Impromptu Sleepover

Samantha and Athena are sleeping at our house tonight. Apparently, Ogden had some crazy super strong winds and the power-lines that supply Samantha's block with electricity were blown down. She and Athena will be staying here until the power is restored and they have light and heat again. We'll see how it goes in our super, tiny apartment... Poor Samantha has to sleep on our loveseat. Joseph and Athena tend to have "custody battles" over their toys. And Annabelle loves it all. Maybe I can get some good pictures.

5 Words

Annabelle can now say 5 words:

• Mommy
• Daddy
• Baby (which has finally been narrowed down to mean anything living that isn't me or Mitchell, it used to be everything that wasn't me)
  
• Bye-Bye
• Mine

It is so cute hearing her talk and she is just so funny. I can't wait to watch her learn more words.

Hives

Yesterday afternoon, after eating some delicious pumpkin pie at the birthday party of one of Annabelle's friends, I broke out into hives. At first I just thought I had an itchy back, but then it spread to my arms, shoulders, and the back of my neck. I haven't itched that bad in a very long time, not since I was having allergy tests and stuff done. We have no idea if it was something in the pie that caused it or if it was something else. I spent all of yesterday evening in bed either sleeping or almost sleeping because of the Benadryl that I had to take to keep the itching under control. We also didn't go to church this morning because the hives were still bad enough that I couldn't have anything touching my back. It was probably around 10 or 11 this morning that I was finally able to have my shirt down and touching my lower back. I still itch a little bit, but it is nothing compared to what it was yesterday. It will probably always be a mystery as to what actually caused the break out...

First Annual Thanksgiving Walk

I decided to start a new tradition for our family this year. I'm calling it our Thanksgiving Walk. The plan is to go somewhere with beautiful, fall colors and walk and talk about what we are grateful for as well as just enjoy the earth Heavenly Father has created for us. I came up with the idea a little too late in the month because most of the pretty colors have faded. It was still nice, though.

Annabelle slept through the whole walk. It was naptime on a Sunday, so she was really tired.

Here is Joseph putting his mittens on. It wasn't cold enough that he needed them, but he likes wearing them.

This was a pretty little waterfall and stream that we saw. We have walked this path up in Provo Canyon many times, but I've never noticed this before. I was wearing my rain boots, so I went and splashed in it just because I could. It was fun.

This is where the little stream splits and goes around a cool looking tree. Hardly any of the trees still had leaves, but it was still a nice walk in a beautiful place.

Music 101

I'm actually really beginning to enjoy my Music 101 class. At first it was a bit boring because we were covering stuff that I had already covered in my other class. But I recently made a friend in the class, her name is Rachel, and we have a fun time sitting together and talking. We are also learning about new things that I didn't know about. It is an easy class for me because I enjoy classical music and I understand how music works pretty well. I think a big part of that is from Popi. When I was a really little girl and we lived with Popi and Grandma, I would play in the living room at night when Popi would listen to classical music and relax in his chair. I felt really embarrassed during the midterm review last night. Without realizing it, I kept raising my hand and answering a lot of the questions, then I noticed that people were starting to turn around and stare at me. I stopped answering as many questions after that because I was worried that people was thinking I was being a know-it-all. I took the midterm today and did really well, though, which was exciting to me. It always feels good when I do well in my classes, especially because I don't usually give them as much attention as I think I should. I'm glad that I am able to be in school and I'm grateful for all the things that I'm learning.

Disney

I just found this awesome site. It's thedisneyprincess.tumblr.com and I really love it. It has thousands of pictures from Disney movies. After spending the last half hour or so browsing it, I feel like crying. That comes from a mixture of two things:

1. I love Disney SO much. I grew up on the movies and they have been an integral part of my life. The movies are so beautiful and the stories are so happy and wonderful. When I daydream, I go to those Disney worlds. Disney movies make me feel so happy.

2. My greatest desire for most of my life (besides wanting to get married and have a family) has been to go to Disneyland. I have dreamt of go to Disneyland since I was a tiny, little girl. As I've gotten older, that dream has become somewhat bittersweet because as I get older, it becomes more difficult for me to realize that dream. I know that someday, I will be able to go to Disneyland, but after waiting 20-ish years, it seems like someday will never come.

For now I will wait and I will instill a love for Disney in my own children.

Smart Joseph

I just wanted to say how proud I am of my cute, little boy. Joseph knows the upper- and lower-case letters about 85% of the time; he still confuses "b" with "d," "k" with "x," and "m" with "n" some of the time. He can count up to 13 and he's figuring out the actually counting of things. He copies me and Mitchell so much and it seems like he can do whatever we can do sometimes. It is definitely a challenge keeping up with him sometimes because he figures out how to get and do what he wants, whether we want him to or not. I can't wait to watch him grow and to watch his talents flourish. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to home-school the kids and I'm excited to help him expand his knowledge and develop his abilities. I'm so grateful for my little Joseph and I love him so much!

