The greatest performer!

Well I'm very sad know that Michael Jackson passed away this past Thursday. What an amazing man and performer. I remember watching this superbowl performance when I was 10 years old. There's never been a better half-time show since! I think this is the way I want to always remember him. :)

Baby on the way...

Sadly, I've said goodbye to my Michael Jackson blog facelift. ::sheds a tear:: But on to bigger and better things! We have been blessed recently to find out we're expecting again! I would do a happy dance but then the nausea would kick in stronger and make me do things I don't want to do. Despite the all of the fun pregnancy symtoms (nausea, heightened sense of smell, weird cravings, sleepiness, lazyness, gas??) we are all very happy! Ethan can't wait for a little brother or sister. I would love to find out the baby is a girl, but I know I'll be happy either way!

I've got plenty of other things to share, but seeing as how sitting at the computer makes me feel sick, we'll see how well I do at posting over the next few weeks.

If I had to...

If I had to choose one artist that I could only listen to their music for the rest of my life, it would be easy for me! The King of Pop himself, Michael Jackson. I used to go to my room, close the door, flip on 'They don't care about us' and rock out!

Last night, American Idol had 'Michael Jackson' night and it seemed to stir up all my memories of dancing in the living room to 'Thriller' and 'Man in the Mirror' with my sisters.

You can say what you want about his personal life, but when it comes to performing, he's number one! Dance, song beat, energy, he has it all! He always does something crazy when he performs live on stage. One of my favs was when he came together with Britney Spears in '02 for 'the way you make me feel'. Two of my favorite artists!

And who can forget Captain EO the 3d movie at disney land for all those years! So awesome! I hope he never stops making music and performing. I would die to go to one of his live concerts! Anyone hear about one coming anywhere near AZ, you must inform me!

Thanks MJ!

I hear wedding bells!

Yay! My little brother just got back from his mission is Novemember and his sweet peach girlfriend Brittany waited for him. When he came home, they started off right where they left off, and now they're getting married in March. Jordan and Brit are such a perfect couple. You can't be in the same room with them without feelin' the love! She's amazing and we'll be so happy to call her sister!

Yay!

So I recently designed some ads for one of my favorite clients. Lora Jenson, little did I know, she's a genius, so here's what one of the ads looks like:

Well I designed the ads, and chose the slogan "Easy, fun, you're done." and went about my daily life again putting Ethan in diapers just fine. Well then Lora so graceously sent me the Ebook. So I thought I would try it! WOW! A week later Ethan has gone a whole day without having any accidents! Was it easy or fun? No! Did it happen in just three days? No! But am I done potty training Ethan, YES! I am so happy that I did it. And I'm so grateful for my husband who didn't let me quit when I tried like 10 times! He just kept telling me it would be worth it. And the relief I feel right now is amazing!

I'm a busy mom, like most, and I think in the beginning I did not put as much focus into my child as he needed in order to complete the task in 3 days. Now I know for my next child what needs to be done. I wish I could send the Ebook to all of you out there, but I need to give credit where credit is due, so go to here site and purchase the Ebook: http://www.3daypottytraining.com/. You'll be happy you did!

On a side note, Joe and I played twister last sunday while Joe's brother Jeff called out the next move for us, I think he had it in for us, however because look at this horrendous pose we were forced in to:

We laughed until we cried, and then fell down. (I love how one of Ethan's cars is in any photo I take inside my house anymore, they're everywhere!)

Christmas Through your eyes

I had fun designing this year's Christmas Card. Here's the final front.

Inside Spread.

Back. The paper was a glossy cardstock. So cute!

This year, Joe and I decided to take the lights off of our old pre-lit tree so we could put new ones on. Hours and several severs to the hands later, we vowed never to do that again. I think we'll try a 'real' tree next year. It was a great bonding experience though. :)

We did the luminaries down our street and through part of the neighborhood this year. It's such a fun activity for Christmas eve! All of the neighborhood kids look forward to helping me fold the sacks and put the sand and candle in.

