A little bit about Me

My sister Melissa tagged me on her blog the other day. She is such a nice sister... Today we got a package in the mail from my mom with presents for our birthday's (all within the next month) and my sister added in a couple things of her own. I always have intentions of sending packages, but I never do. Melissa send 4 of these cute bows (and some extra ribbon) for my girls for the 4th and then sent me a some cute stamps for my birthday. Thanks so much Melissa and Mom for thinking of us! It made my day!

I am: a woman
I think: a lot
I know: that the most important thing in life is my family and the gospel.
I want: to go swimming
I have: a new hair cut
I wish: I could help more people
I hate: it when people yell at their kids (myself included)
I miss: my family
I fear: cancer
I feel: happy
I hear: nothing!!! (My girls are all sleeping!)
I smell: nothing and I think that is a good thing... it means none of the girls are poopy :)
I crave: tortilla chips
I search: the scriptures
I wonder: what life will be like in 5 years
I regret: not being more involved in athletics when I was younger
I love: Jared and our girls
I care: about people
I always: love sitting outside when the weather is nice
I am not: going to do any more cleaning until I take some time for myself :)
I believe: in Christ
I dance: like nobody's watching :)
I sing: along with songs and it makes me smile when I know all the words
I don't always: do my hair
I write: in my journal about once a month
I win: most games that I play against Jared :) hahaha (he probably won't agree with me, but I am getting better at chess :))
I lose: one of the girls toys almost every time I go somewhere... good thing we get most of the stuff from yard sales :)
I never: want to hurt someone's feelings
I listen: to pandora
I can usually be found: at the computer, cleaning, or playing/taking care of the kids
I am scared: of falling down the stairs
I need: love, friends and good conversations
I am happy about: who I am and who I have become.

Black Canyon Dam Camp Out

We went to Black Canyon Dam near Emmett Idaho this last weekend. We left at about 6:00 PM and got back about noon. The mosquitoes weren't too bad. We hiked to the water and Jen came in and we hiked a little in the water which was fun. Madeline was being a baby and crying, but it was mostly fun.

Madeline's Birthday Video

Madeline turned three. She loved it. When I got home from work she came running towards me and yelled, "Guess what, it's my birthday today!" Thanks everyone for calling and for the presents.

Madeline is Three!!

We had a fun day yesterday. In the morning my friend called me about a great deal at Albertson's so we headed over there, then went to Wal-Mart and Madeline picked out blue fingernail polish. (Blue is her favorite color) Then we came home and played. Madeline saw The Little Mermaid playing on the big screen at Wal-Mart, so I told her she could watch it when we came home. So she watched the Little Mermaid all by herself, (while I was making her cake) which is pretty big because she is usually super afraid of movies. Then she tried helping make the cake :) She finally decided on the Madeline cake, and I'm pretty sure it's because she wanted BLUE on her cake. I guess she bleeds blue too :) When Jared got home we opened presents, and the cute outfit she is wearing is from Grandpa and Grandma Smith. Thanks for the presents! She had fun opening the presents and wanted to take a bath right after dinner because she got new Madeline bath toys :) After dinner my friend Annette invited us to go swimming at her in-laws house. That was really fun... Madeline decided to finally get in the pool the last 5 minutes of swimming and then was upset when we told her it was time to get out :) I love Madeline. She is such a good little girl and I'm so happy she is in our family.

Happy Birthday Madeline!!

Today my little Madeline is turning 3! She is such a joy in our lives and we love her so much! For the last month or more we've been asking her what she wants for her birthday and she just always says, "cake". The type of cake has changed from strawberry shortcake, to a bike cake, to hello kitty and lots of stuff in between :) One time I asked her what else she wanted for her birthday and she said, "two cakes" :) haha I love my cute little girl!
She is already very helpful. A lot of times at night I will have her get the diapers and pj's for her and her sisters. She is a very smart little girl too. I am so thankful that Madeline was born into our family. We love her so much! Happy Birthday little girl!

Joe's Video of Their Trip

Thanks Joe for the speedy creation of the video.

Joseph, Elizabeth, & Brayden's Visit

We got to have more visitors this weekend! Joe had a 1 day break from school and they decided to come visit us. We felt pretty special :) We had a lot of fun relaxing, eating food, swimming and playing games. Brayden is 5 months old and Rachel is 11, but they're the same size... aren't they cute:) By the way, we did fix the bed situation, so now all of you people dying to visit us, we have a blow-up mattress that isn't popped :)

Madeline's lost little Kitty

My Grandma Smith has given each one of our kids a little blanket animal when they are born. Madeline's was a pink kitty. She LOVED her kitty! It went everywhere with her and after almost 3 years of dragging it around it got pretty dirty... more on the brown side than the pink side... and then a very sad day came. A couple weeks ago Madeline lost her kitty. I drove around and looked everywhere we had been that day but it could still not be found. Madeline was distraught, and I have to admit, I was pretty worried myself because she HAD to have it when she went to bed, so I knew bedtime would be much more difficult.


I told Madeline we could call Great Grandma Smith and see if she could send us another one. That made her feel better until I explained that it would take a little while to get to our house. Madeline said, "But I want it now! :(" Well, we didn't get it that night, but luckily Great Grandma Smith came to the rescue and sent Madeline a new pink and white kitty! Madeline was SO happy when it came in the mail! Thank you so much Grandma for sending Madeline the kitty cat. It is such a special little thing that you did for her and all of your Great Grandchildren. We love you!