Halloween 2011

In all the craziness of yesterday, I forgot to take a single picture. I could get the kids dressed up again, but it just doesn't seem the same.

Annabelle was a cute little pumpkin, Joseph was Spiderman, I was an autumn fairy, and Mitchell was Darth Vader.

Joseph had fun trick or treating for a little while. Annabelle had fun, too, but just because she got to see a lot of people.

It was a good night, but very exhausting.

Baby Annabelle

Back in February, a friend of ours did a photo shoot of Annabelle. I just got the pictures today. Here are a couple of my favorites. I'll be posting all of them on Facebook.

Annabelle is 1!

Annabelle had her 1st birthday on Saturday! We had a small family party to celebrate. I had planned a cute pumpkin themed party and we had bought decorations, favors, and other stuff for the party, but then we ended up getting sick and had to cancel it. Jason was staying with us and Liz came over, though, and we still had fun. The above picture is from her opening presents. I'm pretty sure that I have a very similar picture from my 1st birthday. She was really cute and had so much fun opening her presents.


I couldn't figure out how to turn this and I don't want to keep trying. Sorry :)! It's me helping Annabelle blow out her birthday candle. She really wanted to grab the fire because it looked so cool.

Annabelle had her 12 month check-up today. She is doing great! She is 20 pounds and almost 30 inches. She is really catching up to Joseph now.

She is almost walking; we can get her to take about 3 steps on her own. She is just always climbing on things and making messes and exploring. She is such a wonderful and sweet little girl. We love her so much and are so glad that she is part of our family!

School Stuff

I can't believe that I've blogged this many times in one month! I've been trying to stick to a schedule in order to keep my sanity, so I've been giving myself time to get ready for bed and do some of my own things. It's helping.

Tomorrow I start my third class. It's Music 101, so it should be really easy. I have to attend some concerts as part of the class, so I will probably go to some of the free ones on campus. I am hoping that it won't add too much extra weight to my already full schedule.

We've been discussing what to do next semester. Mitchell will only be taking 12 credits required for full-time, but he will be gone from 8 am to 7 pm on Mondays and Wednesdays as well as having an evening class on Tuesdays. He also wants to start doing some freelance work so that he can build up his work experience. I don't know what I am going to do. Mitchell suggested that I only take 3 credits and we just pay for the class from the money he gets. I want to take more classes because I'm excited about school and I want to learn things, but I'm also worried about the stress that school causes. We are going to continue talking and praying about what will be best for our family.

New Calling

I just got a new calling at church. For a year, I was a visiting teaching supervisor, but now I am on the Relief Society weekday activities committee. It's exciting because I just love planning activities and things. The first activity that I am a part of is this Saturday. It's going to be crazy because Annabelle's 1st birthday is on Saturday as well and I've been planning a party for her. Saturday is going to be a busy day.

The activity is about organization and decorating, which are 2 of my most favorite things. I'm even going to be doing a little presentation on organization in the home. I'm excited about it because it's going to be lots of fun.

I'm also super excited about Annabelle's birthday party. It's going to be cute and fun. There will be a lot of family and friends to spend time with. I just have to make sure that I don't get stressed out planning and preparing for everything.

A House Full of Sickies

We have been a house full of sickies for the past 2 weeks. It has not been very fun, but it could have been much worse.

It started with Annabelle acting cranky around the weekend of General Conference; she even threw up twice. A few days later, we noticed her eyes were all pink and goopy. We took her to the doctor and she was diagnosed with bacterial conjuctivitis (Pink Eye) and an ear infection. We picked up her antibiotics and started her on them; she has 2 more days left of those.

Then Mitchell got a sore throat, and then a stuffy nose and a cough, all of it causing him to miss 2 days of class. Then he woke up with an ear infection. He went to the doctor and got some antibiotics. Two days later, he got Pink Eye, so he missed another day of class. He's still in the difficult process of catching up on his many art projects for his classes.

And I got sick, too, of course. I got the sore throat, the stuffy nose, the cough and the ear infection, plus the Pink Eye. I missed 3 days of class because of it. My ear is still plugged and my voice is just getting back to normal (I nearly lost it for a couple days). My mid-terms with this week, and I felt so far behind. Thanks to some quick studying and, especially, some answered prayers, I ended up getting good grades on both exams! It feels great to be done with the first block and starting fresh with the second.

Joseph has managed to get away without getting sick at all. He just had to be kept inside and bored because no one could take him out to play. He's happier now that he can play outside.

Finally, a Good Day

Life has been very busy and stressful for me the last 2 weeks. I've been concerned with how I would make it through this next semester. Sadly, General Conference was not the relaxing and uplifting weekend that I wanted it to be. I was only able to really listen to Elder Scott's talk because the kids were eating breakfast. After that, everything just got insane and I didn't get to listen to another talk well enough to know what was being talked about. I did get some snippets, which I am grateful for, but I ended the weekend feeling more stressed than when it began.

