Flash Back

I was looking through our pictures and I came across this picture of Jack on Halloween and I couldn't stop laughing. What a SILLY LITTLE LION!!!

A to Z Tag

A to Z Tag

A- Attached or Single: attached
B- Best Friend: JACK , Shawn and Scout
C- Cake or Pie: I'm not a big fan of either, but I guess I like pumpkin pie.
D- Day of Choice: Saturday
E- Essential Item: contacts ( I'm super blind), baby wipes, and gold fish ( not for me, but for jack, they are a life saver when we are out and about.)
F- Favorite Color: black or brown
G- Gummy Bears or Worms: neither, they hurt my teeth when I eat them
H- Hometown: Lehi, Utah and St. George I've lived in both places for about the same amount of time.
I- Indulgences: chips and salsa
J- January or July: July
K- Kids: Jack ( 11 months)
L- Life is incomplete without: Family and religion
M- Marriage Date: December 31st, 2004
N- Number of Siblings: 1 sisters, 1 brother
O- Oranges or Apples: oranges
P- Phobias or Fears: Small spaces and really large spaces.
Q- Quote: " ain't this livin..."
R- Reason to Smile: My spunky little Jack
S- Something New: Our rug in our front room.
T- Tag: Who ever gets this far and isn't really board already
U- Unknown Fact About Me: I can't think of anything cool right now.....
V- Vegetarian or Oppressor Of Animal: I say the more meat the better.
W- Worst Habit: picking at my face ( gross I know)
X- X-Rays or Ultrasounds: ultrasounds, I guess, what a weird question.
Y- Your Favorite Food: artichokes, steak, and any thing Mexican
Z- Zoo Animal: hippo

There's a little Cowboy in all of us

Jack got to spend Saturday with Grandpa Cash. He had so much fun just hanging out with him. I have the coolest dad. He offered to take Jack so that my mom and sister could have a girls afternoon. ( I have the coolest mom too, she paid for me and my sis to get pedicures and manicures, thanks mom) Jack has always loved to be with his grandpa. When Jack gets big enough I'm sure that he will be begging me to go and ride horses with Grandpa and I doubt grandpa will mind, he has been waiting for a little BUCKAROO to come along that would follow in his footsteps.

Happy Birthday Carly!!!!

It's My sister Carly's 27th Birthday tomorrow. It feels like it was yesterday we were rocking together on our horse singing horsey horsey. Carly has always been there for me, she is smart, beautiful, kind, funny, and most of all a great sister and friend. Hope you have a great one Car, love ya.

Soaking Up the Sun

This story is told from my point of view, well kind of....





This is my friend Alice. She came to the park with me today. She is a little bit older than me but we are good friends. Alice can walk and I thought it was so funny to see her walking around. Sometimes I even laughed. It was fun at the park but it was super hot. My favorite part about the park was the happy meal my mom bought me. I love to eat. I figured out how to drink from a straw today, good thing because it was hot and I was thirsty. I had to teach Alice that it wasn't scary in the swing. She was scared at first but when she saw me swing she wasn't scared any more. Thanks for meeting me at the park it was super fun. See ya next time.

I headed home and took a long nap. Playing in the sun is a lot of hard work. When I woke up My mom told me that my friend Sadie was coming over. Well... to tell the truth I've never met her, but my mom says she's pretty cool. Sadie's mom use to work with my mom and her dad served his mission with my dad, weird huh. Right when Sadie got to my house my mom gave her a cheerio and she coked on it. It was scary, but don't worry she coughed it up and she was fine. I got to have strawberries for dinner. Strawberries are my favorite. As you can see I get really messy when I eat them, so my mom makes me eat them naked. I don't really care because I think I look really tough with my shirt off.

We got to go back to the park after dinner. It was a lot cooler but there were so... many people! I finally got a turn on the swing and my mom had this great idea to put me and Sadie in the same swing. I guess it was cool.