Famous Mormons in the Media

Here are five Mormons that I never heard of two years ago, but have gotten much national attention in the last year.

1. David Archuleta.
He placed second on American Idol. He's from Murrey, Utah and has a beautiful voice.


2. Brooke White.
She placed fifth on American Idol. She is from Mesa, Arizona.


3. Mitt Romney.
He ran for president and seemed like a great candidate to me. He brought a national dialogue about Mormonism (both positive and negative). I never realized how many anti-Mormons are out there. Well, one day people will get over our differences.


4. Stephanie Meyer.
She's the author of the Twilight series and is a best seller. Jen is making me read her books with her. This clip is from the movie they are making after her book.


5. Glenn Beck.
The CNN headline news and conservative talk radio. He's a little wild and crude, but I often like to listen to his radio program on the way home from work.

Check out my new blog

I've been working on making a cake/ food/ misc. blog for while and I don't think I'll ever get it totally ready so I'm letting you all know that my blog is up and running. I'm all about quick and easy food to prepare so I'll put fun recipes on there, also pictures of cakes I make, exercise routines, and other stuff that I don't want to lose (because I might lose it if it's on paper... :)). So enjoy!

Also, I wanted to let you all know about google reader. It lets you know whenever blogs (or almost any website for that matter) are updated. It saves SO much time! Unless you add too many blogs that is :)

Sleeping Baby Rachel

Rachel has been quite the character at the dinner table. The other day Rachel was at the table by herself and I walked in and saw this....

You can tell Madeline wasn't too happy about Rachel eating from the pan of soup

But she was... :)

Hey, at least someone's enjoying my food :)

Then today the girls were eating lunch and I heard Rachel crying but then she stopped so I went into check on her and I found this...

What a precious little girl! I knew it was past her nap time, but I didn't think she'd fall asleep in her high chair :) I love my little Rachel. She is so much fun!

Our Visit from the Californianians

Last weekend Michael and Mary Parker (Jared's sister) and their kids, Natalie and Emily came to visit us all the way from California!! Madeline and Natalie are only 6 weeks apart and we lived only a block away from them while we lived in Provo so we were all super excited for the Parkers to visit us. Madeline and Natalie always, well most always :) play really well together, and they are such good friends even though we live so far away from each other now. We had so much fun with Mary and Michael here. We did tons of things and just loved spending time with family. We LOVE having visitors, so if any of you want to come spend time with us we have a floor open and available... we're working on the bed :)...

Playing with the box

Going to the Temple

Waltor's Ferry

Eating Yummy Cafe Rio

Is it a weed or not a weed... that is the question

Yesterday I was outside trying to weed my garden and I had the hardest time trying to tell what was a weed and what was the beginning of a plant. A couple weeks ago the wind blew down a lot of "helicopters" from the tree. I didn't think they would do any harm to the grass and just hoped they would eventually blow away. Yesterday as I was gardening though I realized the once cute little helicopters that can provide so much entertainment were now planting their seeds in my garden! I never knew that "helicopters" were tree seedlings. Hopefully some of you are surprised at this too... Jared said he's known that since he was 3... I'm not very experienced in the whole gardening thing, so I'm asking all of you if you have any advice for me or any websites you've found to help out in gardening? We do have peas and lettuce growing right now so I'm at least kind of successful :)

My best friend Alissa

Jared wrote the other post about our trip to Logan, and I just wanted to comment really quickly on Alissa's wedding and our friendship. Alissa and I met the summer I turned 16 and we became instant best friends. Alissa is such an amazing person. I am so thankful for my friendship with her. I feel so priviledged to have been able to go to her wedding. She looked beautiful and I wish her and Victory the best of luck in their marriage.

My sister put this quote on her blog the other day and I really liked it.
"It well may be that we will never meet again in this lifetime so let me say before we part, so much of me is made of what I've learned from you, you'll be with me like a handprint on my heart & whatever way our stories end, I know I have you in mine by being my friend." Wicked Musical song "For Good"

Alissa Randall Haines will forever be one of my best friends and she has left a huge handprint on my heart!

Logan Trip; Alissa's Marriage

We did a two day trip to Logan to see Alissa get married to Victory Haines.

OUR FAMILY

THE MAP

We first stopped at Uncle George's and Aunt Carol's home in American Falls. They are very hospitable and gave us plenty of sweets. Jen liked how clean their home is and how good it smelled. It's the same home that I went to when I was a kid. It's like going back in time. The girls loved all their dolls and books. I enjoyed looking at their photos of their Prague trip last summer.
In the morning we stopped by Pocatello to see my grandparents' graves. My Grandpa McOmber was a dairy farmer and my Grandma McOmber was a city girl from Prague, kind of like a real life Green Acres relationship. They were a great example of what marriage should be. I never met Grandpa since he died 9 months before I was born. I like to think we gave each other high fives as he returned and as I left the spirit world.

Then we drove to Logan and on the way we had to stop in Preston to see the home of Napolean Dynamite. We even stopped at the actual DI from the movie, but it was closed so we didn't go in.


Then off to the wedding at the Logan Temple. It was fun. Alissa is from a big family so there were Alissa clones everywhere. We were happy to see most of Jen's family who drove up from Utah and Salt Lake Counties. Thanks for the babysitting!


It was a good trip except the $3.93 dollar gas. We saw gas prices range from $3.85 to $4.09. Yikes.

Here's a little video of the Logan Temple, if you've made it this far down on this long post.