"Make me up! Before you go go..."

I hope that song is now stuck in your head as it is mine :)

Anyway, I changed the first lyric to represent my blog subject... catchy, right? ;)

Today I had to run errands with the kids while Jason was at work. We woke up, had breakfast with Daddy before he had to go to work, then I started diaper laundry, cleaned up the kitchen and we were out the door! Just to WalMart for some groceries... no big deal. I was on my way to the kitchen gadgets when I passed a mirror in home goods and realized I hadn't put on make up this morning. I continued on my way wondering how long it's been since I did my make up. A few days? A week maybe?? I was sick on Sunday so I didn't make it to church therefore no reason for make up... hmmm... even now my best guess is almost a week and a half since the Sunday before last when we did go to church and we had our game night that evening.

When I was younger, I did my make up every day. I enjoyed doing it. Watching the transformation - seeing myself beneath but changing my features. LOTS of make up for show choir and pageants. Maybe some foundation and eye shadow for church. Now, make up is one of the least important things. Obviously, it rarely crossed my radar, lol. Being married to a man who tells me I'm beautiful EVERY DAY is wonderful. Sure he likes it when I do my make up, but he has no idea what his small words do for my self confidence.

I sure do love that man :)

The best of the best

This weekend, my amazing friend came to visit me. We have been close since we both started college (where we met) and I joined the church. She was my maid of honor at my wedding and we were practically inseparable. I considered her to be my best friend for a long time.... After this weekend, I'm not so sure I can call her that any more. We have done quite a bit of growing apart and both admittedly suck at staying in touch, lol. After I left Springfield, I met my husband, got married, had kids and have this amazing new life. My friend is still in college and is very successful with her job. Not that either of those is better than the other, they're just very different. During our visit this weekend, this realization came to me and I almost cried. We're both happy with where we are individually so I wouldn't wish to change that, I just hope we can do a better job staying in touch.

I feel like I'm struggling in several relationships right now. (Thankfully, my marriage is NOT one of them :)) I feel like family doesn't understand me and they're too preoccupied to care. I feel disconnected from my son sometimes. He's going through the "terrible two" phase and try as I might I just can't seem to get through to him. There is no feeling worse than being a mother and not knowing how to help your child. Socially, I feel like the odd one out more often than not which isn't helped by my introverted-ness, lol

A bright and shining moment amongst this mess of mumbling is I realized just how close I've grown to Jason. It's cliche to say your husband is your best friend, but it's the truest it's ever been. I've always relied on Jason. I knew he'd always be there for me, always care, always take care of me... but I'd save all my "girlie talk" so to speak, for my best friend. I realize I've been having that with Jason as well, lol. I LOVE that Jason is my best friend (or maybe that I've only just now realized it). I can't believe we've been married for more than four years. Every moment has been amazing and a learning experience. What a journey I've been having with my BEST friend. I can't wait to see where we go next! :)

First Snow Day of 2012

Why hello snow! Long time no see! Today we have been taking it easy. Jason had to go to work but the kids and I are taking it easy. We're still in our PJ's, David is watching Bee Movie for the second time today, and Ainzley and I are hanging out on the living room floor. Jason and I are giving talks in church this Sunday so I need to work on that but other than that, I don't have much planned for today.

School starts next Tuesday and we're getting geared up for that. Jason is questioning whether or not he wants to go back to nursing school... We waited for so long for him to get in and were THRILLED when it happened, but he feels completely unsupported by his teachers. One in particular has made it very obvious she doesn't like him and no one in the program seems to understand how she grades (two people will have the same answers and one will get it right while the other is marked wrong... people have had answers directly from the book and she will say it's wrong...) He's just not happy. We'll see where we are in March (when his classes are supposed to start again). He's decided to apply for his BSN (which is two "steps" ahead of where he would be if he stuck it out with his current program) at another school and hopefully get into their program starting in June. A friend of ours from our last ward is in the program right now and has absolutely wonderful things to say about the teachers, program, etc. So right now, we're just reviewing our options and praying about it.