Last night, I sat down and decided that I was going to write out a schedule for myself and work on not getting stressed out. I didn't really follow my schedule today, but it has been the most peaceful day that I have had in a long time. I slept in (I have no memory of my alarm going off even though it did), but just went with the flow when the kids woke me up. I decided to skip classes so that I could spend time with my family, which I haven't been able to do properly for a couple weeks. I got some studying done, cleaned my living room and vacuumed under all the furniture, and played with the kids outside. It was nice to just do some regular things.

I've been stressing about my classes a lot. I tend to freak out if I'm not doing perfectly in my classes, but I've been having a difficult time doing my classwork and taking care of my children and home at the same time. I have finally reconciled myself with the fact that I will have to sacrifice having A's in class in order to keep my sanity.

I hope that I am able to keep this outlook and attitude towards life so that my depression doesn't take over, especially while Annabelle is teething.

Stressed

I have been feeling very stressed, depressed and exhausted the past week or two. Between Joseph giving up naps and Annabelle becoming more mobile, the amount of time that I have to accomplish various tasks has decreased. However, my homework, laundry and dish piles keep growing. So now I am trying to figure out how to accommodate all of this extra work with no extra time. So far it is not going very well...

It's time for me to go to bed now. I will try to report my progress relatively soon.

Busy, busy, busy

I am so busy right now! I haven't been this busy in so long, and it's really tiring sometimes. It's good, though, know that I am able to be busy and all of the things that I am blessed with.

Back in January, I signed up for an Independent Study class, American Heritage. When you sign up, you get one year to complete the class, with no deadlines or anything except that one. I didn't give it enough attention at the beginning of the year, so now I am working on it almost constantly. There are 23 lessons in the course and I'm just about finished with Lesson 6. That shows how very far behind I am. I think the first lessons are a little more intense than the later ones, though, because the first ones deal with the Revolution and the Constitution and all important stuff.

My other classes are just great, and easy so far. My Book of Mormon class is awesome, mostly because we are required to report on our reading as well as answer study guide questions. It really helps me make sure that I am studying regularly, and I am learning a lot more about the scriptures. My teacher did his graduate studies in Hebrew and he spend time in Israel, so he knows a lot of cool stuff. He LOVES showing us external evidences that prove that "the Book of Mormon is an ancient Near Eastern text" ( I think he says that phrase at least once per class). My other class is awesome, too. My teacher used to be in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! And he's Australian, so he has an awesome accent. He's really funny, too. I always enjoy the time that I spend in that class.

Mitchell is super busy, too. He's working on a lot of different projects for all his classes. Currently, he redesigning Pinocchio with a Lovecraftian theme, creating a space-age clown, and drawing lots of hands and feet. He spends a lot of time researching and looking up images on Google to get ideas for all the things he is drawing. It's pretty awesome; I have to try not to brag about him whenever we are around people just because the stuff he does is so cool!

Joseph is almost potty-trained. He's gone several days without an accident during the day (although he sometimes forgets to pull his underwear and pants ALL the way down, so they get wet anyways) and he's got half-and-half as far as the nights go. At first he didn't want to wear underwear all the time, but when he realized that all of his friends wear underwear it helped a lot. And we bought him some Star Wars underwear last week and now he loves wearing underwear.

Annabelle will be a year old next month! I can't believe it. She is growing so fast. She is already wearing 12 month clothes; I think she is around 21 or 22 pounds now. She is amazing at crawling and she is practicing walking using different toys. She can say Mama, Dada (sometimes), and Baby; usually it's just baby-talk, but on occasion she uses them in reference to the things they are, with Mama being the most used.

I'm so excited for Fall and Halloween and all the other wonderful things that are coming! Life is so great right now!

The Illustration Program

It has been almost a month since I last posted! I'm just as bad at this whole blogging thing as I was afraid I'd be.

August was a crazy month for us. We had a whole lot going on. Especially with me finishing classes at the same time Mitchell applied to the Illustration program.

I finished up my classes and took exams the first week and a half of the month. I got A's in both my classes! It was a great first term of school.

Mitchell turned in his application for the Illustration program on the 1st and the review was on the 8th. This was his last chance to apply to the program, so there was a lot of stress. He had to repaint almost all of the paintings that he applied with the first time. We found out on the 10th that he had gotten into Illustration program and also into the Concept Art focus track. It's really exciting! The Concept Art track is very exclusive, with only 5 students in it at a time. With a degree in Concept Art, he has the ability to get jobs at places like Disney, Dreamworks, or Blizzard.

Once we found out that Mitchell was in the program, a month long class shuffle began. He learned that he needed to change a few of the classes he was in, but some of the classes he needed were full, so he was constantly checking for new openings. My classes were finally settled the Saturday before classes started. Mitchell's weren't final until the Wednesday after classes started. We are both loving the classes that we are in and are excited for the rest of the semester.

The End is Near

Right now I am rocking a very cranky baby to sleep and thinking about how I only have 2 more days of this term left and 3 more days until we leave for Virginia.

