who we wouldn't trade for anything in the world.


I know I rambled on today, but I am so grateful for all of the blessings we have had in the last four years. Looking at these old pictures made me realize how far we've come. Thanks to Mark, Anna, Leroy, and Capt. Nemo for all the memories.

Cute Girls

Bret and Lori and their family came here for the weekend. Anna met her cousin Jenna for the first time, they are about 7 weeks apart. We all went to church on Sunday and Anna and Jenna were wearing the same outfit and we didn't even plan it. It was so adorable. I took a couple of cute pictures of them later on.


I love this one of Mark and Bret playing with their girls.




I also have another gardening tidbit. I'm sorry I keep talking about gardening, but I hope that I can use this as a reference for next year and maybe give some ideas to other people who enjoy gardening.

I thought I would interplant things this year. I knew that the broccoli was supposed to be done in June so I thought that maybe I could plant peppers and eggplant inbetween them because they aren't done until the end of summer. Well, the broccoli did great, but the eggplant and pepper barely grew. Here are some comparison shots of an eggplant and pepper I planted in a pot at the same time as the ones in the garden.

The Pepper


The Eggplant



I can think of two reasons for this happening. 1-they didn't get enough sun and 2-the broccoli pulled all of the nutrients from the soil because it was larger. We'll see if they grow big enough to give me a yield. It's good to know for the next year though, it may not be the best idea to plant these crops together.