That's about all that's going on for us right now... just hanging out and deciding what to do with our lives :)

Christmas fabulocity

Christmas this year was simply amazing. We went to St. Louis to have an early Christmas with my family which actually went very well. Except for the part where I developed Mastitis at a record speed but the rest was great! The next Friday, we had Christmas with Jason's family in Jeff City and that also went well. Jason was talking to his older brother, Mike, on the phone yesterday about how absolutely remarkable it is that both family gatherings went really well... it was a Christmas miracle ;) lol. Christmas day was the BEST!!!

I had been plotting gifts for months and was sooo darn excited to finally be able to give them to my family. I (well, technically Santa) hand made a felt tool set for David and a felt tool set for Ainzley - they turned out even better than I expected! Jason got some clothes (he has decided he wants to wear more button up shirts and polos), expansion packs for one of his favorite card type games, a board game (Settlers of Catan), a video game and few other things that I just can't remember at the moment. Ainzley got a lot of clothes and a winter coat for next year. She got a couple small toys but David had so many toys that she's pretty well stocked already. I got a couple cook books, attachments for my kitchenaid mixer, some movies, a willow tree statue, a giant reese's pb cup, and the complete Harry Potter DVD collection. David's gifts were some of my favorite. He got a Tag reading system, a couple shirts, a kids digital camera and a BIKE!!!! That boy has been begging for a bike for as long as I can remember so now he has one :) He was so darn excited for that bike :):):):):):):):):)

We just lounged around all day in our Christmas PJ's. I made a really good Christmas dinner. We had ham, steamed veggies, baked sweet potatoes, homemade bread and apple pie for dessert. After the kids went to bed, Jason and I played Settlers of Catan - it was pretty fun!

Christmas has always been exciting to me but this year was the closest to perfect it's ever been. I put a lot of thought and time into all the gifts I gave and everyone enjoyed what they were given. This year was the first year that David was actually asking for certain things and to be able to see him open the presents and find what he had been asking for was the absolute best.

This year has been a roller coaster for us. We welcomed the sweetest little baby girl into our family, got a promotion, bought a house, worked like crazy on the house, started nursing school, watched our kids grow, set goals, accomplished goals and planned our future. We have been blessed beyond what we could have imagined. We are so thankful for the knowledge we have of our Savior Jesus Christ, our mission here on earth and of the eternal family. 2011 has been simply amazing. We hope we can continue to follow the example of the Savior and see the good in every situation. We hope you all have had a terrific year and look forward to making memories with you all :)

Wow it's been awhile since I've posted but it's been pretty crazy lately!

Jason's done with school for the semester (and I will be too after tomorrow!!!) and we've been working our BUTTS off on the house! My favorite thing we've been working on is the guest room/office. We bought a desk, filing cabinet and book shelf to go in here and it's awesome! The only thing missing is the mattress (the bed frame is set up and waiting for it!). We've finished the painting, been doing some long-term decorating and have been decorating for Christmas. Our gifts are wrapped and under the tree though I have two more I'm making for the kids which could turn into four, lol.

David is HILARIOUS!!! Oh man, that little boy makes me laugh so hard everyday. He is always so darn excited to see Ainzley every morning. Yesterday we were driving around listening to Aindy Williams' Christmas CD (Jason's favorite) and David was singing along - he even knew the right words! He is JUST like his Daddy and loves Christmas so much! He always begs me to turn on the Christmas lights first thing in the morning and it is torture for him to have to wait until it's dark out. He is my little helper around the house. He wants to help me do everything and loves to watch me cook. He is just the funnest, cutest little boy!

Ainzley is growing sooo much! She's so stinking cute, too (of course ;) ). She has so many methods of movement! She will get up on all fours and scootch herself where ever she wants to go... backwards, lol. She'll do the same thing on her tushie. To go forward, she'll sit on her bum and use her legs to move - she's so funny! I'd love to say I think she'll be crawling by the end of the week, but she seems pretty content in her own ways. She just had a dr's appointment the other day and weighs 19lbs and a few ounces and was 28 inches tall. She also has SIX teeth all of which have appeared since September. It's making nursing a challenge since she's a lazy latcher but only 3 more months until we reach our 12 month goal so I'm going to stick it out :)

Jason and I are doing great. He's still working and I'm still raising the kiddos. We are loving our house more and more (if that's even possible!). We had our annual Christmas party last Sunday and it was a blast! We had so much room to do stuff and the kids were all playing upstairs doing their own thing. It was WONDERFUL! We had about 20 people there and could have easily doubled that and still have been comfortable. Transitioning from 1200 sq ft to 2700 sq ft has been challenging in some aspects but totally worth it as far as having guests over. We don't miss our apartment :) Anyway, back to the party. Like I said, it was awesome. We got to just socialize and snack before we decided to play Mafia. We were a LOUD bunch and a competitive one but it was great.

