The Clevelands

30 days of blogging

2011-06-01T15:12:00.000-06:00

I have a goal to complete 30 days of blogging in this format:

30 Days of Blogging

day 1- recent picture of you and ten interesting facts about yourself

day 2- the meaning behind your blog name

day 3- a picture of you as a child

day 4- a habit that you wish you didn’t have

day 5- a picture of somewhere you've been

day 6- favorite super hero and why

day 7- a picture of someone/something that has had the biggest impact on you

day 8- short term goals for this month and why

day 9- something you're proud of in the past few days

day 10- songs you listen to when you are happy, sad, bored, hyped, mad

day 11- write a bucket list of things you want to do before you die

day 12- write a poem to someone you love

day 13- your 5 favorite books and why

day 14- a picture of you and your family

day 15- put your iPod on shuffle: first 10 songs that play

day 16- a picture of yourself

day 17- someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why

day 18- plans/dreams/goals you have

day 19- write about a sweet memory from your past

day 20- write a letter to someone

day 21-a picture of something that makes you happy

day 22- what makes you different from everyone else

day 23- something you crave a lot

day 24- post your favorite quote or verse of scripture and why

day 25- what I would find in your bag

day 26- list 10 things that you are thankful for

day 27- my day job verses my passion

day 28- cruise a thesaurus and pick out 10 words you like the sound of

day 29 - favorite TV shows and why you like them

day 30 - movies you can watch again and again

For those of you that want, you can follow along with this on my other blog, which is private and you do need an invite. That address is http://scottandsarahcleveland.blogspot.com. If you want an invite, please message me at sarahjane725 at yahoo dot com

new post

2011-04-26T14:20:00.002-06:00

After several months, I finally have a new post on the private blog!

New post

2011-01-20T21:33:00.001-07:00

New post at the new blog!

Update

2011-01-09T17:06:00.002-07:00

Hey, those of you that have been invited, I've just updated the new blog!

GOING PRIVATE

2010-12-22T18:16:00.000-07:00

I have decided to go private. The website www.spokeo.com is pulling pictures, house value, income, basically anything that is public knowledge and displaying it for the public for a fee. They cannot access certain things like blogger and facebook if set to private. So, I will be going private on SUNDAY. If you would still like to read my blog, send me an email to sarahjane725 at yahoo dot com.

No-sew Fleece Blanket instructions

2010-12-22T09:37:00.001-07:00

I had several requests from Facebook to help how to make these. They are super easy and fast.

Materials:
2 2-yard coordinating fleece (adult) OR 2 1 yard coordinating fleece (Infant)
Scissors.

Optional, but recommended:
2 12x24 cutting mats
Cutting guide
Rotary cutter

There are 2 different ways that I know of on how to finish the tie blanket. There are the square knot, or more of a braided look. I like the braided look better.

1. Cut all selvage. This is the rolled part. You can use a ruler to help make it straight. But I just eye ball it since you can see where the selvage ends. This is a picture of some selvage ends. There will be some on the other side as well.

2. Lay the coordinating color face down. Some of these are hard to tell and it really won't matter. Go with the softer edge. Place the pattern face up on top of it. Line it up as best you can.

3. Cut out 3 OR 4 inch square corners. This is your preference. What ever size square you cut out, this will be the size of your fringe. If you are doing the knot, I recommend a 4 inch, if you are doing the braided version, do a 3 inch. This picture shows a 3 inch.

4. Fold the edge so that it lines up with the top of the corner. See how one fabric is longer? Cut that edge off.

5. Now you are ready to make your fringe. If you don't have my recommended tools, you can just eyeball it with the scissors. Just make sure that you are not cutting higher that the 3 inches. It will be okay. You really won't be able to tell once it's all tied and everything. I like my measuring tool (the clear one) because it's already pre-sized. If you have the rotary cutter and the two cutting mats, place one mat UNDER the blanket and one on TOP. Fold the fringe up to align with the square. I love this method because you are guaranteed to have equal amounts of fringe. I tried to do this with a cutting board and it really doesn't work as well. The beauty of the clear tool, you can see that you have the 3 inch fringe measure up (does that make sense?) If you are doing a square knot fringe, I recommend cutting the fringe at 1 inch intervals. This will make tying easier. If you decide to go with the braided look, go with 1 1/2 inch intervals. But keep in mind that whatever you decided it will look nice.

6. ***If you are going for the braided look only*** Once you are done with a side, go back with your scissors and cut little holes in each of the fringes at about the half-way point. If you make a bigger hole, the fringe will be looser, if you make a smaller hole, your fringe will be tighter. Careful not to make it too small or the blanket will bunch. You'll find a size that works for you.

7. Complete the fringes at the corners to help keep the fabric in place. To do this, take the top fabric and stick it in the hole in the bottom fabric.

Then take the bottom fabric (which is now on top) and stick it through the top fabric (which is now on the bottom)

Just do it around the corners.

6. ***For the square knot only*** Once the fringes are made, take two fringes and do a square knot. Right over left, left over right. Do this on a few fringes to help keep the blanket in place. Careful not to pull too tight or the blanket will bunch. For some reason, I didn't take a picture of it.

If you look to the left in this picture, you can see the finish knot, I undid it though since I was making the braided look with this blanket.

8. Repeat these steps until you have completed all the edges. I did the corners first then went back to finish the rest of the tying all at once. But what ever works for you is good. Then you have a finished tie fleece blanket.

Here's a picture of the 1st one that I made for my friend, Julie. Hers was done with the square knot.

Well, I hope these directions make sense. Ask any questions if you need to. Also, I am willing to help anyone make these. I really enjoy doing it. I don't know how many I've made or helped make in the past few weeks. Or if you just want to borrow my tools, that works too.

The Truth

2010-12-15T19:51:00.000-07:00

I've kept this quiet for a long time because I didn't want people to feel sorry for me. I didn't even tell the depressing feelings in blogs/facebook, anywhere. I tried to hide it. I put on a happy face. In fact for months, the only people that knew this was my dad, my mom, and Scott. But, I'm feeling much better about it and would like to put it down in writing: I'm suffering from postpartum depression. At the beginning of August, I lost all control. I finally let Scott know my feelings, in which he replied, "I wondered, because you haven't been yourself." And as I thought back on my thoughts and emotions since the ending of my pregnancy. Outside of my family I felt alone. I felt I had no one I could rely on and no one wanted to be around me. I preferred to stay inside then have to go out. I remember being invited to a friend's baby shower and Scott had to convince me I needed to go. But all I could think of was "Why? They're only trying to be nice, they don't really WANT me there." I went, and I forced myself to be social, but all the while I couldn't stop thinking that they don't want me there. These types of thoughts haunted my every waking moment. I had convinced myself that I was not wanted by anyone but family. And while I love my family dearly, everyone wants friends. Scott has encouraged me to call a friend to go out with. I try, but I still struggle with the thought of "who would want to hang out with me." I was put on anti-depressants. I started feeling better and Scott always encouraged me to express my feelings to make sure that they weren't building up anymore.

I have come to accept that I am battling a mental disorder and am okay with it. I still have days where they're bad, but not nearly as bad as those days soon after Tyler was born. I am currently weaning myself off the anti-depressants. I'm ready to be done. These pills have made me gain weight and that definitely doesn't help the situation either (who ever thought that would be a good side effect of anti-depressants was a moron!) Scott still encourages me to go out with friends, but as I mentioned the thoughts come through that I'm not wanted. He also encourages me to talk to him.

I'm so lucky to have married someone so amazing. He has never talked down to me, he has never belittled me, he has never called me a name, he has never told me ideas were stupid or not worth anything. He has only shown me unconditional love. I often wonder how I have ever deserved him. I do know for a fact though, that I couldn't have battled this depression without him.

My boys

2010-11-25T08:56:00.000-07:00

Binky or thumb? Why not both?

Trevor loves to look at the moon. Here he is admiring the moon with Rick instead of watching the football game.

Yeah, whoever invented these for bathrooms is a complete GENIUS!

Tyler stats

2010-11-23T13:39:00.000-07:00

Head--17.1 inches (37%)
Height--28.74 inches (97%)
Weight-- 19.05 pounds (72%)

He is growing so good. The doctor was shocked to find out that he is crawling. She told me that's not supposed to happen until between 8-9 months. We are still concerned about his spitting up, but as you can tell, he's not striving. The doc. said that should stop completely by 9 months. We're keeping our fingers crossed.

Tyler at 6 Months

2010-11-20T22:19:00.001-07:00

Wow! Has it really been 6 months since my little guy was born? I find it hard to believe that it has been over 1/2 a year. Tyler hasn't had his 6 month appointment yet, that comes on Tuesday, however, due to certain people telling me to update my blog, I'm on a roll and should do this now.

First I guess that Tyler is somewhere around 18 pounds. He's a big boy. Here are some other great things about him:

--He sleeps through the night.
--Loves to watch Trevor play and gets upset when Trevor leaves the room.
--Giggles and smiles 80% or so of the time. He's a very happy baby as long as he isn't hungry or tired. If he's tired he prefers his crib over any where else.
-- Sleeps stink bug style
--Has an obsession with his thumb
--Loves his giraffe toy
--Loves to jump. His jumper was a great investment. He'll jump if your holding him up too.
And one day before he turned 6 months he:
--Got his first tooth and now has 2 teeth
--Began to crawl.

As you can see, I have an amazing baby. Here are some pictures and a video for your viewing pleasure.

This video proves how much he loves that thumb!

Football

2010-11-20T21:54:00.000-07:00

My cousins and my students played in a tournament in Mesquite, Nevada, this weekend. Luckily, they didn't play each other. That would have been an awkward situation. It started on Friday when both Chris and Dillon played their hardest and won each of their games. Chris played on a 6th grade team while Dillon played on a 3rd grade team. Saturday was good as well. Dillon's team played hard and well, but the larger 4th grade team beat them out, having Dillon's team coming in 2nd for their age group. I was very impressed when the other team's coach stood up at the awards and commented on what a great team they played against and that they did a wonderful job. I was happy to see a coach showing his players what it truly means to be a good sport. I then went to watch the last bit of my students play. I didn't see a lot, but I could tell right away that the other team was a vicious team. But what shocked me the most is when I heard several of the players tell my students to "suck it Pine View!" I couldn't believe what I heard and neither could all of the moms that heard the same thing. It was sad to see that they play rough AND they don't know how to be good winners. I can't wait to return on after Thanksgiving to tell me kids what a great job they did and how proud I am of who how they played.

I took the boys down. Trevor loved to watch Chris and Dillon play and even got into the cheering. He became mesmerized by the sport. Now, if you know anything about Scott and me, we are NOT in anyway sports fans. In fact, when I married Scott I felt lucky to have found someone that cared as little about sports as I did. We watch the Superbowl, more for the experience than for the enjoyment of the sport, and Scott watched the occasional NASCAR race. Yep, not big sports fans. Neither one of us played sports in high school, nor did we want to. As I watched my 3 year old trying on a helmet and holding a football and telling me that he wants to play football, the future came to me. Scott and I always decided that whatever our kids wanted to do, we would support them in that choice. We may not be sports fans, but I would do anything for my boys. I saw myself 10 years down the road. I was the mom out there holding a sign for the boys to run through. I was there wearing a sweatshirt with my kids' team name on it. I was there with a cowbell painted in the color of the team and screaming for the team to get a touchdown or to intercept the ball or just tackle the opposing team member. The time is coming fast. I may not have wanted to do it when I was there. But dear Trevor and Tyler, if you want to do it, please know that Mom and Dad will be there to support you 100%.

p.s. all pictures are on Heather's camera. When I get those pictures, they will be posted :)

Cornbelly's and such

2010-11-20T11:21:00.000-07:00

At Thanksgiving point they have a fun place called Cornbelly's. It's only around for Halloween and has a ton of stuff to do! We went with my dad and his wife. Trevor loved it. Especially the jumping pillows! We got to spend time with my dad and my mom. Someday I hope that they will be able to get together for the family without feeling awkward. I would have loved to share Cornbelly's with both of them.

Halloween

2010-11-20T11:01:00.000-07:00

Halloween was celebrated this year by starting on Thursday when we went to Dixie State's trunk or treat. This got Trevor in the mood for going around. Trevor was Spiderman while Tyler was a robot. Well, that's what his costume said, but I think it's more alien looking. Saturday we went to the ward Trunk or Treat where they had tasty chili and Trevor's favorite, a bounce house.

