update

i'm not so good at this blog thing huh?   that's okay. I'll just have to keep trying.  Selene turned two years old in august,  and is so much fun.   She has moved to her "big girl " room,  and sleeps in a big bed now, and she does surprisingly well.   she stays in bed all night usually. We have another baby on the way,  and she will be arriving the end of may.    we couldn't be happier to have another girl. . . .boys intimidate me,  and I think we are doing a pretty good job with the girl we have,   so another girl is definitly welcome.  Matt's business is doing quite well.   we have just got benefits,  which is a huge relief.   they have a sales guy who is doing a great job,  and they are adding new customers every week.  we are all sick right now,  and it is proving to be tough to get this to go away. . . . matt and I are both on antibiotics to try and get it gone.  which is saying something when they put you on antibiotics while you are pregnant. . . . they are afraid mine was turning into pnumonia.    Whitnee got married in july. . . that was fun.   she's living in pocatello now. i'd give you pictures,   but it doesn't want to cooperate.

ABC's

A - Age 31
B - Bed size : King
C - Chore you hate: cleaning the kitchen
D - Doughnuts : krispy Kreme original glazed hot off the convair belt
E - Essential start you day item: Trip to the bathroom.
F - Favorite color: purple /pink depends on what it is on I guess.
G - Gold or silver : silver
H - height : 5' 3"
I - Instruments you play: piano, organ, guitar ( very little), violin, and just started to learn the cello.
J - Jokes or rhymes: jokes ( I wish I could remember more clean ones )
K - Kids : 1 beautiful little girl . hopefully more in the future.
L - Living arrangements : in a house
M - Movie : love movies. too many favorites to name.
N - Nicknames : ted, teddy, teddybear, hair, harry, heifer
O - overnight hospital stays: after having Selene
P - Pet Peeve: grocery carts left in parking lots, although I do understand that better now that I have a kid. . . . sometimes you have to leave them. also I hate it when little children look like orphans but there parents look like they just stepped out of the salon. . . I see it too often.
Q - Quote you like : you know your in love when you don't want to go to sleep because reality is far better than your dreams " dr. suess.
R - Right or left handed : right handed
S - Siblings : 3 brothers 1 sister Jesse, Casey, Beau, Whitnee
T - Time you wake up " usually around 8 am. . . I just let selene wake me up
U - Underwear : always
V- Vegetables you dislike : I cooked up some eggplant this year, and it was not good.
W - Ways you run late . . . every sunday morning. I just wait to long to get into the shower. Usually I like to be a few minutes early to everything.
X - X-rays you've had : my Head. when I was like probably 14, I tried to do a back flip into the pool, but I flipped to hard, and turned all the way around and landed with my face on the cement. broke my nose. . . . it hurt and it's a little crooked. . .
Y - Yummy food you make: alfredo
Z - zodiac sign : Sagitarius

Pictures taken over thanksgiving

the kids were done at this point.

Oh our family is growing. . . . love it. ( all the other kids are Casey and Miriah's in case anyone was wondering 3 year old twin girls, and then two boys, one nine months older than selene, and one nine months younger than selene. )

this child is obsessed with dogs. . . . and we will probably never get one. . . sorry selene. . just have to settle for grandma and grandpa's dog.

bathtime with cousins is always fun.

tinkerbell for halloween ( I love the disney store and all their great sales. )

birthday cake

Birthday presents

Boy I sure do take my time getting around to these blogs don't I. I can sit for hours looking at other peoples blogs, but mine gets pushed to the back. I think it's because I don't really have much to say, and I don't want to expose the real me too much. If you knew how I really was, and how I think realllllly weird things, you might be scared. . . we're all a little weird in our own way though aren't we. for example. I think of weird scary scenarios and what I would need to survive them. like where would I hide if murderer's came to my house. where would I hide my food and money if I had to, and if there was no electricity and we were in a state of civil war, how would I survive. . . everything from food to home made soap and sanitary napkins. . . okay that one was probably a little too much info for you, but that would be a concern. Did you know I'm completely obsessed with Martha Stewart. I like the idea of doing things myself, having a functional household, and being an amazing cook. . . . I have a long way to go with all of those. I'm thinking about taking some cooking classes to get a little better. I'm always very disappointed at the recipes that are demonstrated on TV, and some of the ones found on the internet. I think I am a picky cook. People rave about it, and then I cook it, and I'm like . . ."well . . . it's okay, but it sure isn't anything to rave about. ". I watched Julie and Julia tonight, and I'm thinking I should try my hand at french cooking. I do love butter after all.

I ramble a lot, but it's just what's on my mind. ooohh back to martha stewart. . . I got her book, "Home Keeping Handbook", and I can't put it down. it talks about how to care for anything, it talks about preventative maintenance, and it's like 700 pages. . . Matt got it for me for christmas, and he hasn't had a chance to wrap it yet, because I keep looking at it and reading it. . . . .Love it. I'm a bit worried to get her cook books because I'm afraid of being disappointed . My Lion house cook books are my favorite, Maybe I should just pick a recipe a day to make out of those. I haven't been disappointed by them yet.

a few weeks ago, a christmas package arrived for matt. ( it was for me, but it was ordered by him) I really like surprises, and I didn't want to know what it was, so I told him I would be really careful not to look at the return address so I wouldn't know what store it came from. I tried so hard, but directly on the box, in HUGE letters was the word "CELLO". . . I started freaking out, I have wanted a cello for 3 years now. . . I have obsessed about it, I have dreamed about it. . . . and my most amazing wonderful husband bought one for me. so I get to learn. . . I'm way exceited. ( he had me open the box when he got home anyway. I told him I knew what it was, and could I pretty please open it. . .. . ) I love christmas. I'm waiting for my instruction books I bought off of amazon, and they are taking forever . . . . guess they have to compete with all the christmas cards going out . . . . .

a girl and her dad

Selene is most definitly a daddy's girl. she has his toenails. she has his ability to fall asleep almost anywear



this is Matt asleep in a toybox




Matt works from home alot, and Selene enjoys going into his office and playing. If either one of us is working on a computer, she wants to help. She is really good at turning on options we didn't know existed by pressing random keys.