There's not a whole lot else going on. We're getting excited for Christmas and to see family again. I haven't seen my family since............ oh yeah, October but even then it was their pig roast so they were busy doing things and there wasn't much time to talk or anything. Anyway, I am so excited for one gift in particular and that is the bike we got for David. He has been begging for a bike for as long as I can remember - he even prays for one when we have family prayer at night! I bought him one at WalMart on Black Friday and am so excited to give it to him!!!! We didn't get him many toys this year because he has so many to begin with but also because whatever else we get him will be completely overshadowed by the bike so a few little things, some clothes and a bike. It will be awesome. Ainzley is getting mainly clothes and Jason is getting, well, I can't say here in case he randomly decides to check the blog (HA!) but he's getting some pretty great things, too.

Thanksgiving/Anniversary

This year, our anniversary fell on Thanksgiving which wasn't as "bad" as it sounds. When we picked our wedding day, I knew it would occasionally fall on Thanksgiving but it didn't bother me. This year as we explained to some people that our anniversary would share the day with a big, national holiday we got weird comments like "Hmmm... didn't think about THAT when you picked the wedding day did you?" or "That sucks". Really, it made no difference. It was fun because we got to be around our family most of whom were there for our wedding day anyway so it was fun. It was a busy week leading up to Thanksgiving since we were going out of town and all. Wednesday was pure chaos but we made it to Thursday.
Thursday started early and after not much sleep. While Jason was packing the car, I came out to notice a few things were different. I had just cleaned the car out the night before so when I saw a roll of Jason's work trash bags strewn over the two front seats and a permanent marker in my seat, I knew something was wrong... our car had been broken into. Jason took my car to WalMart Wednesday night but I am positive I heard him lock it when he got home. No windows were broken out thank goodness. They picked the lock. Our car is remote entry and there is only ONE lock on the entire car which is the drivers side door. Sure enough, there were scratches all around it (we've never used a key to open my car). They thieves made out good. We had THREE portable DVD players in the car, 10 DVD's, TONS of CD's (mostly from Jason's mission which we can't replace), and they took my Moby Wrap among other things. Once I realized my Moby and Jason's mission CD's were gone, I broke down. I felt personally violated. Oddly, I felt most sympathetic for David. He knew his stuff was gone but didn't understand why... How do you explain that to a two year old?? Our police station was mysteriously closed for the holiday so I couldn't file a police report until Friday. Thankfully our home owner's policy will be covering the stolen merchandise. Still, every time I look out the window and see someone, I wonder if they're to blame.
It took my a good hour before I was determined to not let someone's mean/rude/selfish actions ruin my day. I DID have so much to be thankful for. I was celebrating 4 years of absolute BLISS with my husband. We've had our moments, but being married to Jason is by far one of the best things in my life. He is my everything. I can't imagine my life without him. I am so lucky to have him by my side through this life and the eternities to come. We have two AMAZING children. My kids are my world. I am truly blessed to be their mommy and to be able to learn from them and teach them. We have a house, a car, Jason has a terrific job and is progressing in nursing school. We are healthy and happy and those are things that no one can take away from us :)

The bare minimum

Last week was a difficult week for me. I'm not going into specifics because I've put it behind me and am looking forward. I stayed off the radar for most of last week including my school work. This semester has been especially difficult with how much our lives have changed recently and I needed a break. I did the bare minimum all week. I worked on the house but pretty much just let life happen. I'm catching up this week... dishes, laundry, diapers, sewing. There's a lot to do, but my break last week was great therapy and wonderful family time :)