Pay It Forward

It's always fun getting little packages in the mail, and I love making crafty things, so I thought it would be fun to be involved in this little game. I signed up on my friend Brittney's pay it forward so I'm officially in :)

PAY IT FORWARD: I will send a handmade gift to the first three (3) people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF exchange. You may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days! The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog. (so, you must have a blog to participate.) I can't wait to see who I will be giving to. To join, just cut and paste this on your blog and comment away. So get posting.

Memories

After posting the bath picture of the girls the other day my mom sent me this picture of me, my brother Cameron , and sister Melissa. How cute! I think Aliza kind of looks like me.

Our Genealogy Pie

If you look at all 32 of our children's great-great-great grandparents according to where they are born, then they are 59% American, 38% European, and 3% Canadian, aye. This was kind of fun.




An interesting thing is, that those same 32 great-great-great grandparents have very different death places. Many immigrated to American. In fact, look how different the percentages are if you look at where they died and not where they are born.



So the question is, what nationality are we anyway? Every generation it changes. For example, one generation you can be 50% German and the next generation if all the kids are born out of Germany, we could be 0% German, looking only at the new generation. It changes according to what angle you look at it. Much more research will be done, but it's fun to look at.

life

 
When I was growing up I remember my dad washing our hair and making "crowns" on our head. Since Rachel can sit up in the bath now I thought I'd do the same. Madeline just loves Making "crowns" on her and her sisters heads :)
 



This pictures just to tease my mom... I love cats, what can I say :)
 


The girls decided it would be fun to get in the dog house. I'm thinking maybe we should make them a play house.
 

Rachel's 7 months

 

I took Rachel to the doctor the other day and she weighs 13 lbs 11 1/2 oz now! That means shes just below the 5th percentile for weight, but at least it's better than the first! Rachel has basically started crawling. She is getting around everywhere! I just can't believe she is getting big enough to do all these things. Shes such a little sweetheart. We all love her so much.

Random LDS Mission Call

I just formed a site that you can get called on a Mormon mission. Just push a button.

Go Here I Hope They Call Me On a Mission

Great Present!

For Valentines Day Jared got me a new set of scriptures with my name printed on them! So after being married almost four years I got new scriptures with my new name :) I am so excited! It was a perfect present. We also had a fun time going out. We got a babysitter and headed off to Sizzler. We got there and the line was really long and we were too impatient to wait so we decided to go bowling. We got to the bowling alley and it was league only night. Bummer. Then we decided we'd try to go see a movie. We were successful and saw August Rush. It was a really good movie. It's been a while since I've seen an inspiring movie, so that was great. We decided we'd just go to Sizzler after the movie but when we got there it had just closed. Bummer again. That's okay though because we just ended up going tonight with the kids. Kids under 3 eat free, and boy is that the way to go! All you can eat peaches = my girls are in heaven :) I am thankful for my sweet little family. Even though life is crazy lots of the time it is so worth it! Oh, and my sister gave the girls some bows and that makes them look even more adorable :) (Thanks Melissa! There are pictures on the next blog (

IT'S A BOY!!!

I know I know, you are all probably thinking, what! Why haven't I heard anything about this until now? Well the truth of it is, we didn't find out ourselves until yesterday. We aren't sure what we are going to name him, but we're really excited about our newest addition! Jared especially since It's a BOY!!!Here are a couple pictures.


















Oh, I forgot to mention that it's a boy kitten :)Jared always begs me for a pet and he really loves cats. I've never had a cat before, but I decided it was time to get over my fear :) Jared had the greatest look on his face when he saw a new kitten in our car! (Madeline even spilled the beans before we got to the car, but Jared was still surprised that I had actually gotten a cat)Jared looked like a kid on Christmas morning with his new pet. I'm so happy he likes the cat (and me :)) Happy Valentines Day Jared, I love you!

Nice Guy

Once again I've gotten sucked into watching The Biggest Loser. Last night as I was watching it I was amazed at the guy who was kicked off. The blue team was up for elimination-- yipee! (I want the black team underdogs to win) and I was sure that Dan would be voted off. The blue team was discussing who they should vote off and Trent said, guys, I think you should send me home. My knee is hurt and I don't want to drag the team down and I was never in this for the money. Anyway. He definitely would not have been the one to be voted off, but because of his kindness and consideration for his other team members he went home. It makes me want to be a better person. Its great to know that there are people like him in our country.