This has been one of the busiest times that I have had in a long time. I'm doing very well in my classes, though. I have A's in both of them! My writing teacher likes my papers so much that she asked to use them as in-class examples for later classes.

I'm so excited to go to Virginia and spend time with Mitchell's family. It will be cool to see Ross again. Joseph is so excited to see everyone, too. It will be an interesting experience with both kids on the airplane, but I'm sure that Joseph will love it.

I'm going that Fall will be easier since I'm not going full-time. Maybe then I will have more time for blogging. I'm not taking early classes either, so I will also have a bit more time for sleeping.

Update on Us

Life at our house is SUPER busy right now. There are times that I have contemplated blogging, but I would prefer to get some sleep right now. Luckily, I am at a slow point in my classes right now, so I have a little bit of time. I even folded some laundry today!

I'm doing really well in my classes right now. I have an A in both of them. After today's lecture in Stats, I've realized that it's going to start getting harder. It didn't help that I could NOT stay awake during the first half of the lecture. We are about to start our 8-10 page Issues paper in Writing 150. I am going to be writing about profanity on television. We'll be required to do a lot of research for this class, but I'm hoping that I can get a lot done during library class days rather than toting my kids to the library.

Mitchell has dropped both of his classes. He was under the impression that he could use the art the he made in his Illustration 2 class to apply to the Illustration program. A couple weeks ago, he found out that he has to submit the art from his Illustration 1 class that didn't get him in the program when he applied in April. He was told that he needed to redo the art pieces to make them presentable. So he dropped Illustration 2 so that he didn't have to work on those art projects, too. Today, he decided to drop his Greek Mythology class because he needs to focus all of his energy on his paintings. He has been working and stressing a lot the past couple of weeks, but he has finally starting making some headway. He is starting to flesh out the ideas he has for each of the projects and even got some initial painting done on one of them. It's going to be a lot of work, but I know he can do it.

Joseph has finally started cooperating with Mitchell's potty-training efforts. He has realized that if he uses the potty, he will get a piece of candy. He has managed to go at least once a day on the potty. He has also recently developed a lot of fears and spends a lot of time hiding between my feet underneath my desk; he's actually there right now because his "room is too scary."

Annabelle crawls all over the house and she is putting everything in her mouth. She loves being able to go where she wants and follows Joseph everywhere. She just got over her first ear infection.

People have been asking how we both go to school while having kids. I tell them that we don't do the dishes or the laundry and we don't vacuum the house. We also survive on much less sleep and very simple meals (cereal, hot dogs, & PBJs are our standard fare). We are so grateful to be students here at BYU and for all of the things we are learning.

4th of July Weekend

We really had such an awesome 4th of July weekend.

On Friday, I was pretty stressed from school and everything and I was feeling a little disappointed that we didn't have any plans to celebrate, but Mitchell let me know that he had made plans to have dinner with some friends on Sunday night.

Then, on Saturday, Aunt Marianne called and invited us over for 4th of July! And I remembered that Dane's baby blessing was going to be on Sunday. We spent most of Saturday getting homework done so that we would be able to have fun the rest of the weekend. We heard from some friends in the ward that the best place to watch the fireworks was in the stadium's parking lot. We walked down there with the kids. It was so amazing! Mitchell and I covered the kids' ears to protect them from the noise. The explosions were so powerful that we could sometimes feel them! It was just so beautiful. Joseph was totally amazed by it all. Annabelle liked watching it, but then ended up falling asleep.

On Sunday, we drove up to Sandy for the blessing. It was so wonderful to see so much family all together at once. We had a really good time visiting with everyone after sacrament meeting. Joseph really loved playing with all of his cousins and Annabelle had fun, too. We drove straight from Sandy to our friends', the Winwards. We ate dinner and played games and just had a nice visit.

On Monday, we finished up a little bit of homework that we still had left. As we were deciding what to do for lunch, Samantha arrived. We all went out to In and Out Burger together. Joseph and Athena just loved being together. Then we went to Aunt Marianne's and a really fun time with everyone. We even rolled down a hill. Joseph didn't want to leave his cousins when it was finally time to go home and go to bed.

The weekend was so much fun that it was hard to get back into the groove of the school week. We've managed to get all of our stuff done okay, though. I got an 87% on my first Stats exam, but the written portion hasn't been graded and added to that, so I might have done even better. It feels good to be doing well in school. I've been having nightmares for years that I would go to school and be so far behind that they would kick me out. It's nice when the nightmares are proved wrong.

I have two very whiny, cranky children that I need to get to bed now, so I will have to be done. I hope that we can all get some sleep tonight.