My garden this year was pretty pathetic. We got it in way too late, as we were waiting for the grass seed to take before we walked on it. pictured below, is a jalepeno plant. there are a few jalapenos on it, and then these tomatoe looking things . . . .anybody know if those are normal, we were kind of wondering if there was some cross polination going on, as it was right next to a tomatoe plant.
My zuccini plant has finally taken, but I don't think we are going to get any zuccini before it starts to freeze. My radishes have grown really well, and I have gotten one tomatoe. my lettuce is growing pretty well, but my carrots are not. they have leaves, but no roots. My strawberry plants are growing really well, but are bearing no fruit. I know what the problem is. . . . . the soil. the soil where I live has a ton of clay in it. next summer I am going to get some Mels Mix soil and fill my garden with it. . . that stuff is supposed to be able to grow anything. so better luck next year I guess. I hate vegetables out of the store. I think they are gross. tomorrow I am off to Idaho with Selene for a family reunion. I am way excited to go, but I hate that I am leaving Matt here.

Matt's company is doing great. It looks like they are going to be getting funding, and will probably be building an office building across from thanksgiving point. Its getting very exciting for us. Hopefully it will all work out for the best.

9 month appt

I took Selene in for her 9 month appointment today ( only two months late ) anyway . . . even at two months late, she is only 17 lbs 6 oz. she isn't quite gaining weight the way that they would like. I think it is because she is crawling and trying to walk so much. she is a really good eater though. she likes to stand up in her crib now. I have to get the mattress lowered today. But her standing up is making it a bit harder to get her to sleep at night. . . I lay her down, and she immediatly starts crawling towards the end of the crib so she can stand up . she's pretty proud of herself for being able to stand up . she also claps alot and points at things. . . actually she does a lot of pointing at complete strangers while we are out shopping. yeah, that's all I have for now.

update

I'm not so great at this blog thing . . . but here's an update . . . things with matt's company are really starting to pick up well. If all goes as planned, he will be getting a raise soon. ( don't hold your breath though ) We may also be getting a new piano. I am pretty excited about that. I have a little roland electric piano thing that I bought a few years after I moved to utah, that I will get rid of if that happens ( if I get my grand piano, and you want my old one, and are willing to come pick it up . . . it's yours ) . We are looking at grand piano's ( because that is what I love ) . and it will have to go in matt's office, and his office will move to one of the downstairs bedrooms. We are looking at probably a used steinway or a new boston. we'll see what I like and what we think is reasonable if and when this raise comes through. When we were looking, one of the sales people told me that while the steinways were nice, they would be compared to like a lexus, where his ( mason & hamlin - also very nice, but a third of the cost of a steinway ) was more comparable to a bentley . . . at that moment, I knew he was going to only tell me what he thought I wanted to hear in order to make the sale, and at that moment , I decided I was leaning more toward the steinway company . . . . . sorry, I'm a bit of a music geek sometimes.

We are also looking at upgrading to a ford expedition. ( I married into a ford family ... . my family just buys whatever they get a good deal on, but we seem to be all ford around here . . . I don't mind though . . . I like ford ) The tags on our explorer expire at the end of this month, and I know if I renew them, we will get a new vehicle like a week later ( we always seem to buy new vehicles right after we have put a bunch of money into the old ones. )

Matt is going to go to Hawaii on a business trip, and I may be going with him at no cost to me . . . . but I am having serious reservations about leaving my 11 month old . She will be with my parents, so she will be just fine, but I have trouble enjoying going on dates when she's home with a babysitter ( and we have some really great babysitters) , how am I going to handle being a plane ride away from her. we have to get her weaned onto cow's milk before then too. ( my mom told me it was time to wean her anyway when she heard I was still nursing her. . . ha ha ha ) ( she's just about 11 months old )

Selene is pulling herself up to standing position now, and she is crawling well. she also . . . . okay, I don't know what else I was going to say . . . . that's us for now.

down 8 pounds in 7 days

freaking awesome. . . nothing like good weight loss to encourage you to go another week. I have lost 8 pounds in the last week . . . granted a good portion of it is probably water weight. . . fine by me. . . all I have done is ate well ( biggest loser type diet . . . lots of fruits and vegetables, and some lean protein and whole grains ) , and worked out 4 of the 7 days. . ( need to make it five, but I got lazy on saturday ) . . the nice thing about where I live, there are a LOT of hills. so I walk up the hill as high as I can, then I wind back and forth through the streets to get back home . . . try to make it about an hour. I'm sure this is probably the biggest weight loss I will see in a single week, but it sure is nice to get a jump start on it.

off to take Selene to the doctor . I think she has an ear infection. . . she's had a bit of a fever for the last 3 or 4 days, and I'm pretty sure she's not teething. she's also been waking up crying every morning for the last week or so. . . .. very out of character for her.

what can I say, there's not a whole lot else going on right now . .. . My house is a disaster, and I've decided I have to just get rid of stuff. . . the biggest problem is my kitchen. . . .I don't need 4 sets of plates, 50 cups, or rusted pans that aren't really safe to cook in anyway. . . . time to box stuff up for later and throw away the trash. having that much stuff just allows my kitchen to get reallllly dirty before I clean it. . . .with less, I will be forced to at least do dishes once a day.