I got to go down the little slide all by my self. I like to go down on my tummy. The best part about this park trip was when me and Sadie got to go down the slide with our mom and dad. It was really fast and Sadie and I were really scared, but not as scared as my dad and her mom. Oh boy it was a fun day.

What is Happiness

We all want different things, need different things, and get different things. I seem to waste a lot of time looking at other peoples blogs, and I catch myself thinking, I wish I had that, or I wish I looked like that, I wish we were at that stage in life, or I wish I would have got that degree or I wish I could go on those cool trips or live in those cool places. In some ways it inspires me to be better.

Last week Shawn and I were looking at friends blogs and we came across one of his old girlfriends blogs. I have always been a tiny bit jealous of this girl, she is just so....... perfect. We looked at it for a minute. Then slowly this horrible amount of jealousy came over me. I didn't want Shawn to see it because I felt like I didn't compare to her. I've though about that girl a few time in the past week and I had this erg to get back on her blog and prove to myself that she wasn't that perfect. So today I got back on and I started to search. I was hoping to find some horribly ugly picture of her or something on there that would make me feel better about myself. But just my luck she didn't have one bad picture, not even the picture of her just after she gave birth looked bad. But I slowly started to realize what an amazingly happy person she was. And instead of me feeling better because I found some dirt on her, I started to feel better because she inspired me. Her gorgeously white smile was because she was happy. She doesn't worry what others think, she doesn't bring others down to lift herself up. She has a spirit about her that I hope I can also have. So thanks "Shawn's Old Girlfriend" for the inspiration to be a better person.

Hey kind of on a different subject but also to do with happiness I think you should all read this talk given by Elder M. Russell Ballard. Click (even if you just heard it) It helped me to see how important my life on this earth is. It also helped me realize how valuable each precious moments is with the ones I love. ( I love you guys, you know who you are)


Author Anna Quindlen reminds us not to rush past the fleeting moments. She said: “The biggest mistake I made [as a parent] is the one that most of us make. . . . I did not live in the moment enough. This is particularly clear now that the moment is gone, captured only in photographs. There is one picture of [my three children] sitting in the grass on a quilt in the shadow of the swing set on a summer day, ages six, four, and one. And I wish I could remember what we ate, and what we talked about, and how they sounded, and how they looked when they slept that night. I wish I had not been in such a hurry to get on to the next thing: dinner, bath, book, bed. I wish I had treasured the doing a little more and the getting it done a little less”(Loud and Clear [2004], 10–11).

Tag I'm it!

5 Things On My To Do List:

1. Clean out our Office

2. Organize my house

3. Finish Dr. Beckstrom's news letter

4. Clean our bathrooms ( I hate that job)

5. Make Dinner

5 Jobs I've had:

1. Polo

2. Sun Stop

3. Dr. Olsen's/Dental Assistant

4. Dr. Ott's/Dental Assistant

5. Dr. Beckstrom/ Receptionist

Places I've Lived:

1. Lehi, UT (Born- 13)

2. St. George, UT(13....)

3. Cedar City, UT(one semester of College, sweet huh)

4. Hurricane (one year when we were first married, actually it was at the very edge of Wash. but our address was hurricane.)

5. And now back in St. George

Favorite Snacks:

1. Fruit snacks

2. Potato Chips and dill pickle dip

3. Bubble teas (any flavor)

4. Chips and salsa

5. Grape fruits

Things I Would Do if I Were A Billionaire

1. Build a house that is built just for me.

2. Pay off all of my extended families debts

3. Buy a huge wardrobe of really cool clothes and jewelry and shoes

4. Have Shawn not work so he could be with me and Jack during the day.

5. Go on really cool family vacations

5 Things you Don't Know About Me

1. We are moving into My Grandparents house while they are on a mission to SLC. We are renting our town home if anyone is interested.