Trevor showing off his mad super hero skills. The only time he wore the mask was this moment. He refused to after this.

My two boys

My cutie!

Robot or Alien? what's your vote?

Playing in the bounce house

The cupcake walk. Trevor was fun to watch run around the chairs.

He won a cupcake!

He got worn out.

Riding in the rocket ship. He needs to do this every time we go to the mall.

How can you NOT love this face.

Ethel

2010-11-20T10:48:00.000-07:00

Every now and then you meet a person so extraordinary that you just feel that the world is better because of this person. A few weeks ago I had the most wonderful experience with a sweet old lady named Ethel. I needed to go to Walmart to get some shopping done. Scott was at work, so I took both the boys with me. My list was fairly short, so I figured I could be in and out in no time. I don't know what I was thinking since I had the two boys. Tyler was crying, wait, no screaming and Trevor was grabbing every thing he could to put it into the cart. The he would proceed to freak out when I told him no and to put it back. As I moved along the aisles, I can't the empathy look or the why don't you leave look from almost every one. As I was walking out of one aisle, this 60 something lady grabbed my cart to stop me. "Great" I thought "Now someone is going to tell me how to raise my children." I was already on the verge of tears with trying to control my two children. The lady looked me in the eye and said "I'm done shopping and have everything I need. You hold your baby and I'll push the cart and help you as long as you need." I was immediately overcome with this great feeling of love for this woman I just barely met. I did everything I could to not cry. I only had a few things left on my list. But sweet Ethel continued to follow me and talked to Trevor and me while I held Tyler. Once I was done, she told me, "I really don't have any where to be, so if there is anything you want to look at, just go ahead." I didn't so we went to check out. At this point I sneaked her 3 items onto the belt so I could repay her kindness. Unfortunately, one of the items she had she was returning, so that plan kind of blew up in my face. She even offered to follow me to my car to help me out there.

I was so amazed with this woman's kindness. It makes me happy to know that kindness still exists in a world that is full of pushing people away. One of my favorite movies is "Crash." The basic storyline is simple. Several people being forced to deal with one another. The very first line describes it the best: "It's the sense of touch. In any real city, you walk, you know? You brush past people, people bump into you. In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something."

I don't believe that this feeling is just in LA. But is almost every city you find it. People are no longer helping those that we see that are in need of help for whatever reason. Ethel taught me an important lesson. We don't have to be like that.

Candy Corn Wreath

2010-10-11T19:55:00.000-06:00

My friend showed this website to me. It's all about decorating on a budget! I found a cute wreath that looked super wasy to make.

So I bought a Styrofoam wreath, black duct tape, ribbon, and 2 bags of candy corn

Next, I wrapped the duct tape around the Styrofoam. This part was pretty messy because the Styrofoam kept "sprinkling."

I then hot glued the candy corn around it. Time consuming, but easy. If you choose to do this project, hot glue the wreath, not the candy corn because I burned my fingers when I tried to hot glue the candy.

Tie your ribbon in a pretty bow and you have a pretty homemade wreath for about 5 bucks. It's much better in person if anyone wants to come check it out!

Zion National Park

2010-10-11T19:40:00.000-06:00

On Saturday my neighbors went up to camp in Zion and invited us to come have dinner with them. Scott had to work, but I took the boys. Trevor loved it, Tyler was lax, and I enjoyed myself. However, I did earn the bad mom of the year award when I forgot jackets for everyone. Luckily, the Cheesmans had extra. I didn't get one, but that's okay; the boys were the important ones.

Strong, Spiritual Message

2010-09-29T21:58:00.000-06:00

Every now and then something comes across to me that I find more beautiful and more inspiring then everyday things. My friend shared this video (it has been split into 2 videos on YouTube to fit their requirements), I am truly inspired by this Gianna Jessen: saline abortion survivor. She tells her story of how she lived and speaks of God and Jesus in a beautiful way. I ask that you take the time to watch my two links and listen to her powerful message, not only of anti-abortion, but of our loving Heavenly Father and Jesus.

Favorite lines from this message:
"I don't belong to you. I belong to Christ. I am His girl and I'm a princess."
"God has a way of making the most miserable thing beautiful."
"My whole intent of living here is to make God smile."

2010 WCSD Foundation Breakfast

2010-09-26T09:16:00.000-06:00

The Washington County School District Foundation is all about giving to the kids of Washington County. I was able to take Trevor there and he loved it! We had a delicious breakfast and entered to win a few contests (none which we won). There was so much to do! The Batmobile was there, Trevor could feed/pet mini horses, there was a "train ride", pictures, and a small petting zoo. Everything was reasonably priced. Trevor rode the train twice and that and feeding the horses was his favorite part. He won a fish (against my wishes, but the lady saw him eyeing the fish and for 50 cents I didn't think he would win. He did. And a day later we flushed it down the toilet. What mean parents we are. Trevor would try to grab the fish from the bowl and several times he succeeded, so maybe it was good to put this poor fishy out of his misery. Overall we had so much fun and I can't wait until the next time when we can do little carnival games like this!

Creative Minds

2010-09-26T09:12:00.000-06:00

There's a new place here in St. George called Creative Minds. It's a great place where the kids can play and enjoy themselves. Trevor loved it and is truly looking forward to going back. When it was time to go I had to drag him kicking and screaming. They had construction part, playhouse, grocery, farm, stage, pirate ship, and more!

Disneyland

2010-09-26T09:02:00.000-06:00

It's been almost 2 months since our Disneyland trip and I have forgotten some things, but I hope the pictures tell it all.

Well, Disneyland was a blast. Getting up at 4 on Monday morning wasn't too great. But it made the trip fast. We couldn't check into our hotel until 3 so we had about 4 hours to kill. The weather was so nice compared to the weather we've been having here. The Hampton was very nice and the staff was great too. We decided to hit up Disney bright and early and be there when it opened. The kids were so excited. We saw Goofy right off the bat and Trevor didn't know what to do with him. I had to show him how to use the autograph book. The picture will show how Trevor felt about seeing Goofy in real life. As we were walking down Main Street all the cast members were the to greet us. Trevor went and gave all them high fives. There was one man (see picture) even got a hug. We played for a few hours. Toon Town was a hit and so was Dumbo. Trevor could have gone on Dumbo 50 times if we would have let him. I tried to take him on the carousel, but because Dumbo was right next door, he refused to. Meeting Mickey was his dream come true. He tried to butt in front of everyone else. The moment he saw Mickey, he grabbed the autograph book out of my hand and made a beeline for him. That was the whole reason we went and it was amazing to see it through his little eyes. We didn't get to do as much as we would have liked with the two kids, but we still had a blast.

That night we headed to Hooter's for dinner. I was surprised that their wings weren't that great. I was told because I got them too mild is the reason. So the next time I go, I will definitely get a hotter version of the wings and hopefully it will be a better experience. The strange part to me is the 4 waitresses we had. Really 4 waitresses?

The next day the Lefevres went to Knottsberry Farm while we hit up California Adventure. We all had so much fun. We went on the Monster's Inc ride, which Trevor loved. Also, we saw Sully, Woody, Cinderella, and Sorcerer Mickey. We tried to make it to Playhouse Disney Live! but was unable to get there on time for each of the showings. Trevor fell in love with A Bug's Land and we went on each of the rides like 4 times. The lines weren't long and Scott and I had decided that this day was going to be all about Trevor. We rode Toy Story Mania which was fun. But the hour wait seemed like it would never end. In the line there was a pile of poop...yes a pile of poop. It was nasty and Scott went to tell someone about it. I feel bad for the cast member that had to clean up that. We did get him to go on the carousel there and he loved it. We rode it twice and both times he had to have the "orange fish." Unfortunately, we did not get to watch World of Color which we really wanted to see.

Overall we had an amazing vacation and it was enjoyed by all. We had a great hotel and great friends that we went with. We could even see the fireworks from our hotel room. Yeah, we didn't get the music with it, but hey, Trevor didn't know the difference and he still loved it! Trevor loved spending the extra time with Sophee. Tyler was good for being the little 3 month old. He didn't fuss too much had a great time on the rides that he we took him on. There were a lot of rides in Disneyland that we were unable to get to that I would have loved to take Trevor on: The Haunted Mansion, lots of rides in Fantasyland, Storybook Canals, Alice in Wonderland. I would love to take Trevor back and hit up those rides.

A Page 4 All Seasons

2010-09-08T18:18:00.000-06:00

Okay, you all know how much I LOVE this website. It makes scrapping so easy. There's this drawing again this week and as I write this there are only 2 entries (3 when I go enter). Anyway...Go enter for this cute kit!

I'm a guest designer!

2010-08-18T06:28:00.000-06:00

I signed up to be a guest designer on A Page 4 All Seasons and I'm up there this week! I'm so excited. Go check it out and see what I made with their pre-designed kits.

Stores

2010-07-30T10:54:00.000-06:00

Trevor loves to go to the stores. In fact he has named each of the stores his own name. It took us a while to figure it out. But this is what we have:

The Red Store--Target

The Blue Store--Albertson's

The Yellow Store--Harmon's

The Mart Store--Walmart (I guess Blue was already taken!)

Every time we get in the car, he asks about them. "Are we going to the Red Store?" "No." "Are we going to the Blue Store?" and so on until he gets a yes. If he gets a no on all of his stores his next question is always the same. "We going to Sophee's?" Ahh, I love my little man!

A new venture

2010-07-29T11:46:00.000-06:00

I've decided to do all of my crafty stuff on this website www.tryingtoscrap.blogspot.com. Check it out!

T-shirts

2010-07-28T08:23:00.000-06:00

So the neighbor that was mentioned in the previous post is a science teacher and I saw that she had made these cool shirts using science. So we decided to make our own Disney shirts using this method. It was super easy and only cost us the cost of the shirts ($3.50 and $4.00 at Walmart). You need a dark colored shirt. We got black because that is the only one that they had in a sizes that would fit us (minus Tyler, because I couldn't find a black onesie!) Anyway, you make any design that you want. I made one from my Cricut with the Mickey Font cartridge. I used cheap cardstock and placed them on the shirt. Spray the shirts with bleach (only 2 or 3 sprays should do the job), REMOVE THE PATTERN IMMEDIATELY!!! Wait for a couple of minutes until you have the color you want, and spray the shirts with white vinegar. Wait for about 2 minutes and rinse your shirts and voila! You have really cool shirts!

spraying with bleach

quickly removing the letters

shirt as the bleach is doing it's magic

waiting for the bleach to take affect


spraying with white vinegar


Trevor is quite curious what's going on, we wouldn't let him play with the bleach.


finished product front

finished product back

Cats

2010-07-28T07:41:00.000-06:00

Last night my neighbor and I volunteered at Tuachan during the show "Cats" and because we were volunteers, we got to see the show for FREE! I had never seen "Cats" and honestly had no idea what it was about. But I loved it! I loved the dancing, I loved the story told through the songs, and I loved "Memory." I've always loved the song but never quite knew the meaning. The person playing Grizabella did a fantastic job and bringing the song into a more beautiful life for me. Her voice was AMAZING. I couldn't believe it. Her emotion in the song was great. Of course we took pictures (on a cell phone). When I get them from my neighbor, I'll post them here. If you have a chance this show is a must see! Now I need to see Tarzan!

Good Reads

2010-07-25T23:52:00.000-06:00

I was brought to this site by a friend: www.goodreads.com. I kept meaning to check it out, but never have, until yesterday. It's so great. It's like an online book group! How cool is that. You can be friends with anyone you want (maybe this is not good for me considering I'm addicted to social networking sites). You can look at your friends' shelves and see what they have read and their ratings on the books. I've been working on putting up the books that I've read. I could be doing this for years! Many of which I can't even remember if I liked. There are so many good books out there. It's so nice to be able to look at what my friends have read and see their recommendations.

What brought me to actually signing up yesterday was my purchase of this. I was saving money to have my piano moved, when it got moved for me, I took that money and bought the wonderful Nook. So far I love it. It's so great to have a book that's not bulky and uncomfortable. You don't have to worry about keeping the book open etc. There are many books that are not available e-style. But that's okay. There's a lot that are. Books are generally cheaper...generally. I really debated between the Nook and the Kindle. Each had their pros and cons. Why the Nook won: I could get it the day of at my local Barnes and Noble instead of waiting for shipping AND for any of my friends that have the Nook, there are many books that we can loan to each other! How cool is that. Okay, right now not so cool considering I don't know anyone that owns a Nook. But someday I will and this will be a cool addition. One bad thing about having an e-book reader: I miss the smell of a fresh new book :(. I guess I will just have to go to Barnes and Noble to get smelling fixes.