This is the beautiful Christmas lights Joe put on the house this year. I just love them! Ethan took one look at Daddy's Christmas light extravaganza and said, "It's so beautiful!" He could have stared at them all day long.

This is our Christmas lights on drugs! Much cooler!

Ethan on Christmas morning! When we went to visit Santa at the mall, he told him he wanted toys for Christmas, but I don't think he really expected to wake up one random morning and see all sorts of fun toys and gifts. I woke up Chistmas morning feeling SO SICK! So I got to be the photographer. :)

Ethan and his Christmas spoil of sorts!Barbie apparently has something against Santa Claus.

What's left of Santa!!

Ethan turns two!

Yes I've got a two year old on my hands. It's seems the day he turned two, I started noticing that two year old mentality come out! Picky eater, fits, loves to say 'no', doesn't like naps...so lets celebrate this new stage of life shall we?

This was one of the funnest parties I've been to in a long time! It required all of us to become two years old again, because Mommy (me) made sure that we did all of Ethan's favorite activities!

Agenda:

-play with clay

-snacks

-bubbles

-open presents

-cake time

-dance party!!!

Ethan turns into a crazy nut when we we blow bubbles! Angie made a comment about eating the bubbles, so Ethan started crawling all over the grass in search tasty bubble treats!

We did the HOKEY POKEY! I purchased a cd from the party store with all kinds of fun party songs, Ethan ran around in circles while all of the rest of us made fools of ourselfs doing the hokey pokey and the chicken dance! It reminded me of those fun days at Skateland!

That's what it's all about...yeehaw!

My Favorite Twilight Quote

I FINALLY read these books in like a couple of weeks. It took me like a whole year to read a Harry Potter book so I thought I was a slow reader, but APARENTLY I was reading the wrong books!

              

I hate it to jump on any bandwagon, but I have to admit, I have created my own little obsession with this story and the fact that there's a movie opening this week, is just too much to handle!

              



Here's one of my favorite quotes from the story:

              



“Bella, I’ve already expended a great deal of personal effort to keep you alive. I’m not about to let you behind the wheel of a vehicle when you can’t even walk straight. Besides, friends don’t let friends drive drunk,”“Drunk?”“You’re intoxicated by my very presence.”

              



Edward is so confident, and as I was reading the books I had to snicker every time he made a remark like this to Bella. :)

              



(I'm going to this movie Friday, if you'd like to come, call me!!)

Our last few weeks:

We had such a great Halloween party at Grandma and Grandpa's house! We showed off our costumes, bobbed for apples, pinned the nose on the pumpkin (which was very dizziying I must say) and ate so many fun foods! Lots of fun and scares for everyone!

Barbie Dress up like a cheerleader. She was a little immodest in her short skirt, but as long as she kept her tail down, she looked great! Also, you can see Joe tried his luck at bobbing for apples, he got a little but wet! That dissoriented looking woman spinning around on the bat is me. I was the laughing stalk of the family as I hobbled around trying to pin the nose on the pumpkin.

My neighbor Tonya let me borrow this adorable Yoda costume for Ethan and it looked perfect on him. Joe and I taught him how to say, "Yoda, I am" in a low scratchy voice.

Trick or treating was SO MUCH FUN! I had way more fun that Ethan did, and that says a lot because he couldn't contain himself, he was having so much fun! He ran into someone's home because he saw their pet kitty cat and he chased after it yelling, 'meeeeeeeeooooowww!' There were several cat chasing experiences. Now he wants to Trick or treat every day. I taught him the 'funny' trick or treat song. "Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat."

We went to an air show/ all things boy this Saturday. There were planes, tranes, fire trucks, helicopters, blimps and automobiles up close and personal. He and daddy were in wonderland, and I had the camera rolling.

We all got to ride in the fire truck together. It had a bell on it that went, 'ding ding ding' and that's all Ethan can talk about anymore is how he road on the fire truck, and daddy was holding him, and it went 'ding ding ding!'
It was such a fun day, and the admission was free!