Moving

No, we aren't moving, but I feel like everyone in our ward is. Almost all of Joseph's friends have moved and many of my friends have moved; this means that we are pretty lonely out on the playground right now. I am hoping that a family with children moves into the ward. I'm not used to being the one that stays while everyone else is moving, so it's really weird to me. I've just moved so much in my life that I've gotten used to it. The longest Mitchell and I have lived in one place since we got married was the year that we lived at his mom's house. It's going to feel really weird staying here in Provo for so long. I keep trying to rearrange the house because I just don't feel entirely at home yet. I don't feel like this is a very permanent place, but we are going to be living here longer than we've lived anywhere else. It's not very easy to decorate because we can't hang much on the walls and we don't have any shelves for setting pictures or knick-knacks on. It is slowly coming together, though. We just moved Mitchell's desk into the living room and the tv into the bedroom so that we can work on our homework in the same room. It's been nice so far, but the living room doesn't really feel like a living room anymore.

Most of our time is now consumed by school. I was up until 11 or 12 almost every night this week either working on projects or trying to get Annabelle to sleep. And I was waking up between 6 and 8 every morning as well. I've realized that I don't do well with less than 8 hours of sleep. I'm hoping to try to catch up on some sleep this weekend. We'll so how things really go.

I'm going to go to bed now so that I can start catching up on that sleep.

How Things Are Going

I am tired and overwhelmed. I knew that things were going to get hard when school started, but I didn't realize how exhausting it would be. I'm so tired all the time. It takes me nearly all the time I'm at home to do my homework because I'm exhausted and the kids always need/want my attention. I've been worrying about how I'm going to make it through the next 6 weeks. I haven't been this grateful for Sundays in a long time; it's wonderful to have a day to rest and forget about school and housework.

It isn't completely awful, though. I enjoy my classes and I love learning again. I have always loved going to school and I'm really grateful to be doing it again. I'm excited to learn more and progress in my classes.

The kids are doing just great with everything. They have fun with Daddy every morning while I am gone and they are always excited to see me when I'm done. Annabelle learned how to crawl yesterday. She's still pretty slow and has to think hard about each "step", but it's so fun watching her and she just looks adorable. It's harder when I take Joseph out to play now because I can't just set her on a big blanket and study while she and Joseph play; she is determined to eat the grass when she is out there and it takes all my attention to keep her from doing that. If anyone has any ideas to keep her from eating grass (or rubber chips or sticks or sand...) while we are outside, I'd love to hear them.

I don't know how often I'll be able to blog, since school keeps me so busy. I'm going to try to keep up with it, though.

Family Photos

A friend in the ward did a free photoshoot for us at the beginning of the month. I just got the photos a few days ago. I'll post a few of my favorites on here and I'll be putting all of them on Facebook... maybe tomorrow. I'll probably blog about my first week of school after church tomorrow.

First Day of School

Today was a really good first day of school. It was nice to wake up early and read my scriptures alone and in a quiet house.

My first class was at 8 and it was Writing and Rhetoric 150. All of the other students in my class seem to be brand-new, fresh-out-of-high-school, 18 year-old freshmen. My teacher is a student teacher halfway through working on her Masters. I think I am much closer to her in age rather than the other students in my class. It is really interesting being in a class where I am the "old" one.

My second class is Principles of Statistics 121. I was very excited to see Annemarie in my class as well as my old visiting teacher and her husband who are very good friends to me and Mitchell. I am pretty sure that I will like this class. The teacher is really a lot of fun and I loved listening to her talk.

My biggest fear is that I will not be able to keep up with the heavy reading and work load that comes with both of these classes. I am going to try really hard, though.

Mitchell had a really good morning with the kids and took great care of them. I'm so grateful for the good day that we had and for the amazing opportunity that I have to go to college.

New Start

The Blogger application that I had for my phone ended up being defective and I had to delete it. So, I will try to blog before I go to bed at night.

The last few days have been pretty crazy. We spend Friday exploring the BYU campus with my mom, Marty, and Jason. It was really fun. Yesterday, we went to the zoo. My allergies were really bad and just kept getting worse as the day progressed. Although I enjoyed being with my family, I was pretty miserable the whole day. When I woke up this morning, my allergies had settled into sinusitis. We didn't go to church because Joseph and Annabelle both had runny noses, too. I know Annabelle suffers from allergies, but I'm not sure about Joseph. I slept and rested most of the day. I need to conserve my energy for tomorrow.

Tomorrow is the big day! I start college! I had to change my classes to fit around Mitchell's schedule, so I'm taking Writing 150, which is basic college writing, and Principles of Statistics. I am so scared, but also so excited. I have no idea what this is going be like. I know that we will find a way to make it work, but I know that it is going to be hard. I am going to have Mitchell give me a blessing before I go to sleep. I'm going to try to go to bed early tonight because I need to wake up at 6 in the morning. I don't know if I'm really ready for this, but here goes...

Family

I have family visiting me right now. My mom, my step-dad, Marty, and my brother, Jason, are sleeping in my living room right now. They got here in time for dinner and then we walked up on campus to listen to some of the carillon concert and visit the Bean Museum. It is fun having family visit. I need to remember to take my camera when we go places tomorrow so that I can get some pictures.

Only 3 more days until I start school! I'm so excited!!