A tough decision

2010-07-20T07:36:00.000-06:00

I love nursing. I love watching the face of Tyler as he is so intent on nothing but eating. And he does so well, being in the 96% for weight proves that. But there's one problem: he spits up so much. Many times it goes through the burp cloth, so we went to towels, yep soaks through that as well. And he spits up hours after he's eaten making the spit up curdled and extremely stinky. I called the doctor and he gave some recommendations (burp every 2 oz or so, I did every 5 minutes, make sure he stays sitting up and not lying down), but those recommendations seemed to make it worse. We tried formula for a few days and I pumped every time Tyler ate and he did just fine. The dr. would prefer we keep breastfeeding, especially since he's doing really well with it and gaining great weight. But we have come to the decision to move to formula. This kills me. I get jealous when I watch Scott feeding Tyler. I am definitely not ready, but we think it's the best. I've prayed about it and am not sure if it's right. I feel guilty for giving up. I feel like I'm not being a good mother giving up so early in Tyler's life, but the amount of spit up is crazy! Please give me reassurance that I'm doing the right thing!

I won double!

2010-07-18T21:25:00.000-06:00

So, some of you know that I try to scrapbook. Most of my creations are from the minds of others, but hey, I still like it. Anyway, I follow a ton a scrapbook blogs that do random giveaways. I entered on at www.apage4allseasons.blogspot.com. You could enter up to 4 times for a patriotic kit, so I did. She was going to draw 2 winners and I won both. So now I am the proud owner of two of these. I'm so excited! I can't wait to get them and see what I can make with them. I have no idea what I'll be making, but I hope it's something good. Any of my scrapbook friends that currently isn't following A Page 4 All Seasons should. Because for the drawing I won there were only like 16 entries! And another drawing she did only had like 25. So, it really is a good time to start following!

New Found Old Songs

2010-07-13T20:57:00.000-06:00

It's so nice to have the piano back to me. I play everyday and Scott loves having it here. It really adds something to our house. Today I was looking through my old books and found a book full of fun songs. Some of my favorites were these:

And of course we can't forget this:

I know my students don't know Tiny Toon Adventures because that actually came up this past year. These are the good cartoons. What has Saturday Morning Cartoons came to? We must teach our children what a good cartoon really is!

My newest project

2010-07-13T18:37:00.000-06:00

I decided to make Trevor his own autograph book for Disneyland (that's only 3 weeks away!). It took me a long time, but I'm glad I've got every done that I can get done.

This is the cover

These are the pages that the characters will sign. I didn't want to be standing in line and looking for the characters specific page, so I decided to go ahead and make the characters and put them on the signed page once it has been signed. Don't know what I'll do about other characters that sign, but I'm sure I can find something!

These are the characters that will be going on the pages. I'm not too happy about Tigger, but I just couldn't find the right colors, so I gave up and am sticking with this one. It's the best.

This is by far the biggest Cricut project that I've done, and I'm quite proud of it. Now only if the next 3 weeks will hurry by.

Tyler was fussing...

2010-07-13T18:27:00.000-06:00

and I was playing the piano and this is what happened:

I'm glad my playing is soothing :)

Tyler's Blessing

2010-07-13T18:24:00.000-06:00

Here are some pictures of Tyler in his blessing outfit. I tried to get "professional", but it didn't work out too well. The blessing that Scott offered was so beautifully done. So proud of my boys!

Tyler's 2 month stats

2010-07-07T17:31:00.000-06:00

Tyler had his 2 month check-up yesterday. He's a growing boy at a whopping 13 pounds and 14 ounces. That's in the 96 percentile for his age. He's measures at 22 1/2 inches (44 percentile). So while he's short and fat he is still an adorable little guy. We love his smiles and wish that he wouldn't cry when he's not being held. But we're living with it and my homemade Moby wrap is being a lifesaver. We had one concern though when we took him in. His belly button. It's freaking huge!

It is a herniated belly button, which apparently is fairly common, but we were extremely worried. When we touched it we could feel some sort of popping in there. It doesn't hurt him. His cord fell off at about 3 days which we thought that is what caused this. He will probably have an outie (which is okay by me). In most cases it will go away on its own by the time he's FOUR! If not, they'll do surgery, but that's very rare. But FOUR!!! Seems so far away. And these pictures don't really do it justice, it gets bigger.

It's Here!

2010-07-07T09:28:00.000-06:00

I've waited 9 years for this. I even had a savings jar just for this. And I was surprised Saturday when it showed up with my mom. Her boyfriend planned it all. He got together all the people he needed to help move it from my mom's house to his truck. I can't say thank you enough to all those who helped both up north and here in St. George. I'm so grateful so friends and neighbors who were willing and able to help us. Even those we called who couldn't come help us when we called because they were out of town or busy with family.

The swing

2010-07-07T09:13:00.000-06:00

Tyler loves the swing. It calms him down almost every time he's fussy. There's one problem though:

This is how he likes to sleep in it no matter what we do!

4th of July

2010-07-07T09:09:00.000-06:00

We had a great 4th of July weekend. My family came down for Utah County. I got to spend extra time with my dad and his wife, my mom and her boyfriend, and my grandma. Sunday the 4th we were able to bless Tyler. Scott did a wonderful job. I am working on getting Tyler back into his blessing outfit for pictures. We used the same one that we used for Trevor. We blessed Trevor in January and Tyler in July. The outfit was definitely made for winter. Poor hot Tyler. We changed his clothes before Sacrament Meeting was even over. We were able to light some fireworks with my mom, her boyfriend, and my grandma. Trevor was so excited for the fireworks, but they scared him. He started crying and I tried to hold him and he kept saying "I don't want the fireworks." He started crying and ran into the house to watch from the safety of the window. I really wish I had video of this, because it was HILARIOUS! Here are some pictures of our fireworks at our house:

Trevor loved the sparklers though!

Scott's homemade "stand"

Trevor hiding in the window

Tyler "loved" the fireworks too!

Trevor was comforted by Grandma

Countdown chart

2010-07-07T08:50:00.000-06:00

I made Trevor a countdown for the day we leave for Disneyland. I found this one online and made a copy of it. I am so proud of it. I messed up a little on the I in Disney. I made the 8x8 calendar using a template in Microsoft Word and downloaded a free Disney font to make the number and letters. I then printed it at about on printed paper. I made the border by just gluing the calendar on white cardstock, then on black. Everything else was made using the Cricut Mickey and Friend cartridges. I had to use Design Studio to make the Mickey heads small enough to fit on each of the dates.

Trevor absolutely loves this. It is now becoming a reality to him that he gets to go to "Mickey's House. Every day, several times a day, he tries to put heads on. I had the heads sitting on his dresser and he tried to tape several heads on. I had to stop him and he wasn't happy. He won't let us forget that we need to "countdown to Mickey's house." We are now only 26 days away!

Our Trip Up North

2010-07-01T10:53:00.000-06:00

Last week I was having a rough time with the boys while Scott was at work. Scott came Saturday (after I had called him like 10 times frustrated with the boys, yes even the 6 week old). He said that we should just go up to Salt Lake. I was ecstatic. I love the idea. Scott got online and rented a room at the Red Lion in downtown SLC. It was great because our 3rd night was free. So it averaged about $60 a night. We packed up the boys and started to drive up. We didn't tell anyone that we were coming. We got up to SLC about 11:30 Saturday night and we soon crashed. Sunday we headed out to Cedar Fort to surprise my mom and visit with her. We usually stay with her. She loved having us visit for a while. We headed back up to SLC and tried to swim, but I guess we are too accustomed to St. George weather or their pool was really cold. We made our way to the Salt Lake Temple and enjoyed the beauty there. It was so peaceful. It sure was crowded for a Sunday though. I didn't think it would have been that crowded. Monday was great as we had a day filled with fun. We went to visit my grandma and introduce her to Tyler. She of course loved him. After that we headed to Snoasis, which my cousin swore was the best snow cone EVER. I had to test this out and sure enough it was very good. The texture of the snow was perfect. It wasn't hard, but wasn't extreme slush either. We waited for like 20 minutes for a blasted snow cone, but it was worth it. We then met up with my dad at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi to walk around the gardens. My dad works there, so he got us in for free. Because it was so hot and we had a two year old we decided to pay the $25 dollars and rent a golf cart. Wow, that was great! Trevor loved riding in it and we didn't have to chase him around. Also, it was so hot that we weren't sweltering either! We were planning on going to the Children's Discovery Gardens, but we were pooped, so we skipped that and headed to my dad's. Trevor was given his first Harley ride, which he loved and that really made my dad's day. Trevor asked to go again. My dad and his wife also offered to watch Trevor while Scott and I went and enjoyed dinner by ourselves. And we did! We went to Rodizzo's Grill and it was so good, but very expensive. We didn't get back to the hotel until late and Trevor was wiped out pretty quick. Tuesday we woke up and took our time getting back to St. George. It was a great weekend and I definitely feel relaxed after spending time with my boys.

Trevor talking to my mom Trevor's going to take after Grandpa!

Trevor did not want to wake up

This is Tyler's pouty face. I LOVE IT! (Is it bad to like a face like this?)

But we did get our first smile while we were there!

Trevor admiring our view of the parking lot!

Thanks Scott once again for being an amazing husband and knowing just what I need!

Allow me to vent

2010-06-26T11:20:00.000-06:00

When Scott decided to pursue a career as a police officer I knew the perception many people have towards cops. It seems that people get one ticket all of a sudden all cops become arrogant pigs. Did it ever occur to these people that perhaps THEY did do something wrong? I have been pulled over twice in my life and both times resulted in a ticket. The first one I was 17 and I ran a red light. To this day I fight that the light was yellow. The second was when Trevor was somewhere between 6 and 9 months old and Scott had only been on patrol for a short while. I was speeding and received a ticket from an Ivins officer who happened to go the academy with Scott. (Cops' families are NOT exempt from tickets). This one I will not dispute. I was speeding, I thought the limit was higher, but the fact was I was speeding. Why must so many people out there hate cops? They go out there every day carrying a gun to protect the community. They are there to enforce the laws set by the government. The government says "don't go this fast" They go fast, they get a ticket and all of the sudden the cops are out to get people? I wonder if people just stopped and thought about what they're saying? Why do so many people have a disregard for people in these types of positions? All they are doing is their job. Can you imagine the society we would be in without cops?

I've known that I would have to deal with this and I do. I usually can just ignore it. Until I read this on a friend's facebook status comment:

"I don't need or want police "protection". Traffic cops are the worst. Always some bogus reason to pump city or county revenues. They need to get real jobs or at least do something worth while for the "public interest"."

"pump city or county revenues"? BS! Scott has worked for the police department for 3 years and have not had one cent in a raise and his insurance premiums keep going up because of other city workers that just sit on their butts! And because of this he has actually taken pay cut! What's a real job? Should he go work at a fast food restaurant and call that a real job because he's helping society become fat? (okay that one was a little too far).

I've learned that they people who have a beef with police are those that have done something for police action to be taken against them. I guess it's too hard for people to break the rules and think they can get away with it and when they don't, they need to blame someone instead of taking responsibility for their own actions. Welcome to the real life.

Thanks. Vent over.

Family Pictures 2010

2010-06-26T11:03:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago we had our family pictures done with the magnificent Jaime who has done all of our pictures for about a year. She always does a fantastic job. She gives us so many images and it's great to have the option of printing so many instead of just a few. I tried to get a little big of everything. I wish I had more of just Trevor, but he wasn't cooperating very well.

Minute to Win It

2010-06-23T12:17:00.001-06:00

Have you ever watched Minute to Win It? It's a fun new game show where the contestants do random tasks in a minute to win money. Well, my friends Leslie and Lindsey and myself decided we needed to have a little party. Monday night we all gathered around for BBQ and to play some of the games. The BBQ was tasty and the games were fun! Each couple was supposed to bring 3 games, but because we got started late we were unable to play all of them. Here are some pictures of our adventures. We modified the games a bit to have a boy vs girls competition. Girls had their trash kicked, but no worries, there will be a rematch!

Shawn and Lindsey getting ready for "Paper Dragon"

After the "Paper Dragon."