Afternoon Delight

I woke up this morning around 6:20am, went outside, and I actually felt a cool breeze blow over me! I looked at the temperature and it was 78 degrees. I had to smile knowing that cool weather is soon approaching for us here in Arizona.

Of course along with the cool weather is always college football season! Those who know me know that I really don't like football, at all, I'm not a fan. BUT since Joe bought The Mountain TV network, we're the only ones in the family that have the BYU games to watch. This Saturday, we hosted the game at our house. I have to admit, I made a touchdown of a dip! Here's the recipe.

FOOTBALL DIP

1 lb. ground beef
1 can Frito Lay bean dip
Small jar of taco sauce, medium or hot
2 c. shredded cheese
Nacho chips

Brown ground beef, drain. Put into 13 x 9 baking dish. Stir in bean dip and taco sauce. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake in 350 degree oven for 20 minutes or until mixture is hot and cheese is melted. Serve with nacho chips.

All of it goes in the cute football bowl.
J

Twilight Zone Ashley

Okay, so I did a Twilight Zone theme to this photo, only because the look on my face says, "The world is going to be abducted by a giant alien and I'm in on it."

We decided to bring a blanket out in the backyard and relax on the grass for a while. These are some photos I took of my boys. Priceless. Then the ants started to come out crawl all over the blanket so we decided to call it a day.

This is where you'll find me on your typical day. I like to hang out on the floor with Ethan while we build forts or plays with cars. Barbie seems to find a way to wiggle herself into any nook or cranny that she can find on me. Silly girl.

We should have named her "Cinnabon" because she can curl up in the smallest little coils you've ever seen! Wow, that cinnabon makes me HUNGRY!

Pay Attention

Maybe I should wait until I cool down before posting this, but I am so angry right now at people who choose to hurt innocent babies, because they are just that, innocent. After having a child of my own, I become emotional anytime I hear about these things happening!

Barack Obama is the only presidential candidate who supported killing of babies who survived abortion. It's called infanticide and a woman can make the decision to be induced into labor, have the baby, and then the baby is left to die. These babies can survive for minutes or hours.

Below is a video that you can watch, if you are emotionally stable. The fact that this is real and is happening is reason enough for me to become educated.

We can stop this from continuing by voting 'no' to Barack Obama and 'yes' to life.

You can register to vote here: http://www.rockthevote.com/

And on another note 'Last year alone, U.S. law enforcement identified over 300,000 criminals who were trafficking in movies and pictures of young children being raped and tortured. Experts say that one in every three of these criminals has local child victims. Child pornography trafficking over the Internet has given us a trail of evidence that leads straight to their doorsteps, but the vast majority of these children will never be rescued because investigators are overwhelmed, outnumbered and underfunded.'

This was taken from oprah.com where you can take a stand on child predators that are trafficking pornographic photos and videos over the internet. This is becoming more and more wide-spread, and we can do something about it if we can urge our senators to vote
yes on Senate Bill 1738—The PROTECT Our Children Act."

The PROTECT Our Children Act will:

• Authorize over $320 million over the next five years in desperately needed funding for law enforcement to investigate child exploitation.
  
• Mandate that child rescue be a top priority for law enforcement receiving federal funding.
  
• Allocate funds for high-tech computer software that can track down Internet predators.
  

Go here: http://www.oprah.com/article/oprahshow/20080911_tows_predators for more information and remember that we only have a couple of days before it goes before congress.

Sometimes it's difficult to live and pursue happiness in a world where these types of things are allowed to happen. The only thing that appeases me, is to know that there's something that I can do about it, from my own little corner of the world.

Thanks for listening.

God Bless America

I remember where I was on this day in 2001 when I heard about the plane crashing in to the first tower of the world trade center.

I was living at my Mom and Dad's house in Mesa, just getting ready to leave for college, I was happy to spend a few more weeks with my family before I left. I was asleep when I was startled by my sister Aimee, who came in my room and told me that a plane had just hit the world trade center. I was very groggy and I didn't know what to think of it all, but I stumbled in to the living room and saw one of the memorable sites I'd ever seen. It was the smoke billowing out of the first tower.