Julianna encouraged me to blog and I remembered. I spent the morning sorting through boxes that were full of old papers, notes, and cards from when I was younger. It made my house a mess because I was sorting everything into piles and my kids also had freedom to go crazy since I was distracted. In the afternoon, we went to Vivian Park up in the Provo Canyon. We walked along the trail for awhile and had a good time. Joseph loves throwing rocks into the river, it's one of his favorite things to do. Julianna and Tina stopped by in the evening for a quick visit. It was super awesome to see them and a great surprise. Today was a very good day and I'm grateful for it.

Sickness

I tired posting this a couple days ago and apparently it didn't work...

We just got over being sick at our house. Joseph got sick Tuesday and continued to be sick until Saturday. Annabelle and I were only sick on Saturday. We had a very unpleasant stomach virus and I felt like I spent most of Saturday cleaning up after it. We started home from church yesterday to make sure that we weren't sick any longer. We also washed everything that had gotten dirty and all the bedding, just to make sure the germs were out of the house. Today everyone is doing just fine, so it's really nice. It's great to not be cooped up in the house anymore. It's always frustrating to get sick when the weather is nice, especially when we gone through a long, cold, and rainy period. I hope we get to have some awesome adventures this week.

My Blogging Return

I just found an app that allows me to blog from my phone, so I will now be able to blog more often. I know that's what I always say so we will see really happens.

Today: 1. Joseph and I worked on his letters. He has this fun puzzle set that has a little ladybug puzzle for every letter of the alphabet with the upper-case on one side and the lower-case on the other and a picture of something that starts with the letter on the back. When we play with it, I lay out a few lower-case haves and then show him an upper-case half and ask him to find the match. He's really good at it. I've been increasing the number of lower-case letters that he has to pick from over time. He gets it right on the first time at least 80% of the time. It's just amazing to me how smart he is.

2. We ate apples and Caramel Toffee Fruit Dip for snacktime. The dip is an awesome recipe for the Our Best Bites cookbook that Mitchell just gave me for our anniversary. I started following the blog after Heidi posted about a cookie recipe someone used from it. And when I found out they were writing a cookbook, I knew I wanted it. Our anniversary was on Monday of last week and Mitchell gave it to me then. I really love it. I've already tried 3 recipes out of it and I plan on trying all of them. Here's the Caramel Toffee Fruit Dip recipe (if you love it, start following their blog and get there book from Deseret Book!):

1 8 oz pkg cream cheese, softened

3/4 cup brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

Toffee bits

Combine the first 3 ingredients and then sprinkle with desired amount of toffee bits. It tastes the best with Granny Smith apples, but it's still really good with other fruit, too.

I didn't let the cream cheese get soft enough when I first made it, so it looked kinda nasty. I took it to the ward activity on Monday night and hardly anyone ate any, including Mitchell (he said it looked scary). But after it finished softening and mixing, it looked much better. But it always tasted awesome! So, anyways, make sure you soften the cream cheese and mix well. 3. We walked up to campus. I had to go run a few errands to figure some things out for school. It was such a beautiful day outside, too. Joseph was running all over campus waving and saying hi to all of the students. Most of them thought he was really cute and had a smile for him, although there were some that seemed annoyed by him, but they were probably just stressed seeing as finals are next week. I can't even express how excited I am to start school. I seriously don't think that I can even wait until June. Even though classes start in 2 months, it seems like forever to me.

Two Long Days

I actually started typing this blog yesterday, but I got too tired after all the crazy activities. I'm super tired right now, but I'm going to make sure to post before I fall asleep. My blogging goal is to write at least 3 things about each day. Yesterday: 1. We went shopping with Pam! It was super fun. We went to Old Navy and got cute Easter outfits for Annabelle, Joseph, and me. We also got lunch together at one of my favorite restaurants, Noodles and Company. Joseph and Dutch were so excited to play together and didn't want to be separated when it was time to go to lunch. It was also funny that when I told Joseph that we were going to see Pam and Dutch, he got really excited and then he asked where Tina was, made a comment about Annemarie going downstairs, and finally started talking about Samantha and Athena. It's funny how he connects family together so well. 2. I accidentally took a nap. I was just going to lay down for 20 minutes, but my alarm never went off and I woke up an hour and a half later when Mitchell came home. 3. We had a really fun ward activity. It was a barbeque and we took a ward family picture, too. It was so fun to sit and talk with all of our friends in the ward. I haven't had this many really, good friends at church in a long time. I really love our ward! It's sad, though, because a lot of our friends are moving out this month or next month. The ward changes so much here because people are always graduating and moving out or getting married and moving in. 4. I didn't get the kids to bed until almost midnight! That wasn't fun. Annabelle just wouldn't settle down and since she was staying awake, Joseph wasn't going to go to sleep. It took forever for Annabelle to wear herself out. I don't know why she had so much energy. Today: 1. I made Banana Chocolate Chip muffins. They were really good. 2. Joseph saw his friends outside pretty early, so we went out, too. It was kinda cold, but it was fun sitting and talking with my friends. We were watching the BYU tree guys cut huge branches out of the trees. It was pretty cool. 3. Annabelle put herself to bed!! I swaddled her and put her in her crib and then I turned on her noisemaker (it does different nature sounds, tonight's is a heartbeat sound). I had to go check on Joseph so I just left her there. She kicked her legs for a bit and looked around. I came back in and watched as she just fell asleep. It was really awesome! I hope she sleeps a long time tonight. She seemed like she had a bit of a fever before she went to bed. I think it's because she is teething. I hope it is because she is teething. 4. I straightened my living room. The floor was so messy that you could hardly even walk through the room. It's so much nicer now, although I still need to vacuum it. Okay, Annabelle is actually awake now. She probably just wants to nurse. I feel proud of myself for blogging twice this week already! Yay!