Seth and Leslie doing "Stack Attack"

Lindsey trying to practice "Chocolate Unicorn"

Shawn and Lindsey doing "Suck It Up"

Seth and Leslie doing "Suck It Up"

Scott and I doing "Suck It Up"

We had so much fun playing these games. The hardest one we were doing was with the Rootbeer cans. You can 3 empty cans and 3 full ones stacked on top of each other and in opposite hands, then you have to switch the cans to the other hand without setting them down. It doesn't sound that difficult, but it is. That one is called "Cantagious"

The games with the candy was harder with the little kids. Especially Trevor who reminded us of a ball boy in a tennis match. He was always there to snatch up fallen M&Ms.

We are wanting to plan a second go around. If anyone is interested, let us know. I do also have videos, but I can't figure out how to load, so you many never get to see them.

Movies and Memories

2010-06-23T11:38:00.000-06:00

Monday we took Trevor to his first "big TV" movie: Toy Story 3. We had free tickets from a promo they were doing a while ago. We made this a family outing. We originally was not going to take Tyler, but couldn't find a sitter, so we brought him with us. Trevor enjoyed the movie. We went to the movie in 3D only because the theater closest to us only had 3D and due to time issues we couldn't go to the other theater. Toy Story in 3D was actually kind of disappointing. There wasn't really anything in the movie that needed to be 3D. Trevor didn't keep his glasses on and because I think he couldn't see the theater clearly, he lost interest half-way through, but was regained when he figured out that he could see the movie better with the glasses on. He kept calling it the "big TV' and the "Big Buzz and Woody." We enjoyed the movie. It really held up to the Toy Story name. Definitely worth seeing.

But one thing that this movie did was make me think of my old toys. One in particular. Pearl. Pearl is my stuffed panda.
Pearl

I got her when I was probably 8 and slept with her until Scott and I bought a body pillow. Yes, that means that I slept with a stuffed animal even after I was married. But she was the perfect size that I could wrap my arms around while Scott cuddled me from the back. Pearl is my Woody. I could never get rid of her. When I moved to Florida, I thought I could do it without her. Nope, I called my mom and asked her to send my beloved stuffed animal. The strange part is I didn't name her
Pearl until she starred as Pearl in a "movie" I had to make for one of my college classes. My roommates were so good to be her co-stars and provide a voice for her. I wish I knew what happened to that movie. It was a recreation of The Scarlet Letter. It only seemed appropriate that she kept the name. After we bought the body pillow she shared the bed with the pillow, but when we bought our house 2 years ago, she has been sitting in the closet. She was sitting up and looking out, she was never packed away. Well, Monday night, I pulled her out and cuddled with my long forgotten Pearl. Oh it felt good to cuddle that black and white animal. She is now back in her rightful position on the bed. I even whispered I'm sorry to her as I had her in my arms. Reading over this it sounds silly that a 26 year old is happy to have her long-forgotten toy back.

Even Scott loves her.

I guess that's what the movie will do to you. It makes you think about your Woody and where it is. Scott did, I did. I wonder how many other adults think about the precious toy that they carried everywhere. I dare any one to watch Toy Story 3 and NOT think about that wonderful toy that kept you company all those growing up years.

Pearl and I reliving the memories

Giveaway!

2010-06-11T07:11:00.000-06:00

As you all know giveaways are awesome. Everyone should check out this one

Our Beautiful New Backyard

2010-06-10T20:16:00.000-06:00

We've lived in our house for 2 years and from the moment we looked at the house we've been planning to turn this:

into something decent. We've been looking forward to the day we could. We'll Monday was the start of our adventure when we called people for bids. The process:

Here we have another before picture (yeah pretty ugly right?)

One of the guys working on the machine

This is after day one and the workers had left

The side of the house in the "During" phase

Okay, I know you've all been waiting for the finish product. Drum Roll please....

Oh, it's so beautiful!

Don't you just want to come and hang out in our backyard?

Our grapes that are currently producing tastiness.

Yep, I know you're jealous. Everyone is welcome to come and adore our beautiful back yard. Sadly we can't walk on it for 2 weeks :( But we LOVE IT!

My boys

2010-06-09T07:54:00.000-06:00

I love my boys. Trevor is so good with Tyler. He always wants to help and has yet to intentionally hurt Tyler. Tyler will be 4 weeks tomorrow, but it seems like he's been in our family forever. I can't imagine a life without all 3 of my boys. Trevor loves to help with Tyler, especially in diaper changes. If we grab a diaper, he will grab one and take away the one we had already grabbed because his is better (or so he tells us). He's always happy to show Tyler off as well.

I am so proud of this picture. I took it myself :)

Trevor loves watching Dad play video games. He kept telling Scott when to "open the door" and "get the rectangle!" (The game's money). He cheered when Scott defeated a bad guy and "awwwed" when he was killed.

Remember how in an earlier post I said that Trevor loves to clean out toes? Yeah, Dad's toes are no exception

While Tyler just eats, sleeps, and poops, there's not much to say. He's a good baby when he has a full tummy and is being held. He's a great eater which explains why he weighs over 11 pounds! It's like my newborn isn't so newborn anymore. I know, I know, it's been 4 weeks, but still, it went by fast. I saw a friend's newborn yesterday who weighed 4 oz more than Tyler when he was born. And wow! It goes by so fast and they grow so quickly.

Trevor is always keeping us laughing. The other day he told me he wanted mac and cheese for lunch, so I made it then refused to it. I told him he couldn't have anything else until his mac and cheese was gone. A while later I see him get in the pantry. I watch to see what he's doing. He likes to hide in there and jump and "scare" us. He comes out with a box of Frosted Mini Wheats. He says he needs a bowl, which he gets from the dishwasher. Next he grabs the milk. He takes his items over the table where he makes himself a bowl of cereal. He even put everything back! I let him eat it.

We have taught Trevor not to touch bugs. He does really well and tells the bugs hi, but never touches them. Well, yesterday I was nursing and Scott was mowing the lawn and Trevor comes into the living room and says "Don't touch the bug!"

"Yeah, buddy, don't touch the bug" at this point he gets a big smile on his face and says: "I stomp on the bug!" He climbs on the couch next to me and tells me "see!" And holds up his foot where sure enough there is squashed cockroach! He jumps off the couch and then heads outside to show Dad where he gratefully cleans off the bug.

Oh my boys!

Paunsaugunt

2010-06-06T21:12:00.000-06:00

Today Scott and I decided to make a last minutes trip to the Paunsaugunt where my family was camping. They do this every year but we've never made it up there to spend time with them. We loved it. It was only about a 2 1/2 hour drive and we got to spend some much needed time with family. Trevor loved it. They had camped in this beautiful area where a creek with fish was running through. We wish that we had brought our camping and fishing gear to stay the night, but unfortunately we came unprepared so we left after a couple of hours. Trevor got to go on his first 4 wheeler ride which he loved and didn't want to get off the 4 wheeler. I wanted to go for a 4 wheeler ride, but was unable to because just driving Trevor around the camp ground was irritating my episiotomy. No one was expecting us so it was nice to surprise everyone. I didn't get a lot of pictures, but here are a few that I did get.

Riding the 4-wheeler with
"Grandpa" Rick

And Mom

Here we are with the wood statue dedicated to Tyler. (Long story, if you want it, ask)

My mom is dating a Rick and I have an uncle Rick. When my uncle Rick got the camp, I told Trevor to give him a hug. He ran up and gave Uncle Rick a hug, turned around to "Grandpa" Rick and said "1, 2. 2 Ricks!" We all got a good laugh out of that one.

Also, Scott and I have decided that sometime this summer we would like to actually go camping up there for a few days. Anyone that would like to come is welcome. Just let us know and we can figure out a day(s) from there. This spot that they camped at was free which was a definite plus. Sadly, there was only one tree for shade, but I'm sure we could find a different spot if needed. If you're interested in planning and coming with us, just let Scott or me know.

a boy and his toes

2010-05-21T10:37:00.000-06:00

Trevor loves to clean out his toes

He does this several times a day.

And then there was four

2010-05-21T10:33:00.000-06:00

***Some of this may be TMI for some of you. Just keep in mind you don't have to read this. I write this down because I use this blog as my journal.***

Last Thursday started out like any normal day. I even got up and went to work. I have first period prep (which I think turned out to be a good thing). I started to feel contractions around 8 and started to time them. That is all I did for my prep. Then came 2nd period. I played like nothing was wrong. The contractions weren't that bad. I could walk and talk through them. About 1/2 way through 2nd period I knew that it was time to go. I emailed our attendance secretary and within a few minutes my boss comes running in. My kids were working on an assignment, so I grabbed my purse and left with Bob. He said he was worried he would walk in and find me on the floor. I told him they weren't that bad, but I needed to stop teaching and that I didn't think it was hospital time. Bob escorted me out to the car where Scott was waiting and we proceeded to our friends' house where they were planning on watching Trevor anyway since Scott was supposed to have court that morning. They take Trevor while we headed to the hospital. I tried to tell Scott that I didn't think the contractions were close enough together and I did not want to be sent home. He told me that I was 5 cm dilated the day before at the doctor's. They were not going to let me leave without a baby.

Sure enough, we got right into a room, we completely skipped the triage (which we did with Trevor and my water had broken with him!). I got checked in pretty quickly and breathed through the progressively worsening contractions. The nurse (Carol) checked me and I was now 6 cm. Yep, we weren't going anywhere. Carol asked if I wanted an epidural and when. I said I wanted one, but I could breathe through the contractions so I wasn't desperate for one immediately. It turns out that the anesthesiologist was walking into the room as I said this, so it turned out kind of nice. Before I could have my epidural I needed to get the IV started and going first. I was okay with this. Can I tell you how much I LOVED that epidural??? So worth the needle. With Trevor the epidural didn't get my sciatic area and I felt everything right there and I was worried about getting one if it wasn't going to work there again because I'd been having problems with my sciatic. But nope. Felt nothing. I would look at the machine and see that I was having a contraction and it was beautiful!

After 4 hours of being in the hospital I was told it was time to push. The first contraction came and I did three good pushes. At the next contraction on the first push I was being told to stop. I thought something was wrong and I look down and ask "Is that the head?" The nurse responds "Yep," picks up the phone and screams "we need a doctor now!" The doctor that came running in was our family doctor. I gave one more push and Tyler was here. Now, enter my OB. Dr. Lunt finished the delivery.

I was so happy to finally have my baby here, unfortunately, I tore through my old scar tissue from Trevor and that healing has been painful. I'm glad that I am moving around now without much pain.

It's been a week since Tyler was born and everything is going well. Tyler is a calm little guy and Trevor is a great big brother. Trevor loves to help and runs to his "baby" every time Tyler starts to cry. He really loves to give Tyler his binkie, including while nursing! Tyler is happy as long as he's full, but he only eats for 5 minutes at a time before he falls asleep and refuses to wake up. I hope he's gaining weight just fine. We'll find out next week when his 2 week well baby check is. Tyler also sleeps in his bassinet (which Trevor didn't do until about 6 weeks). Trevor also has not reverted on his potty training. We try to praise him each and every time he uses the potty. It's been 2 weeks since any sort of accident (minus night-time). We are so proud of Trevor. We are also trying very hard to let Trevor know he's still loved and give him lots of love and attention. We even bought him a little present the day we brought Tyler home.

You've got to be kidding me!

2010-05-12T21:30:00.000-06:00

Today I went to my doctor's appointment. I'm a good 39 weeks and have been moving along about 1 cm a week since 36 weeks. Today I hit 5 cm and as the doctor put it "nice and soft cervix." So do I have a baby? Nope. Already this little guy isn't listening very well to Mom. I am beyond ready to welcome our new child. I have my lesson plans done and everything (I've had them done for a couple of weeks!). I'm contracting, but not constant or anything. Pray that this baby will come soon. I do hope it comes tomorrow, the 13th of May, then he can share a birthday with his great-grandma, one of the best women I've ever known.

Maternity Pics (Picture overload!)

2010-05-02T10:16:00.000-06:00

My friend Jaime took some AWESOME maternity pics. I absolutely love them. It was hard to leave some out. But I had to. If you want to see all of them, you can either go to my facebook page (which is private) or you can come over to my place and I'll show you.

I definitely have my favorites. Jaime does such an awesome job. She's great to work with too. Check her out at www.petalsandpolkadotsphotography.blogspot.com

Trevor's latest shenanegans.