My Dad is so smart and he was sort of narrating the whole thing for us all, explaining to us what may have happened and how this is going to affect the future of America. We all sat stunned in front of the television for quite some time, and then we watched again and again as they showed footage of the second plane hitting the second tower. I remember feeling like my stomach was aching and there was no way to fix it!

Then when stories of the plane hitting the pentagon and flight 93 came out later on that day we were so confused as to who would plan and carry out such an atrocity! So many people became heroes on that day, and so many people suffered great pain! All the while I sat in the comfort of my home with my loved ones.

Recently Joe and I watched flight 93 for the second time. (The first time I saw it, I was pregnant with Ethan and he literally turned in my stomach at the end) Well the second time we watched it, we were in the living room so we had time to discuss things as they progressed through the movie. And one thing Joe mentioned was, "The Islams have another thing coming to them if they think that they have virgins and riches waiting for them when they die." As true as that is, I feel that because they were taught these things from childhood, they had no choice but to follow through with them!

It makes me grateful for what I have and what I know. I know that the Lord wants me to be happy, and wants good things for me, and the tragic act against America by those men on September 11^th was anything but happy and good.

I just wanted to take the chance to say that I remember what happened on that day, I'm proud to be an American, and God Bless America.

Sheesh! There’s so many things I could blog about right now, and they always pop in my head at the most inopportune times, and then I don’t blog at all, because I can’t think of anything. But just sitting here typing feels so great, that I’m sure I’ll come up with something!

One thing I have learned is that whenever I’m around anyone who is remotely famous, I get the urge to go say hi and have a picture taken. I tried out for Arizona Idol this year (I’m to chicken to do the REAL one) and so anyway, Corey from FOX 10 news, the weather man, was hovering around my little group of people and I just had to say hi and strike up some cheesy conversation with him like, “so do you like your job?” Wow! Is that the most creative question I could come up with? I mean come on! Why couldn’t I have said, “So where are you from?” or something more personal? So he gave me some generic answer and started talking to the lady next to me who had more creative questions than I did.

Then we went and saw the play 1856 again this year and I just am in awe of Joseph Paur who's most famously known for the part he played in the movie Rigoletto! This man is SO talented and every note that comes out of him is genius! So I got to meet him last time I saw the play too and I couldn’t think of anything to say except, “You sing so well!” Wow, apparently I’m good at stating the obvious. Anyway, he is sort of a shy person to start with so it was awkward to say the least. So this year was going to be different, I had planned out in my head that I was going ask him where he studied music, but NO I said the same dumb thing I said last year followed by, “ You really should make a CD.” OH MY!! He just laughed and then we took yet another awkward photo.
During Ethan’s waking hours he runs all around the house, singing, dancing, playing, throwing, hitting, kicking, hugging, and jumping. During MY waking hours I sit in front of this computer screen, and clean here and there, but mostly my body wants me to just sit. I went to the gym two weeks ago for the first time in a WHILE and by the end of it all my body was SCREAMING at me! I’m getting wrinkles, and all that wonderful time in the sun, charring my skin while I was in high school is definitely catching up to me! It’s a little bit scary, I have to say! BUT thank goodness there are products on the market today that promise youth; a little poke here, a little Botox there, and you’re good. It’s makes me think though, if I had the energy Ethan had, and the mental capacity that I have, who knows what things I would be accomplishing up until now!
I have hoped for this stage in Ethan’s life ever since he was born. I have just wanted to be able to talk with him, not just to him! He’s finally starting to put 2 to 3 word phrases together and say things like “Barbie Go Potty!” and “My Turn” and “I Love you daddy” and my most favorite word of his, this is so cute, Instead of saying Marshmallow, he says Pompillow, and Joe and I think it’s so cute, we’ve been starting to call it that too. So hopefully he never learns it the right way!

Anyway, those are my thoughts for now, and I’m ready to be a better blogger. I found this quote and I think it fits perfectly with my theme for today: