Elf Yourself!!!!

You gotta check this out! It is so funny! Watch mine and then you can make your own too! ENJOY!!!! Merry Christmas!!!!


http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1430452985

TAGGED!!!!

I've actually been tagged by two people at the same time but I'm only doing this once! I really wish I had more interesting things to say but here I go.

1. I really don't worry about Doug when he's at work that much. Everyone always wants to know how I manage to not go insane with worry. I've learned not to think about the "what ifs" because if I spent every night thinking about all the scary things that could happen while he is on duty then I would have to be committed to a mental institution. I choose to be supportive of him and his chosen career and to be proud of him for the things that he has accomplished as a police officer. I love to hear his stories and his impersonations of people he comes in contact with. Police officers have this whole different language that I've begun to learn but every once in a while I have to ask him what the heck he's talking about! LOL! Recently he arrested a man who had committed several rapes in the area. Doug received a letter of commendation for making that arrest. It makes me so proud of him to know that he is good at what he does and that he's out there making things safer every time he goes to work.

2. I want to go to culinary school and become a pastry chef and open a bakery some day! I've always been fascinated with cake decorating and various patries and desserts and I have just wanted to learn all of those things. Plus Visalia really needs a good bakery! Maybe I'll get there some day. I'm in love with the show "Ace of Cakes" on food network and I also love to see the cake decorating competitions they show sometimes! It amazes me the things that they can do with cake and icing and fondant and gum paste and sugar!

3. Fragile X info cards saved many people from being verbally assaulted for their comments about David in the past 5 years. I used to get so angry at some of the things that people would say about David. It's not as bad as it used to be because he is more in control due to more maturity and the right meds but we still get comments. I just hate the dirty looks and the nasty, snide remarks about how he behaved or how he talked or that he was crying or whatever, they were just jabs at him and at me as a mother and I resented every single one of them. I still do. There are still some incidents that stick in my mind that if I remember it for some reason one day I still get pretty upset by them. David's big for his age so people always assume he's at least a year older than he is if not 2 years older. He also doesn't look "different" so they don't know there's a reason for the way he is. I've learned so much from being his mom. I know that before I had kids I would judge other people for the way their kids were behaving and now I just realize that you never know what is going on with a child. You never know if that child might be autistic or have some other "issue" like Fragile X or something else that makes life harder for them than for the rest of us. I have learned that you can't judge anyone because you just never know. People judge me and they judge David and it hurts. He is the sweetest little boy I've ever met and those people who can't see through the crying and the tantrums and see the real David are missing out because he is super special to me. So back to the cards, when I found them I was at my boiling point with people in general so I got them and I learned to carry them with me everywhere and if someone made a comment or gave a dirty look or if someone was extra nice to David, I gave them a card. Some people are surprised and say they had no idea. Some apologize. Some are snooty and just walk away. Some are still rude. But at least I know I did my part to spread the word about Fragile X that day and hopefully someday the world will be more accepting of David and Jonathan and all the other kids who are different all over the world.

4. I love to cross stitch! I am picky about the projects I'll do because I am not going to do it just to do it. I have to be motivated to finish it so I can give it away or put it up in my house, which I have never actually finished one that I've started for myself. I have 3 in progress right now for myself but I just haven't finished them. One was started 9 years ago, another was started about 6 years ago and the most recent one I started about a month ago. For some reason I just keep giving them away and I never finish the ones for myself. I am determined to finish at least one of them in the coming year though!

5. I like those teeny bopper kids shows on Disney and Nichelodeon, like Hannah Montana, Drake & Josh, and that one with Jamie Lynn Spears on it. Can't think of the name of it right now! I only watch them if the kids are watching them but I secretly like watching them. I think they are clever and funny and yet still clean!

6. I'm addicted to those Variety Puzzle books that you get at the grocery store. They have lots of different kinds of games in them and I go through and do the ones I like and then get new ones! I am always looking for the new ones to come out cause I've gone through the ones I have so fast that I don't have any more to do until the new books are on the shelves! I like the word puzzles mostly but I also like the sudoku puzzles and the logic puzzles although I almost never get the logic puzzles right and I end up giving up on them cause I can't figure them out.


Ok... Now I am tagging Melissa Dixon, Aisha Fish, Jamie Pace, Mom, Meagan and Nicki(guess you better start a blog if you haven't yet)!

The Big 3-0!!!!

Well, Doug and I finally turned 30 this year. We didn't get a chance to do anything for Doug's birthday back in October so we decided to have a party for both of us right after my birthday. We invited family and friends and had a great time! We even had a cake! Baskin Robbins chocolate cake with mint chip ice cream! We had dinner, pot luck style, and then we ate birthday cake and then we talked and played Cranium! It was a blast! Thank you to those who were able to come and join our celebration!