2010-05-02T09:34:00.000-06:00

I was going through my camera and transferring old pictures to our computer and deleting them. I found quite a few pictures that need to be shared:

Trevor got a hold of the camera. There were about 40 pictures that he took of himself. I only kept the best ones.

Scott left his game on, Trevor decided he wanted to play. Like father, like son!

This is the first time Trevor filled his potty chart. He gets a prize when he fills it up. We were so proud of him. He's almost filled it up for the 3rd time!

This is what happens when a two year old gets into Mom's make-up. It happened while I was at work and Scott didn't know how to get it off. So my son walked around wearing make-up all day.

Trevor loves his hooded towels. He has a lion and a frog. He likes to wear them as "hats" and run around the house.

Win a cricut expression!

2010-05-01T15:10:00.000-06:00

I'm addicted to this scrapbooking website and they're giving away a Cricut Expression. How cool is that?

3 weeks away

2010-04-27T19:12:00.000-06:00

With the baby only 3 weeks away, I've been graced with a new experience: severe sciatic pain. I had some pain with Trevor, but nothing like this. I will be walking/standing and I will have what I like to call "a collapsing moment." Where the pain is so bad I must grab onto something or welcome the floor to me. I've had the pain while sitting too, but because I was already sitting, I didn't have a "collapsing moment." I complained to my dr. last week and was given a referral to the physical therapist. Monday I went to see Jane. She's great. She observed my back and informed me that my hip was rotated and it was then rotated back into position. This actually felt good. Jane's assistant, Sonia came in and gave me a nice 30 minute soft tissue massage on my butt/lower back (since that is the source of the pain). My butt felt bruised after that, but the muscle felt better. I was given a belly support band which I am finding kind of uncomfortable, but I can't believe how much it has helped. I go in on Thursday to start pool therapy to help build that muscle (supposed to help with labor and delivery too).

Monday after my appointment I didn't know what was going on, but I was having much more collapsing moments. The theory of Sarah leads me to believe it is because the muscle was irritated. Today was the first time in a week and a half that I have not had a moment. It was so great. I'm excited to continue my therapy and see me get better. My only concern is that my epidural didn't get that nerve when I was in labor with Trevor and the dull ache never went away the past two years. I'm hoping to be able to continue the therapy even after Tyler is born with the hopes of making this pain dissipate completely.

I have one problem with my pool therapy though: I don't have a swim suit that fits and I don't want to buy a maternity one and I don't want to buy a regular one since I'm planning on getting a new one anyway for Disneyland...what's a woman to do!

Guilty Pleasure

2010-04-26T16:53:00.000-06:00

Last Sunday I was bored, so I did the only logical thing and set up two baby registries. One at diapers.com and one at Target. I have to say I have been obsessed with putting things on ever since! Now, most things I've put on are the "oh these would be nice to have that I didn't have with Trevor!" But there are so many. I know most people aren't even going to look on there, let alone get anything. But this is adding some excitement for me. I'm not having a baby shower and so I'm not exactly expecting anything, however, there are no rules stopping me from going crazy online and with the little gun at Target!

Remember last week???

2010-04-18T16:42:00.000-06:00

So much better this week. I didn't think I was going to even try when getting ready for church Trevor fought me on everything. Even putting things into his bag. But we made it. Trevor did great through Sacrament meeting and he even made a new friend during it. They shared toys and snacks, might be why he did so well. As I was talking to Trevor's new friend's dad, Trevor made a beeline into the men's bathroom! I tried to grab him, but it was too late. I grabbed someone and asked them to go get my son, but he wasn't coming out. After about 3 minutes another male was going in, a few seconds later he asked "is yours the one in the checkered shirt?" Yeah, is everything okay?" "Well, he locked himself in the stall, and now he's pantless." Right at that moment he comes Trevor waltzing out of the bathroom in just his shirt. The man grabbed Trevor's shoes, pants, and Pull-up and gave them to me. I took Trevor into the ladies' restroom and he ran into a stall, climbed on, and relieved himself (I'm pretty sure he went in the men's restroom as well). Trevor was so proud of himself (and so was I; I didn't really care that he took off into the men's bathroom: HE WENT TO THE BATHROOM AT CHURCH!!! Which for all of us potty training mamas knows is a big deal. We washed our hands and went to nursery. The next two hours were great. When I went to pick him up, I was told he just told the nursery leaders in there that he had to go potty. So we run to the bathroom, where he proceeds to lock me out of the stall, but he went again dang it so I really don't care.

This week compared to last week: HEAVEN SENT! It's amazing knowing that the Lord knows how much one person can handle during church. I am so grateful that the Lord knows me well enough to know that I can't handle 2 weeks like last week in a row.

I've got 2 months of this!

2010-04-11T14:20:00.000-06:00

Scott is now working days on Sundays, which means church by myself. After today, I don't think I can do it! Trevor has these Sesame Street number cards and he loves to count using them. So we take them to church, but today, he decided he needed to throw them. And of course they were hitting people. So I take them away and he freaks. I was so lucky that the young man next to thought it was funny and even helped me pick them up when Trevor wouldn't. They were in the aisles, behind us, in front of us. I was on the verge of tears so I didn't even thank the young man next to me because I knew I would start bawling (thank you pregnancy hormones). Once I get them all picked up, Trevor decides to take his pants off. I keep trying to put them back on. I had enough when he took off he shoe and threw that. I just grabbed everything, picked up Trevor and left. I was bawling before I was out the door! Trevor asked all the way to the car "why you crying mom?" I told him "because you wouldn't keep your pants on." I put Trevor in his seat (without pants) and drove home. This is 10 minutes before the end of Sacrament. 10 Minutes! I get home and Trevor tells me "I need a nap." I think good, put him in his bed, tuck him in and he fell right to sleep. Why couldn't he just tell me that instead of throwing a fit! I call Scott telling him about my ordeal.

And then they will be 2...

A day of good deals

2010-04-05T16:23:00.000-06:00

Monday April 5th I didn't have school, but I still sent Trevor to daycare and Scott had to work. I took advantage of this and enjoyed myself. I started by organizing my coupons to take advantage of K-mart's double couponing going on this week. You can only do 5 coupons a day, so I split up the different transactions and plan on going back each day this week. Today I bought 1 Gillette Body Wash, 1 Visine, 1 Tampax, and 2 Nivea body washes. The grand total was just over $25. Then the coupons started. I only spent $5.37. Which means $20 in coupons. I can't wait to go back tomorrow. They have some other deals such as rebates and stuff, that I am going to try to incorporate getting those as well. We'll see.

I headed home and weeded my garden. I didn't know it needed it so bad, but it looks better. A relaxing bath sure helped those sore muscles! I couldn't believe how hungry I was after that so I headed to Durango's for one of their tasty salads. I pulled our my frequent diner card only to realize that I was due for a FREE meal. Scott was able to take his lunch at this time so I got some extra time with him.

I cuddled up with the last of the Fablehaven series and realized it was finally time to get Trevor. I hopped in the car and headed over the sitter's. As I was loading Trevor into the car I noticed Scott had called and sad he found a wood bassinet for $50. I wanted to look at it. It was probably just a cheap-o Wal-mart one, but we wanted one. I drove over to check it out and it's beautiful. It's a rocking bassinet that's hand-crafted from solid wood! The best part is that it came with the mattress too!

I gave them $60 for the bassinet because they even delivered it to our house. They were so nice and it turned out I was buying from one of my good student's older brother. They really didn't want to part with it and this bassinet is worth more than even $60. We got a really good bargain.

That's all of the good bargains for today. I can't wait to find more!

You know you're a good parent when...

2010-04-03T08:29:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I was cleaning up Trevor's room. He grabbed his Elmo Live and informed me that he needed a nap (he does this often so I wasn't surprised). But before he tucked Elmo into his bed Trevor said "Elmo needs to pray." He knelt down in from of his bed grabbed Elmo's hands and folded them together and said "Heavenly Father (insert words I didn't understand) Jesus Christ, Amen." Trevor proceeded to tuck Elmo into bed and kiss him goodnight. I told Scott about Elmo's prayer and he said "Wow! You know you're teaching your kid good habits when he has his stuffed animals pray before nap!"

What a good life

2010-04-01T19:12:00.000-06:00

I was sitting here thinking about how many good things I have in my life. So, this may be "one of those posts" where I do nothing but say how great my life is. But I can't go without it saying it.

1. My husband. I love this man so much.

Last week he kept telling me he was "scheming" on me. I tried to find out what, but he wouldn't tell me. Friday night I finally found out: he had planned a day with one of my friends. He had called her husband and set it up with her. It was so fun to get out and enjoy a day by myself. Tara and I had so much fun shopping, eating at Mongolian BBQ, going to see "Remember Me" and going to a Scentsy open house. It was a fun day and great to come home to see my boys waiting for me. Tara on Sunday actually gave the lesson in Relief Society in which this quote was shared: "Pray for the love which allows you to see the good in your companion. Pray for the love that makes weaknesses and mistakes seem small. Pray for the love to make your companion’s joy your own. Pray for the love to want to lessen the load and soften the sorrows of your companion." --President Henry B. Eyring, 1st Counselor in the 1st Presidency, LDS church. I love this. What better thing to do with the one you love than to pray for the good things in your marriage!

2. My boys.

My older boy makes me so happy when I see him growing and enjoying life. He's almost using the potty every time and says the funniest things. His speech is just growing everyday and I'm amazed at how clearly I can understand what he's saying. He's so smart and loves electronics. Just like Dad!

I haven't technically seen my 2nd boy, but I sure feel him! With only 7 weeks until my due date I'm starting to realize our family of 3 will soon be 4. I love watching Tyler move (not all of his movements feel good though. I love knowing that these little movements are the really the only way right now that I am sure that Tyler is okay. I can't wait until I will be able to see my 2nd little guy and be able to hold him in my arms and share this new life with my family and friends that I love.

3. My amazingly good luck and fortune. As many of you know, Our family completed the Give a Day Get a Disney Day promotion. Because of this, we will be taking a trip with our friends, the Lefevres, to Disneyland in August. We are so grateful we were able to complete this awesome opportunity. The vouchers went fast and I'm so glad that we were able to finish ours early. About 6 months ago I won a Yudu machine from Roberts Crafts. I sold it. I didn't have much use for it, but the money was a good start in saving up to get my piano to me. I won the door prize at that Scentsy party I went to with Tara on Saturday. Yummmy smells :)

Today I found out that I can apply for Short Term Disability when the baby comes, basically in short, I will get double paid (1 for Short Term AND my regular paycheck) for June and part of July. This is of course, if they accept my claim. The lady at the district said they should.

You know, I really do have an amazing life surrounded by people that love and care for me and the ones I love. I consider myself so blessed to be surrounded by so many good things. And for that, I thank the Lord everyday for how much he has blessed me.

Good Deals galore!

2010-03-21T19:57:00.000-06:00

So my friend Julie pointed this out to me. If you go onto Disney Movie Rewards website, you can get 2 $10 off coupons for Toy Story 1 and 2 ($10 off of each), and if you really wanted to, you can print each coupon twice and now have a grand total of 4 coupons! These Blu-Ray/DVD combos come out on Tuesday. Target is having them on sale for $22.99 each. Which would make the total $45.98, but if you buy both of them together they automatically take $10 off ($35.98), then use your $10 coupons and bam! Two Blu-Ray/DVD combo packs for $15.98 making each movie $7.99! Wowzers right? But wait, there's more. Inside each DVD is a voucher to go see Toy Story 3 (up to $8.50 value). Can this get any better?! When I read this from Julie, I had to go and print my very own. I'm already a member of Disney Movie Rewards, so I didn't have to sign up. When you sign in just enter in UPC codes from you Toy Story/Toy Story 2 VHS or DVD (I only had Toy Story 2 and I googled to find the UPC from Toy Story 1) I'm going to be super nice and give anyone that reads this those codes:

Toy Story 1: 786936670332
Toy Story 2: 786936127683

You will then be given a link to print off the coupons. If you really want the four instead of two coupons just hit each link twice and WABAM you have your coupons. Take your coupons book it over to Target and you have your deal!

But then I was looking in my paper at the Target Ads and the coupons today. I won't be taking advantage, but it really is an awesome deal. Target has the original Monopoly on sale for $7, in the ads today (SmartSource I believe) is a $5 off Monopoly coupon. Monopoly for $2! Plus Connect Four is also on sale for $7 and in the same ad is a $4 off coupon. So, Connect Four for $3! Pretty good deals right?