YouTube Laughs

I saw this on one of my friends blogs and just laughed and laughed. YouTube is great. Madeline is quoting this now. I wonder if she'll try it soon with Rachel... ouch Rachel, that really hurt!

Kids

The other day while I was taking a shower Aliza got into the flour. It reminded me of last year when Madeline put flour all over Aliza. I guess I should wait to take a shower until the girls are sleeping :)

Madeline drew her first person! She said this was a picture of Aliza.

The girls were all being cute so I took some pictures. Getting 2 out of 3 smiling is pretty good :)

Washington D.C. Trip

Last week I went to D.C. for a work trip. It was good to meet all the big bosses of my agency. One of my bosses said of BYU where he goes recruiting, "It's a nice place, but I can't find anywhere to buy a cup of coffee." Isn't that the truth. Some other highlights of the week for me was going to the Wizards vs Raptors game in the Verizon Center and seeing Anthony Parker hitting a wild 3-point to tie the game for overtime. I also met up with my friend Tony Roane and we went to see the Jazz beat the Wizards by 9. The funny thing about the game was the large amount of Jazz fans in the cheap nose-bleed section. I estimate about 50% of the $10 seat section were Jazz fans, while the rest of the building was full of Wizards fans. Why are the Jazz fans so cheap? Great question. One of those fans I knew from high school named Sarah Adams, although she now has a new last name.




Another night I went out to eat with Tammy and Mitchell Anderson. I worked with Tammy at my internship in D.C. back in 2004. They paid for my meal even though I had a daily per diem that was large enough for the whole week. That was fun.

I went to the gym twice and played lots of basketball, like the old days. I played with a guy that played for Georgetown which was special, and at the drinking fountain between games he complimented me of my hustle and hard work, but failed to mention my game (I wonder if there is a reason for that, Ha). My name in the gym was "Boise" and they kept telling me how great a game the Fiesta Bowl was last year. The first day I played I wore glasses and a 6'8 large black man threatening to smash them into my face if I tried to steal it from him again. Very funny. I wore contacts the next time I showed up.

The lesson of the week was don't eat the food in the hotel room. There was complimentary food in the lobby, so I thought I could eat the the snickers and other snacks in the room. Well, after I ate them, I read the prices. Three dollars for a snickers, eight dollars for the gummy bears, etc. Somehow, I was charged 19.50 for the "free" food for the week. Oops.

I like D.C., but I was definitely happy to be back with my family in Idaho. It's not fun to be away from them.

I'm Half Crazy

You're probably thinking by the title that this post is about me, but it's not :) Jared and I have been singing this song to Madeline lately;

Daisy, Daisy
Give me your answer do
I'm half crazy
All for the love of you

It won't be a diamond marriage
I can't afford a carriage
But you'll look sweet
Upon the seat
of a bicycle built for two.

So this morning Madeline woke up saying/ singing "I'm half crazy" over and over. I guess that's the only part she remembered. The funny thing is is that some days I do think I'm "half crazy" :)

The Talking Toddler

Aliza has been growing and developing so much lately! She is starting to talk more and more. Some of my favorite phrases are:

"Mommy's ap" (lap, "ackers" (crackers), and "doo doo" (Rachel)

Aliza is at one of my favorite ages. She is becoming an explorer too, which I don't know how excited I am for that... The other day she got a permanent marker and drew on our couches. The good news is that it easily came out with rubbing alcohol!
Aliza is such a fun part of our family and we love her so much

Thank You Mom

Much to my dismay, this past week Jared had a business trip to Washington D.C. It would have been a VERY long week if if hadn't been for my mom. She was so nice and decided to come and stay with me so I wouldn't have to be alone. I am so thankful for my mom and for her willingness to spend a week away from my dad and sisters to help me out. We had fun relaxing, reading, and playing with the girls. Jared took the camera with him but my mom got some really cute pictures of the girls. I'll post some up soon. Thanks again mom for coming up to visit. I love you.