The Amazing Developments of the Great Jonathan Wright

Our little Mr. Jonathan is growing like leaps and bounds and progressing more and more every day! He's so amazing and he makes everyone around him smile. Just one month ago he was barely learning to sit up unassisted and since then he has progressed even more. After he learned to sit up alone, he learned to change from sitting to any other position and back again. Then he started crawling which is amazing! He crawled before even 10 months old! Then he started pulling himself up to standing in his crib and then he started doing it on other furniture too. Now he's started to cruise along the sides of his crib and around his exersaucer. He still loves to sit in his exersaucer but he doesn't just sit there anymore or simply spin around to look at and play with all the different things. Nope. Now he JUMPS! He jumps in there and rocks the thing back and forth so hard that I swear he could tip it over if it didnt' have the little feet on it to keep it stable! He just thinks it's so much fun! He also has started talking a little bit. He says "mama", "dada", "do(g)" and "nana". We think we heard him say "no" once but he hasn't really said it since. He also loves the dog and cats now. He will sneak up on Aden and climb all over him and he loves it. He ends up with fistfulls of fur when he's done but we just wash his hands and he's all good!
He is also learning to play games. He and Nathan play this game when Jonathan is in his crib. Jonathan pulls up and stands at the side and then Nathan gives him a book. Jonathan holds the book for a few seconds and then he drops it. Nathan stars laughing and then Jonathan starts laughing and lets go and falls down in the crib! Then they do it all over again. It's hilarious to watch them. He laughs so hard.

He is a complete joy to our entire family! David and Nathan adore him and are constantly competing for time to play with him. They are starting to learn to share him but it's hard for them! His smile spreads across his whole face and his eyes light up and you can't help but adore him!

A Mexican Getaway!

The resort was beautiful and it was wonderful to get away with Doug, without the kids and just have a good time with the family. Doug and I hit the ground running when we got there. Mom, Dad, Mike, Melissa, Beckham, Meagan, Nathan and Mandy picked us up at the airport and we went straight to Xel-Ha to swim with the dolphins. I'll post pics of that when I get copies of them but it was an incredible experience. We were able to get them to do tricks, and then just sit there in the water while they swam around us. We got to pet them and then they had us all do a "foot push" where they come up and push you through the water with their noses! It was so awesome! After that we went back to the resort to clean up and crash for the night. Wish we could have spent more time at Xel-Ha because there was so much more to do there but maybe we can do that next time! Here's the view from our balcony at the resort.

The next day was Sunday so we just relaxed around the resort. I spent a lot of my time on our "relax" days, painting ceramics. It was very relaxing to me and I knew if I spent too much time in the sun I would get burned and I really didn't want that. I painted way more than anyone else and they all teased me for it but that's ok. It was fun and relaxing to me! Everyone else spent the day napping, laying by the pool or swimming. That night we went out to dinner and had a great time. Lots of virgin Margaritas, Pina Coladas and Daquiris!

Monday we went to Chichen Itza and saw the amazing Mayan ruins there! It was a amazing to me to see where an ancient civilization lived and worked and to walk in that same place! The structures were amazing and the things we learned from our guide were fascinating. They said there are 2000 columns in the Thousand Columns Group (center pictures) which is right next to the Temple of the Warriors. It was a little strange to see all the vendors lining all the walkways selling all kinds of different things. Doug and I bought a chess set made of stone that is really pretty. Doug's gonna teach me to play chess now.

Tuesday was a relax day again. Wednesday we went to Tulum and saw more Mayan ruins. They were very interesting too and in a very different setting than Chichen Itza. Chichen Itza is in a jungle and Tulum is right on a cliff overlooking the ocean! It was beautiful! I loved there that you could see the stone bases of where their homes used to be. It was amazing.

We went home on Friday. I think we were all ready to go home by then. Ready to sleep in our own beds. Doug and I were really missing the kids by then. We were glad to get home but it was hard to get back into the swing of things again, all the daily routines. It was good to see the kids again though!

Nathan's a Soccer Star!

Soccer season ended last weekend but Nathan loved it! He was the fastest runner on his team and he really enjoyed it and got into the competition of it in the end. The games were a little crazy because the kids are so young that they don't really know much about the rules of the game or anything yet. They also allowed parents to go on the field during the games so it got a little interesting at times. There just seemed to be a giant glob of kids and parents moving around the field all together at once! Nathan did really well and got better every week. In his last game he scored 2 goals! After the last game they had a pizza party where the kids all got pizza and cake. The city's rec department provided a certificate for the kids but one of the dads had trophies made for each of the kids with their names on them and everything. Nathan is so proud of his trophy that he has been sleeping with it at night. He'll kill me for telling anyone that when he gets older!

Trick or Treat!

We had a great Halloween. Both the older boys were Power Rangers. David was the Blue Ranger and Nathan was the Red Ranger and Jonathan was a super cute little scarecrow! First we went to our ward party in the orchard. We had chili and cornbread and the kids played for a while but when it started to get dark we decided to head out cause David has not done well in the past with the whole dark haunted orchard thing. So... We headed to Grandma & Grandpa's neighborhood for some trick or treating and the boys came out with some great loot which Doug and I promptly "sorted" (read: took some of the stuff we like!) and then they did pretty well at not eating it all in one day this year which was good. Jonathan was ready for bed by the time we got to the trick or treating so he just chilled in his stroller and was happy to get his costume off when we got back to Grandma & Grandpa's house. He got his Halloween jammies on and went to sleep after a bit. It was a late night but we had fun. David didn't get as scared this year as he did last year and he was really excited to go up to the doors. Last year he stayed back at the sidewalk at a lot of houses that had decorations and stuff. Progress!