You're Welcome.

I don't nest...I craft

2010-03-20T09:31:00.000-06:00

A couple of months ago Scott pointed out to me that I don't nest when I'm pregnant. I get crafty. With Trevor I picked up cross-stitching, with Tyler, I've picked up sewing projects: the only problem is I don't have a sewing machine. I've borrowed my friend's and have been having fun with it. My most recent project has been the car seat cover as seen here. Well, I was at Joann's the other day with my mom and wandered across some fairly inexpensive fabric that I fell in love with. I had to make another cover. This one is by far the best I've done (I've made 3). My mom was looking at the other two and told me I had the tension all wrong and we couldn't figure out how to fix it on my friend's machine. So we took the fabric to my mom's house where we were able to finish it. It looks pretty good. I'm so proud of myself!

Nostalgia

2010-03-12T07:36:00.001-07:00

I grew up in a town of 350 people, 15 miles from the nearest stoplight, 7 streets and 4 stop signs. Cedar Fort is nestled in the mountains west of Lehi, Utah and the quickest way to get there is driving through the middle of Lehi. K-5 we had our own elementary with a grand total of 50-75 kids. 6-12 we were bussed to Lehi to attend school. I have quite the heritage in Cedar Fort: I grew up there, my dad grew up there, my grandparents grew up there (and I don't know how far it goes back from there). I claim Lehi as my hometown because I got sick of explaining where Cedar Fort is. About in 8th-ish grade Eagle Mountain started building between Cedar Fort and Lehi. This area between the two towns was nothing until then. Since then it has boomed into quite the area and adding Saratoga Springs which between the two cites has added stoplights, gas stations, multiple restaurants, a Smith's and the dreaded Wal-mart.

This weekend I made the journey from St. George to Utah county to visit my beloved family. I truly miss living here and often wonder how our lives would be different if I took the teaching job in Nebo School District instead of Washington County School District. I love St. George and we'll probably be there for a long time. But I love my family as well and miss being so far away from them. Anyway, as I made my journey home I was excited to see all the "old place" and reminiscence about the old days. Then I came to Utah County. All of a sudden the traffic was horrible and then I knew why I wanted to stay in St. George! The weather AND the traffic. Cars zooming past at an alarming speed, unable to switch lanes because of a car two lanes over trying to get into the same lane I wanted to be in and pretty sure they don't know I'm there or having my turn signal on! As I approached Lehi I knew it was only going to get use. Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs had brought a lot of growth (which I've never liked) and adding a ton of traffic to it.

Let me paint you a picture: remember in paragraph one how I said traveling through the middle of Lehi is the quickest (and best) was to get to Cedar Fort? Yeah, same applies to Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs. Lehi's main street is 4 lanes across as you get off the freeway as you travel west into the downtown and travel past the high school it goes down to a 2 lane highway--one east and one west. You can't really expand because the street goes right up to the businesses that line Main Street. Traveling the back roads will only eventually lead you back into the horrendous traffic build-up eventually because a ton of people have made Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs their homes. You can take the backroads, just don't know if the time it takes to travel it, is faster than waiting in traffic. There's so much traffic through here! I can't believe the growth that has happened in my hometown(s). I bet the people that have stayed or that live there now know of the different shortcuts, but I haven't lived here for 9 years! (Wow that has come fast!)

Yep, I'm glad I live in St. George now!

Growing belly = amazing husband

2010-03-01T23:16:00.000-07:00

When I was so pregnant with Trevor I couldn't cut my own toenails, and Scott stepped up and volunteered to cut them for me, I knew I had found true love. I tried so hard to bend over to cut those blasted nails, but a belly prevented me from doing so. While I'm not quite that large yet, I can tell it won't be too much longer. The other day I told Scott that I had to cut my toenails as much as possible so he won't have to do it again. His response: "It's okay, I enjoy doing it." At first I was surprised by this admission of enjoyment of cutting my toenails. He added quickly. "It's not like I would do it on an everyday sort of thing, I just like being able to help you when you can't do something."

How cool is that? With Trevor he was so great. He would massage my feet at night when they were swollen beyond belief. Eventually I had to ask him to stop because it hurt too bad to have him touch my feet. It hurt him to see indentations of his hands on my swollen feet, and knowing he could do nothing to help. He's so willing to help where he can knowing that sometimes I'm not all too comfortable. As I enter my 3rd trimester we are ready for these things to start again. And he is ready to help as needed. I am so grateful that I have this amazing companion who treats me with so much respect and love that I never thought I could possibly find. I really have found the most perfect husband.

Adventures in grocery shopping

2010-02-28T07:14:00.000-07:00

There are somethings that are just considered rude while grocery shopping, I had the unfortunate privilege to come across several of them last night: all while standing in line. There were only 2 lines open (and on a Saturday night in Utah, we all know that's just a bad idea). Anyway, I got in the barely shorter of the two lines. The people in front of me unloaded their cart right where the little rotating "belt" is and ABANDONED THE CART right there. Didn't even push it forward and there was plenty of room between my cart and theirs for one of them to push that cart forward. I was already having a pretty stressful day and I groaned loudly under my breath and said, "Well, that's just rude," as I pushed her cart obviously forward so I could begin putting my stuff of the belt. It was one of those times when I wanted her to hear it, but not obviously. My guess is that one of them did because she just looked at me. Anyway, they were using WIC. Which my guess is they had never done before. There was a mom and a daughter and the daughter looked about 8 months pregnant. It seemed as though the mom was pushing WIC on the daughter. They had no clue what to do. Now, we've been fortunate enough to never have to use WIC, but I do know there are certain rules that go along with it. Several items that they brought in coupons for were the wrong brand, so here goes mom having to go back into the store to get the right stuff. I was so fed up, there was no one else behind me, and the ones that were, had already been through the next line. I had about 3/4 of my stuff of the belt and didn't want to unload the belt...should've unloaded.

Well, once WIC had finished, I moved up to take my place, the cashier was friendly and I have no complaints. But the guy behind me, is a different story. First, he didn't put a divider between our belongings. I know some people do it for the person behind them, I do sometimes, but I was already frustrated at Ms. WIC. So then there was confusion at what was his and what was mine. Second, I was leaning the little podium next to credit card machine watching my prices. I already had my debit card out, and I wasn't hiding it, so it's a safe assumption that I was planning on using the machine. Well, the guy behind me is all up in my business standing right behind that blasted machine. I couldn't even get in to swipe my card, I had to stand off to the side...what's up with that? You trying to steal my PIN or something? He didn't even move when I went to swipe.

GRRR...

You leave 'em alone for three minutes...

2010-02-21T08:47:00.000-07:00

And this is what you get...

3 MINUTES..THAT WAS ALL!

Look what I made!

2010-02-20T12:42:00.000-07:00

If you know me at all, I'm not the very creative type, but every now and then I get ambitious...especially when I'm pregnant. I don't clean: I do crafts. I always saw these carseat canopies/tents/whatever you want to call them and I thought they were pretty cool. Unfortunately they run between 40-70 bucks, so I decided I would try my hand at these. I found fairly inexpensive fabric at Wal-mart and decided to make 2, borrowed my friend's sewing machine and set to it. I did ask my mother-in-law to help, but I was getting too anxious and decided to try my hand at it. Now, keep in mind that this the first sewing project I've done since I think 9th grade (maybe 8th). While, I definitely don't think I would get an A on this project, it's not too shabby for a beginner. My seams are uneven and my corners don't match, but I still think I did a pretty good job:

Tonight, it starts

2010-02-14T17:16:00.000-07:00

WARNING: YOU MAY EXPERIENCE LINKS IN THIS POST.

There are two shows that I love and I never miss. I preset my DVR to record every episode just to make sure I don't miss a thing. The first is Lost, the second is The Amazing Race. Lost started almost 3 weeks ago. Tonight The Amazing Race starts.

I love The Amazing Race. I'm not a big reality series type, but there's something about this show that draws me in. Deep down inside, I want to be on it someday. Not necessarily to win the million dollars, but to travel the world. How cool would that be? Perhaps that's why I love to watch it: I get to travel the world without spending the money to do it. I just finished looking at the bios of each of the racers for season 16. As I read this stuff, I can't help but be bugged by a slight detail: 3 competitors already have made a name for themselves and really don't need the money. There's Caitlyn Upton, who is famous for this remark in Miss Teen USA (or one of those scholarship programs). On her bio she says she has worked hard to overcome that embarrassing moment (yeah, I would to). Next there's Jeff Schroeder and Jordan Lloyd. This team met on the Big Brother and are now dating. Jordan won. Now does she REALLY need to be on here? Honestly, I don't watch Big Brother, but didn't she win a butt-load of money? And finally there's Steve Smith who is a World Series Champion Coach.

I'm sure these people have their reasons for wanting to be on the show. But with how many people apply, must they pick people like this? I don't think so.

By looking at bios I already have my favorites team 1 would be Dana and Adrian. This couple started dating in high school. They remind me of Scott and myself. We'll see how true this is once I watch them on the show. Favorite team number 2 is Jet and Cord. There name is so cowboyish, and that's what they are: cowboys (brothers). There's something I like about that, can't tell you what though. And favorite team number 3 is Dan and Jordan. They're kind of hot... yep, that's about it.

One team I don't like is Carol and Brandy. I don't like this because of Carol's desire of anything pro-women. Don't get me wrong, I like equal rights and everything. But it kind of seems that she might be the type that take it too far forgetting that while she wants respect for being homosexual and female, she's doing exactly what she doesn't want done to her to others. I'm all about equal rights, but don't put other people down in your quest.

Well, there you have it. What do you think? I can't wait to see how close my predictions are!

My sick boys

2010-02-11T06:41:00.000-07:00

Around last Wednesday Trevor started getting a fever near the end of the night. He kept getting Tylenol until Saturday. We figured it was just a virus and we were waiting for it to work it's way through. Sunday the fever was gone, but the horrible cough was not. I was so worried about my little man, but Sunday added more to the mix: Scott had a sore throat. This made me so sad. We continued to wait for the virus to run its course, but Tuesday Scott was feeling so horrible, he took Tuesday and Wednesday off work and called the doctor to get him and Trevor in. Unfortunately, I had the car and the car seat. I got someone to cover my last class and left school early to help take my boys in.

Trevor loved most of it. His favorite part was the little instrument with the light, whatever its called. While waiting for the doctor, I looked in his ear, Trevor looked in mine. It was great fun. The doctor came in and Trevor was so good. He climbed on my lap and held very still as the doctor listened to his heart. He tipped his head so the doctor could look in his ears, and opened his mouth wide so he could see down his throat. He was officially diagnosed with ear infections, that right, that "s" is not accidental. One for each ear! No wonder why he couldn't sleep at night.

Scott then hopped up on the table, but when Trevor saw the doctor pull out the instrument again, he jumped right up on Daddy and started pointing at his ear. He wanted to be looked at again! The doctor was great and checked Trevor again. When Trevor realized he was done being looked at, the fit started. I took him out of the room while Scott got the down low: yep, it's a virus, it should be gone in a few days. Then the questions about me started and what to do if I get it: not much, bummer right? So now we pray that I don't get it. So far, I'm good.

That night we gave Trevor his medicine. He took it so well (but we're not surprised, because he loves those nasty vitamins. If you have never tried prescription vitamins for babies/toddlers, just ask, I'll let you try them). Once he had downed his medicine, he asks "more candy please?" I politely tell him it's not candy, it's medicine. He thinks for a second then says "more medicine please?" I thank him for asking please, but he can't have more. He cries.

My boys are getting better, Trevor is back to his old self and Scott is slowly (very slowly) getting back to normal. But before I say adieu for this post. One more cute Trevor story. Yesterday Scott went to get a soda. Trevor walked in, walked straight for the soda, waited patiently for Dad. No whining for whatever, no trying to get his own soda, just was a good little boy. Scott told Trevor for being so good he could have a candy. They walked over to the candy and Trevor picked out his candy. He walked up to the counter and began digging around in his pockets saying "penny, penny, penny." He pulled out a quarter and sat it on the counter, but would not let go of his candy. How cute is that! He knew what he had to do. Sure, it wasn't enough, but he paid for it all by himself.

Bath time

2010-02-08T06:47:00.000-07:00

Trevor loves to take a bath. Here are his favorite things to do. I was going to post pictures, but the adapter for the computer kind of broke.