2. The first time Shawn kissed me I told him to go home.

3. I love to sing really loud when I am all by myself, and I think I sound good.

4. I love to read about really weird stories, like murders and abductions.

5. I am a really bad back seat drive, Shawn hates it.

I tag Carly, Emily, and Errin

JACK MEETS LAS VEGAS

So we decided we wanted to take a short family vacation this past weekend. So we thought about it and we wanted to go to the beach but, it's a long drive, the water is cold and Jack would probably just want to eat the sand. Then we thought about going to visit Shawn's sister in Oregon, but the flights weren't as cheap as they normally are. So we took our last option and headed to the smoke filled, casino loving, buffet galore, capital of the world, Las Vegas, Nevada. I think Jack was the only child in the entire hotel. We forgot that it was SPRING BREAK around the country so, there were a lot of really interesting people there. But we did have a lot of fun.

We got to eat at the Rain Forest Cafe. Jack loved the animals and the water fountain but most of all he loved the volcano dessert we got.

We also went to see the SHARK REEF, it was so cool. There were so many different kinds of fish and we even got to touch some of them. Jack liked the sharks. He got to lean against the glass and have the sharks come right up next to him.

We went to the flower gardens. They were so pretty and amazing, Shawn promised me and Jack that someday we would have a backyard like that. (Not asking to much, right)

Jack got to go on a date with this Grandma Lambert Saturday night. (Shawn's mom works in Las Vegas) They got to go to McDonald's, eat by the pool and play in the bath tub. What an awesome Grandma.(Thanks)

In the mean time Shawn and I got to have a night on the town by ourselves. We ate at the New York New York casino at a tex mex place. It was super good. Then of course Shawn wanted to gamble for a second but I didn't bring my purse, and who would guess that I got ID'd, so that didn't last long. So we decide to do what every 23 and 26 year olds love to do, we went to the arcade. Then we ended the date by stopping by Cold Stone Ice Cream and getting cotton candy ice cream with gummy bears. (What adults leave their children to go to an arcade and get gummy bear Ice cream.) I love that Shawn is still a kid at heart, I'm sure Jack will love it to when he gets older.

We had one last day of adventure, we went to the I-max theater and watched Sea Monsters. I though Jack would hate it but he just sat on my lap the whole time and hardly made a peep. He kept looking over at Shawn in this big glasses and smiling.

We spent time at the pool while we were there also, but no pictures. Jack loves the water even if it cold. Jack was quite the little trooper. He was so... tired he slept the whole way home.

Jack is still trying to catch up on his sleep, today on our walk he fell asleep in the stroller. When I laid him in his bed he looked at me for a second then grabbed his thumb put it in his mouth, then he thought wait I still have some cheerios in my other hand those sound better so he quickly shoved them in this mouth and then fell back to sleep.
One last thing, Shawn got a picture with ummm... I forgot his name, I had never heard of him. But if I remember right he said he was a super great baseball player, had the most hit or runs or something cool.
Oh yeah and one more last thing, Shawn also won $200 bucks, and almost paid for the whole trip. (well, not counting the Hotel.)

So I come to you for advise....

This is probably totally stupid to most of you but, I love to be on a schedule, and so does Jack. So our day goes as follows... we wake up around 7:00 and from there we eat and play then we go on a walk with Scout at 9:00. When we get in I give Jack a bath, then he takes his morning nap at 10:00. Jack sleeps for 1 1/2-2 hours. He is really use to this and he likes it this way. So here is my problem. There is this swim lesson I want to take Jack to, but it starts at 10:00 and goes for 2 weeks so... If I take him before his nap he will be crabby the whole time, but if I nap him before he won't be tired. See my point. So you experienced mothers I need some help.

One other think Shawn's family goes to Lake Powell every year on a house boat. I have been so worried to bring Jack. The water is so gross and I know I will be worried about him falling in the whole time. You guys are all thinking I'm some insane weird mother now. But my family was not raised going to Lake Powell and so it makes me really nervous. I swear everyone I talk to is like oh you have to go it won't be a big deal just watch him, ( in the same sentence) my sister fell in when she was little and almost drowned but you'll be fine, just watch him. Oh that makes me feel really good! So help me. I know Jack can't live in this sheltered world his whole life, on a perfect time schedule, but I'm just trying to make life simple. Well.....