My Return

Okay, I have a renewed desire to start blogging everyday. Let's keep our fingers crossed! I'm playing with some ideas to reformat the way that I blog that might make it easier for me. We'll see... My blow dryer broke while I was doing my hair this morning. It was pretty old and nasty, so I'm just glad it didn't explode and catch my hair on fire. Now I HAVE to let my hair dry naturally (which is what I normally do, but I was trying to break my "ugly" habit). This leads me to some other news: I cut my hair! It's chin length and cute. I just needed something that Annabelle couldn't pull all the time. I would post a picture, but I have NO idea where our camera is... My other exciting news: I took the ACT and scored really well. And now I am a BYU student!! I've decided to get BA in Family Life with Family Studies Emphasis and a Music Minor. It sounds fancy, but it seems like I'll mostly be learning to be a better mom. I'm tired now... there is more I could post about, but I don't want to burn myself out. I'll try more tomorrow.

Sorry!

I just realized that I never posted about my test results or anything. I left everyone hanging and worried about me.

My test results came back normal. It was a bit disappointing because I wanted an "easy fix" to my problems. However, my psychiatrist, who also happens to be my father-in-law, doubled my dose of Prozac. It took a couple weeks, but I'm feeling much better, except the past few days because I'm getting a cold or something. So everything's pretty good right now!

We have been super busy over the past few weeks. We've been inviting people over for dinner frequently (like once a week), I've been going to a lot of neighborhood stuff (girls night, mother/baby group, playgroup), we went up to Idaho for President's day weekend, and we just rearranged out apartment so that the kids have their own room. It's been great being busy. This dosage increase has made be feel like a real person again.

I'm hoping that having my computer in the living room, where all the activity is, will help me remember to blog more often. I got a fancy new phone that I can check my email on and even use the internet with, so I didn't even turn my computer on for a week or so. It was just easier to use my phone. But being able to be with the kids while I'm on the computer might make me more likely to blog. Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Feeling Terrible

The past week or so, I have felt terrible! I went in for an appointment today. I had blood drawn to check for anemia and thyroid problems. I'm just hoping that something is figured out because I can hardly function right now. I'm exhausted and cranky and my head and neck hurt really bad and I'm all sweaty and my hands and lips are dry and cracked. It's frusterating. The hardest part is the exhaustion. It makes it incredibly hard for me to take care of my kids and my house. I'll be finding out the test results on Monday. In the meantime, I had my Prozac dose increased and she gave me a Vitamin B-12 shot. She says people always come in asking for the shot because it helps so much, but so far, I haven't felt any difference. I still feel just as tired and just as sore...

Anyways, that's a bit of an explanation why I was starting to blog more frequently and then stopped. Maybe when life isn't so hard...

Migraine & Missionary Work

I have now had a migraine for 30 hours. It has really not been fun. I've tried a lot of different things, but so far, I've been unsuccessful in getting rid of it. Luckily, some friends have watched Joseph the past 2 afternoons for a few hours and Annabelle has been sleeping a bit better, so I have been able to rest. I really hope it goes away soon because I hate feeling awful. It's harder to be patient with my kids when my head feels like it's splitting. Anyone have any migraine remedies?

*As I'm typing this I have realized that I hadn't even thought of asking for a blessing until now. I'm going to go do that now.*

Oh, so I had a bit if a missionary experience today. We went for lunch at this restaurant we love called Noodles & Company. Mitchell pointed out this guy with enormous muscles, he looked like a body builder, kind of. He was sitting with his family across from our table. They had a daughter who looked about 5 and a son who looked about 18 months. I was just noting how their clothes were so nice, they were all tan and extremely well groomed, and I was thinking how they loooked like they were perfect. Then I noticed that the man was wearing a white t-shirt and it was obvious that he wasn't wearing garments. So then I thought how his family couldn't be perfect because they aren't sealed to each other. We were walking out to the car when the thought came to give them a pass-along car. I was too scared, so Mitchell took it back in and put it on their table. I don't know if anything will come of it, but at least I tried.