1--Playing with his car wash

2--Playing hide and seek with the curtains

3--Pouring water over his body (hates it over his head and is very careful to avoid that part of his body)

4--Letting us dump water on him from the top of the shower curtain

5--Emptying the water

6--Drying himself. He's so good about this. He has two towels that we use: a frog and a lion. Each of these towels have a hood with the said animal. We call him our little frog or little lion. Whenever it's on, he'll ribbit or growl respectively. When he growls, he gets up in the mirror sticks his hands out and growls. He then proceeds into his bedroom, lies down on the ground, grabs the ends of the towel and dries himself. But he sings this "dry, dry, dry, dry dry dry, dry the Trevor. Dry the Trevor!" (to the tune of Shake Your Booty). I'm in the process of getting video of this, cause it's hilarious.

The other day I was in the shower. Trevor was out playing with Daddy. I exit the shower and wrap the towel around myself, but before I open the door, I can hear Trevor "got you a towel Mom! Got you a towel Mom!" I open the door to find my two year old holding his lion towel wide for me, just as we do for him when he gets out of the tub!

How can I not love that little man!

Mud and poop

2010-02-03T20:32:00.000-07:00

This morning I put Trevor in a shirt with Disney's Cars on it playing in mud. He ran and played for about a minute then came back and said "It's dirty" pointing at the shirt "It's poopy." I gently replied, "no buddy, it's just mud." "No, Mom, it's poop." He then proceeded to take his shirt off and pulled a different one out of his drawer. Hey who am I to argue with a two year old if there's poop on his shirt?

Potty Training

2010-02-01T06:48:00.000-07:00

Yep, it's that time. The time that every parent has to go through: potty training. Which some of my co-workers has claimed that and driving is the worst two things a parent will ever have to do. Trevor first used the potty around 19 months. But I truly believe that was right place, right time sort of thing. For the longest time, he was always good about sitting on the potty. We would take him in, set him on the potty and he would try so hard to go. One time he even told me "it stuck mom!" Moments like those in potty training makes it seem like it's not that bad.

We never pushed the issue. We didn't want him to digress; plus there wasn't really a need to push. Just turning 2 is really early for potty training a little boy. We would still take him to the potty and our babysitter was awesome about it too. The only difference is: he wants to use the potty at "dephne's" house. He runs and screams from the potty at his own house. Stephanie will tell us he will go to the bathroom all on his own at her house. That's what bugs me. Not that he's not potty trained, but that he uses it at the sitter's, but not at home. I figured the best possible solution for all this is there are other kids his age there that use the potty and the whole I want to be like so and so is working on Trevor.

Last night he told me he had to go potty and ran down the hall. I was ecstatic! I couldn't believe it. I knew this day would come someday. We rush down the hall, into the bathroom, he pulls down his Pull-ups and sits on the potty. He asks for paper and I wait, wait, wait. Nothing happens "All done." What "All done?" But nothing came out. I look down at his Pull-ups...barely wet. Dangit, but it's closer. He proceeds to get on and off the toilet for several minutes and flushing it every time. I let him, he wasn't doing any damage. I decide to let him into some big boy underwear. He just went, and bed time is in a half-hour. (Can you see where I'm going?) He loves wearing his Elmo underwear, he thinks he's so big and tough.

He's running around, having a blast. "Mommy, potty" I look down to see a little boy whining as he has just had his first accident. This is the moment during potty training that every parent wishes wouldn't happen, but knows it's inevitable. He's on the verge of tears as I tell him it's okay and not a big deal. He was so upset. I knew he would be, he throws a fit when he drops something from his meals (mac and cheese, yogurt, you name it, it equals a fit). I knew it would be good for him just to have an accident. Lucky for me, it was on the laminate flooring...easy clean-up. Through his tears he looks at me and says "it hurt me, kisses!"

Out of all the reactions I was waiting for, it was not this. It broke my heart to see my little man so upset over pee running down his leg. He didn't know how to react, so he picked the best thing he could think of. I grabbed him and gave him a huge hug and gave him kisses until he calmed down. I may have a long road of parenting, but to a toddler, there is nothing that a hug and a kiss won't fix.

Making Cookies

2010-01-24T09:38:00.001-07:00

Last week I had the wonderful privilege of making cookies with my little man. It was our first experience and oh what fun it was. Trevor loved it. Trevor was such a big help.

He was mesmerized by the hand mixer.

The good old tradition that every family has of licking the bowl. I think this was one of Trevor's favorite parts of the cookie making. He even tried to eat a glob of dough as it sat on the pan waiting for its turn to be in the oven.

Poor Trevor wanted a cookie so bad, but I wouldn't let them until they were cooled off. I grabbed a hot pad and began fanning while he tried to blow on ALL the cookies. I put the pad down and he grabbed it to finish the job that I started.

dinnerplaner.com nigh t#2

2010-01-20T06:39:00.000-07:00

On tonight's menu was Awesome Oven Fried Chicken

Rating:9/10
Level: Easy
Clean-up: 1 scrubbie

Tonight's meal was a little different than I had expected. I forgot about visiting teaching until my partner showed up at 6...right as I was ready to start dinner. So Scott did it all by himself. It seems easy and I didn't consult him on difficulty level...oops. I am happy to say that this dinner was absolute perfection. The chicken was moist and easy to cut. The many different herbs on it added the right amount of flavor. The house was filled with the aroma of the tastiness when I walked in the door.

Clean-up is definitely a 1 scrubbie. 1 plastic bag to be thrown away and one pan that goes in the dishwasher. Does it really get more easy than that?

dinnerplanner.com night #1

2010-01-18T21:03:00.000-07:00

On tonight's menu was Pork Chops and Creamy Potatoes

Rating:7/10
Level: Easy
Clean-up: 2 scrubbies

This meal was beyond easy. But it could have something to do with that both Scott and I were working on it together. Basically, you sear the chops and add all other ingredients to a bowl, pour other ingredients in baking dish, put chops on ingredients, bake for 40 minutes. Super easy. This looked and smelled delish! I was expecting more taste wise, maybe more seasoning (salt and pepper) or the sort. Tasted sort of like cheesy potatoes with pork. It was good, maybe even repeat worthy, just not the best. Dinnerplanner.com rated this 2 scrubbies clean-up and I couldn't agree more! While this meal was super easy to make and to clean-up, several large dishes were used which required hand-scrubbing. Dinner one down, 4 more to taste. (comments are appreciated).

dinner planner.com

2010-01-18T08:55:00.000-07:00

In the Cleveland household we are terrible at eating. We don't eat healthy and we don't cook at home a lot. It came to a mutual decision to change. Our problem is planning. So I went online and found this dinnerplanner.com website. Each week they email you a 7 day meal plan. You can even choose the regular or the healthy or BOTH. It's $15/3 month subscription ($20 if you want the regular and the healthy). They plan the meals (dessert too), give you a color coded shopping list (what items go with what meal AND the section of the store you can find it in), coupons, and they even have a rating system on the clean-up (This meal is a 2 scrubbie clean up). They let you try out a week before making the decision to buy. I thought that this was going to be worth they try. I'm on my way to the store to try out their shopping list. If you're interested in my review of this website let me know, otherwise, I'll just keep it to myself. Also, if you are interested in splitting the cost and sharing the planner with me let me know.

Give a Day Get a Disney Day

2010-01-16T10:00:00.001-07:00

As many of you have seen, Disney is doing this Give a Day, Get a Disney Day program. Trevor LOVES his Disney. He loves Mickey and friends, Pooh and friends, Finding Nemo, and his most recent favorite is Monsters Inc. He watches "Monsters" all the time. He even runs around the house and jumps out and scares you by putting his hands up and growling (similar to what Boo does). We have decided to take full advantage of getting a free day. Right now the plan is to go in August. It will be after the baby is born, but after he is past the newborn stage, he'll be a couple of months old, but before Trevor reaches his 3rd birthday and he'll still be free. So technically for 1 day, we're getting to play at Disney completely free. But the plan is to spend two days in the park: 1 day at Disneyland and 1 day at California Adventure.

For our service project, we chose to make blankets for the Linus Project (don't you love that name). These blankets go to help kids locally that are going through some hard times. I wanted to do this project, because of friends we know whose little one is dealing with chemo. So, this project seemed close to home for us. We took pictures to document our time spent as a family on this project. Get ready for picture overload!:

Here I am cutting off the selvage. This was our first blanket and we had no idea what we were doing. We were very frustrated at the situation and this blanket took us 2 days to complete because we had to walk away. Don't you love my pregnant belly? My regular shirt, kept creeping up.

Scott cutting his selvage

This was after our break. Here's most of the fringes before they were tied.

Getting ready to cut the fringes in 1 inch increments.

Okay, I love this one. Even Trevor helped! He grabbed some tape and put it on. He even added his new loved phrase of "perfect" when he was done. He was so proud that he got to help. How could I not take a picture of this?

Here we are on blanket 2. We had a few days rest and were ready to tackle another blanket. This one went by much faster than the other because we knew what we were doing and had developed a groove.

Trevor playing with the cut off selvage.

Here I am tying the fringes.

One big happy family. Trevor was fussy and we had to bribe him by letting him watch Monsters. So no, he's not smiling at the camera. He's laughing at Phlegm cause he just fell down on some Jacks.

We are so excited to be able to go to Disney this way. August seems so far away, but I'm sure it will be here before we know it. Anyone who wants to go with us is more than welcome, we would love to have you come. Just let us know!

I knew I liked this day

2010-01-14T11:22:00.000-07:00

It all started on May 4th, 2004, when I walked into Denny's to meet my blind date. I was excited, this was my first date in a while and I had just wanted to have a good time. Eating at Denny's we started to get to know each other and I knew that I wanted to get to know him more. His name was Scott Cleveland and he just returned from a mission to Sacramento. I was really enjoying spending this time with him. When we were done eating, we headed on a drive up to the "C," which is "the make-out place" for Cedar City. But nope, we just looked at the city and admired it's beautiful landscape. We decided to rent a movie and head back to my place to watch it. We rented 2 Fast 2 Furious and settled down to watch it. Slowly, one by one, by roommates had to come check out my date. The best part was Sarah, who walked down the stairs coughing loudly sort of warning us she was coming. He tried to kiss me once...but he was denied.

Later that week I took off with my friend to Florida to visit our old friends there. I missed Scott terribly, knowing that I wanted to get to know him better. I remember one time I called him from Florida, only for him to tell me that there was a new lady in his life. My heart dropped; I couldn't believe it. Her name was Jessica and she was his new car. I didn't think it was very funny. Later he admitted that he wasn't exactly thinking when he said that.

When I returned to Cedar 3 weeks later, I was so happy to know that Scott wanted to see me again. We planned to meet and during that date we shared our first kiss. It was so nice (even the boys running around playing laser tag was fun). It was that night that he told me he wanted to see me exclusively. I was ecstatic.

We had a nice dating era. He told me that he loved me, only for me to tell him I wasn't there yet. To seeing a ring catalog and having our first real discussion of getting married. Hunting for rings was difficult because every ring I liked, he said he couldn't afford, but I still got the one I loved the most. We didn't tell anyone it was official, until it was. It was about 4 months after we met that we were engaged. 4 months of engagement led to our wedding.

The wedding day was beautiful. I was hoping for snow, since it was in the middle of January, but no snow could be found. We got married in American Fork, Utah, and Scott was driving up from Cedar that day. When I arrived at the temple, Scott could not be found. I started getting scared that maybe he was backing out. My heart was relieved when I saw him walk up with his mom. The ceremony was beautiful, I only wish more people could have been there.

January 14th was the day that started my entire life with the man that I love the most. Scott, thanks for being the amazing man, husband, and father that you have been. I look forward to having eternity with you.

What a Christmas!

2009-12-31T18:23:00.000-07:00

Here in the Cleveland household we had quite a Christmas. It started on the 23rd when we were able to have our ultrasound done (please see prior post). I loved watching as the grandparents figured it out. Because we went to my mom's side family Christmas party, I arranged it as a gift for the gift exchange. She was a little confused at first on why this gift was part of the exchange, but caught on pretty quick. It was nice to be surrounded by family as they all found out what the newest addition to our clan would be.

Before the Christmas party we made a stop at Scott's mom's and her husband's house. Peggy Sue crocheted this beautiful picture of the temple with Clevelands and our anniversary date on it. It's beautiful, one of my most favorite things we received. Next time your over, ask and I'll show you.