My Class

So I'm taking American Heritage online. It's been hard finding time to work on it. So I decided that I would make it a priority today. As soon as I started working Annabelle woke up and was screaming beause she had an insanely messy diaper. It soaked out of her diaper, through her pants, a (thin) fleece blanket, an afghan, and onto the bouncer that we are borrowing. So now I have tons to wash. I got her all cleaned up, but she's still on a bad mood and will only be calm if I'm bouncing her to my Glee playlist. This makes answering my study guide questions pretty difficult right now. When she eventually falls asleep, I'm hoping that she will nap for longer than 15 minutes. It's a good thing I have a year to do this class...

Yesterday was so great! But today I feel awful. I don't really know why. All I want to do is lay in bed reading and get fat from eating brownies. That is probably what I will end up doing because I can't seem to find the motivation to do anything else...

Good Day

We had some friends over for dinner today. It was a couple in the ward that we don't know very well, so it was nice to get to know them better. They are in Nursery every other week, so they know Joseph and he had a great time having them over here. For Mitchell's birthday a couple years ago, I gave him a Bobby Flay cookbook. It has all these burger recipes, plus some for sides and shakes. I tried one of the burger recipes tonight. They were called Arthur Avenue burgers. They were really good. I also made zucchini fries with a recipe from a blog that Heidi talked about. It was also great because Annabelle took a 4 hour nap before they came over, so I was able to get all the food ready and clean my house. My living room and kitchen look really nice for the first time in forever. We bought Joseph a little white wooden toybox and we just got it today. It's great because we can just throw all of his toys in there. Anyways, today was just a really good day and I'm so grateful for that. I can't wait to get in bed and get some sleep. I hope Annabelle sleeps tonight after her long nap... She's awake right now, but hopefully she'll fall asleep soon.

Sunday Photos

Annabelle sitting on her blanket that her Grandma Brugger made for her. She's 3 months old!

This is the outfit Joseph wore to church today. I think he looks like he's ready to go to a yacht club or something.

I think part of the reason I don't blog very often is that I don't have much to blog about. Life is pretty consistent around here. I'm also not a good storyteller, so things aren't as funny when I try to write them. But practice makes perfect, so I'll keep trying.

I went visiting teaching for the first time in a couple months and it was the first time with my companion since August! We've both been sick a lot, so we haven't been able to go much. It was so great, though. It was awesome to sit and visit with the sister. She's in a situation similar to mine, she just had a baby girl and she has a little boy. I'm so grateful for visiting teaching. It is definitely a thing of God. It really makes me feek the Spirit. I'm glad for the opportunity it gives me to learn and grow. Tomorrow night we will visit our other sister and I'm excited about that.

Sunday Photos

I've borrow an idea from my cousins. I'm going to make Sundays my picture day. I usually try to upload pictures and videos on Sundays to my Facebook and YouTube accounts, so I figured I could put some pictures on here, too. So that's what I'll do from now on.

Annabelle in her blessing outfit.

Family Picture

Big Update

We all stayed home from church today. Mitchell and Joseph are sniffing and coughing all the time, I have a sore throat, and Annabelle even has a little bit of a stuffy nose. We were originally going to bless Annabelle today, but post-poned it until the 16th because of our sickness.

I took a really long nap with Annabelle today and it was great. I was just really tired and couldn't even keep my eyes open. Luckily, Annabelle was tired, too. It frequently seems like she's the most awake when I'm the most tired. Hopefully, my nap and an early bedtime tonight will give me the energy I need to be a mommy tomorrow.

Mitchell has started doing freelance web design for a graphic design company in Orem. It's nice having him working again, but I'm not good at being by myself with the kids so often. It really wears me down and I have more problems with my depression. I might have to go up on my meds soon. School starts on Tuesday and Mitchell has classes every day and then he'll be working either at home or the office quite frequently. I'm just going to pray really hard and be really patient.

Annabelle is such a sweetheart. She's such a happy little girl. It's funny because it seems like she's either really happy or really upset. She's a girl of extremes. She seems to do things in periods. She'll have a period of eating where it's pretty much all she wants to do for a day or two. Then she'll switch to sleeping and she hardly ever wakes up. She'll even have pooping periods where I have to change her every 30 minutes or so and she goes through 3 or 4 outfits in one day. It's pretty funny, but sometimes exhausting... especially when it's an eating period.

I've decided to work on my goals for the New Year one at a time. Since they are more of projects than things that need to be done on a regular basis, I think this will help me accomplish them more easily. I've been brainstorming and organizing for my chore book. I'm collaborating a lot with Mitchell so that it's something that will work for our family for a long time. We've decided to leave monetary amounts out. We'll decide how much the kids earn based on the number of jobs done, the difficulty of the jobs, and the age of the child. I'm really excited to keep working on this. Along with making the book, I'm trying to get into better cleaning habits. I'm usually a pretty messy person. So I'm trying to make sure that I stay pretty clean when I cook dinner and I'm working on doing the dishes right after we eat, instead of when we've run out of clean ones. I'm also trying to get into the habit of making my bed every morning.

Alright, I think I'm done updating now. I just want to add that I'm grateful for my husband and that he took care of Joseph while I napped today.