Trevor loved opening presents. It was by far his favorite part of Christmas. He needed to help everyone by opening their presents for them. The best part was his panting as he opened his gift.

Trevor loved Grandma Shauna's bowl of candy. He did anything he could to get to it. The bowl was relocated to the top of the fridge.

Here's Scott with his new all fancy Weber grill. Our old Weber was small and sat on the ground (please see right side of picture). He was so happy to be able to Christian it with steaks...yum.

Trevor's favorite present was this Mickey Mouse Racetrack. He loves watching the cars and cheers Mickey and Pete on.

Scott didn't think it was too bad either.

We had a beautiful Christmas surrounded by family. It really couldn't have been better.

A new calling

2009-12-29T20:55:00.003-07:00

I received a new calling at church. For my non-Mormon readers: a calling is basically a job in the church asked to completed by a member of the bishopric. We believe it is a calling from God to fulfill. (I hope I explained that right). Anyway, I have been the Primary pianist for about as long as we've lived in the ward. It's a calling that I have loved. I loved watching the children and their crazy antics and stories. I loved being able to hide behind the piano and just do what I love to do. I loved knowing being part of this 2 hour block of time would keep me from teaching any lessons or doing any actual preparation. I thought this calling was great!

Recently, however, I had a concern. I want to nurse my newborn son. There's no way being in a 2 hour block of time that I could complete my duties as a pianist and nurse at the same time. I brought this concern to Scott and a quick decision was made just to play it by ear and if I needed to asked to be released to be able to feed my child, that is something that I would have to do. Still I said one or two prayers about this.

With my new calling my job didn't change that much. I will now be playing the piano in Relief Society. I play at the beginning and at the end of a 1 hour block. This gives me plenty of time to nurse if the need arises. I believe that this new calling is from God. The bishopric didn't even know we were expecting. God knew that I needed a change to complete my duties as a mother and allowed this to happen through revelation to the bishop. I am so grateful being in a church where we know of modern day revelation and the power that it has in our lives.

Ultrasound Pics

2009-12-29T08:18:00.003-07:00

The baby did not want to cooperate in any way. He kept covering his mouth and wouldn't move to get a picture of his heart. He also didn't want to uncross his legs...silly baby! The tech ended up putting it on 3D because apparently she could see the hidden images better that way. So we basically got a sneak peak at the 3D view. It was really neat. Too bad I don't want to fork out the $100 to have 3D one in the 3rd trimester.

After he finally uncrossed his legs, sure enough, It's a boy. Scott had trouble seeing it. If you are having the same problem: imagine the baby is sitting on a glass chair and your looking up.

There you have it. Our little boy #2. We're very excited but having trouble with names. We wanted to do something family oriented, but the problem with that is one or the other isn't thrilled with the names.

It's a ...

2009-12-25T17:58:00.002-07:00

I can't hold it in any longer. We had our ultrasound scheduled for the 29th. We switched it to the 23rd so we could surprise our parents. I've kept it pretty quiet waiting to tell the grandparents first. I'm currently at my mom's and can't post the pictures. I made a nice card for each of them wrapped it up, and gave it to them. I thought it was pretty creative. But the big news that you've all been waiting for:

IT'S A BOY!!!

Christmas and such

2009-12-13T08:18:00.005-07:00

What a well belated post. We put up our Christmas tree quite a while ago. Trevor loved helping decorate our tree. We would give him an ornament and he would run over and put it on. He then would come running back asking "More please?" Another ornament would be placed into his little hands and he then would go to the same branch to place yet another ornament on. He loves to make sure the tree is plugged in and will redecorate as he feels it is needed.

I love the Dicken's Festival that occurs here in St. George annually. This here my mom, aunt, and grandma came down to enjoy it with me. I found these adorable headbands. I was putting one in the other day and Trevor tried to put in the other one. The great mother that I am, put it in for him. He loved looking at himself in the mirror.

The evening after the Festival we headed over to the Tuachan Amphitheater to enjoy their live Nativity. It was such a wonderful spiritual experience. I love going out there to see the Nativity come to life.

After the Nativity we spent some time driving around looking at all the pretty lights. I remembered this cool house in St. George that has music going with their lights. We drove out to Hurricane to enjoy this. It's such a fun thing to watch. You can go here to their website to see videos and an address. My family fell in love with the light show and I can't wait to travel out there to show them to Trevor. Especially the Rudolph one. I think he would enjoy it.

Christmas time is card time. I've discovered that Costco has great cards that you can put your photo in for the best price (well, last year, I didn't check this year because their photos are really good quality, plus 1 hour photo is awesome. I just need to find my card before I go to pick them up tomorrow). If anyone would like to receive a card from the Cleveland family, give me a heads up and we'll see what we can do. Here is the picture we took this year to go on our cards.

We asked our neighbor to come take our pictures, but things kept getting delayed and such. We finally just broke down, set it up on a box, and put the timer on. It doesn't look too bad. Trevor is not smoking. It is a sucker stick. He just barely used the potty and since he LOVES suckers that his is reward for using the potty.

I'm starting to notice my belly popping out. It's hard for me to fit into my regular clothes. I bought a belly band, but that doesn't stay in place very well. So yesterday I tried to rubber band around the button trick, but the zipper didn't stay up. I just think maternity pants might be the best option. The only problem there is that some of the maternity pants are a little big. It's very frustrating to find something that will fit properly. At least I don't need to wear the shirts yet!

Yesterday we headed down to Vegas for a day trip. It was a nice day and we got a lot of our Christmas shopping done. Trevor was a trooper through it all. It was cold and rainy (but I'm not going to complain because I know others had it much worse than we did). We did end up buying Trevor some mittens because his poor fingers were freezing. I'm glad he kept them on. He liked clapping in them.

We've been to Vegas several times, but have never made it to the "Sign." We finally did. I found it quite humorous that there was a line to have your picture taken with the "Sign." But, here we go:

The Forgotten Carols are coming to St. George next week. I've always wanted to go and enjoy it. I love the story and I love the music. Here is one of my favorite songs from the beautiful story:

True Meaning of Chrismas

2009-12-04T13:43:00.002-07:00

I first heard this story when I was a teenager as part of a lesson in church. I have loved it ever since and found a copy last year. I have collected each of the items (the last which I am waiting to come from Ebay). When the bag comes, for Family Home Evening we will read the story and pull the items from the bag. I hope to make this a tradition. I love this story so much because it allows for the magic of Santa Claus to exist, but at the same time teach that Jesus is the real reason this holiday season exists. The story reads:

True Meaning of Christmas

Just a week before Christmas I had a visitor. This is how it happened. I just finished the household chores for the night and was preparing to go to bed, when I heard a noise in the front of the house. I opened the door to the front room and to my surprise, Santa himself stepped out next to the fireplace.

"What are you doing?" I started to ask. The words choked up in my throat and I saw he had tears in his eyes. His usual jolly manner was gone. Gone was the eager, boisterous soul we all know. He then answered me with a simple statement...

"TEACH THE CHILDREN!" I was puzzled. What did he mean? He anticipated my questions and with one quick movement brought forth a miniature toy bag from behind the tree. As I stood bewildered, Santa said, "Teach the children! Teach them the old meaning of Christmas. The meaning that now-a-days Christmas has forgotten." Santa then read in his bag and pulled out a FIR TREE and placed it before the mantle. "Teach the children that the pure green color of the stately fir tree remains green all year round, depicting the everlasting hope of mankind, all the needles point heavenward, making it a symbol of man's thoughts turning toward heaven."

He again reached into his bag and pulled out a brilliant STAR. "Teach the children that the star was the heavenly sign of promises long ago. God promised a Savior for the world, and the star was the sign of fulfillment of His promise."

He then reached into his bag and pulled out a CANDLE. "Teach the children that the candle symbolizes that Christ is the light of the world, and when we see this great light we are reminded of He who displaces the darkness."

Once again he reached into his bag and removed a WREATH and placed it on the tree. "Teach the children that the wreath symbolizes the real nature of love. Real love never ceases. Love is one continuous round of affection."

He then pulled from his bag an ORNAMENT of himself. "Teach the children that I, Santa Claus, symbolize the generosity and good will we feel during the month of December."

He then brought out a HOLLY LEAF. "Teach the children that the holly plant represents immortality. It represents the crown of thorns worn by our Savior. The red holly berries represent the blood shed by Him."

Next he pulled from his bag a GIFT and said, "Teach the children that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift."

Santa then reached in his bag and pulled out a CANDY CANE and hung it on the tree. "Teach the children that the candy cane represents the shepherds' crook. The crook on the staff helps to bring back strayed sheep to the flock. The candy cane is the symbol that we are our brother's keeper."

He reached in again and pulled out an ANGEL. "Teach the children that it was the angels that heralded in the glorious news of the Savior's birth. The angels sang 'Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace and good will toward men.'"

Suddenly, I heard a soft twinkling sound, and from his bag he pulled out a BELL. "Teach the children that as the lost sheep are found by the sound of the bell, it should ring mankind to the fold. The bell symbolizes guidance and return."

Santa looked back and was pleased. He looked back at me and I saw that the twinkle was back in his eyes. He said, "Remember, teach the children the true meaning of Christmas and do not put me in the center, for I am but a humble servant of the One that is, and I bow down to worship him, our LORD, our GOD."

Found My Family!

2009-12-01T06:41:00.002-07:00

Last night I watched a new show called "Find My Family." The first story was about a lady who wanted nothing more than to meet her brother. She discovered when she was adopted as a baby, her birth parents, who were married had a 16 month old son. She dreamed of meeting this brother her whole life. Her brother, David, was in the military, which made this story even more personal to me. She met her brother and I couldn't help crying.

I grew up knowing that I had another brother out there in the world. My dad had been married before my mom and had a son, Adam, but every attempt at contact growing up was never responded to. We would send Christmas cards and letters, but never heard anything back. I continued to grow up knowing I had a brother and a resolve that he wanted nothing to do with us. In the fall of 2004 I got a phone call. "Sarah, is your dad Spencer?"

"Yes, who is this?"

"This is your brother, Adam."
My heart dropped and I didn't know what to do. He had just been relocated from the East coast to California and was driving through Cedar and for the first time in our lives we were in the same city. He asked if I wanted to meet. Shakily, I said yes. I ran and told my roommates (who had never heard of Adam before) and there were scared. I promised I would be careful, and would keep my cell phone near me. I called Scott and told him where I was going. I drove to the public library where I met my brother for the first time.

He was married with their first child on the way. We went to Denny's and talked about our lives. I found out he was serving in the Navy and became so proud of him. I could see resemblance of my dad in him.

We have been in contact ever since. In that time I have gotten married and had Trevor. They have two beautiful children. The only sad part to this story is they are now living in Maine...Love ya big bro!

Sarah's Pet Peeves 101

2009-11-27T12:22:00.003-07:00

One of my biggest pet peeves is treating your animals like your children (sorry if you're reading this and you treat your animals this way, I HATE IT!). Animals are pets, not people. I know people out there that can't have kids and they call their pets their kids...yep still think it's gross! I hate hearing people talk to their animals and refer to themselves and "mommy" and "daddy." Come on people don't you have better things to do than that! I know you love your pets, heck I love my cat. However, my cat does not need to wear Halloween costumes or clothes of any kind. In my shopping adventures today I saw this:

And I about had a heart attack! The sad thing is I know people are going to buy this blasted stupid invention! Hello! Your pets are fully capable of keeping themselves warm! It's what nature does.

Black Friday Adventures

2009-11-27T11:47:00.003-07:00

I am used to going shopping on Black Friday. It was a tradition growing up. Except we weren't crazy and went around 10 or so. As I have grown up and I see the many deals appearing first thing in the morning, I need to take advantage. I looked through the Kohl's ad (because I LOVE that store!) and saw that they had a 5 quart slow cooker and a machine called the Rocket (basically a less glammed up version of the Bullet) both on sale for 19.99 and then get a $10 rebate by mail, EACH! How cool is that?

You could also order online starting at 11:00 pm. I stayed up, but boy was that a mistake. It was so busy on their site that it took forever and I even got booted. I eventually gave up and went to bed.

I woke up when Scott got up at 6:30 to get ready for work and went to the Kohl's website and ordered what I wanted without that crazy waiting for the page to load. It was nice. Plus, I didn't have to deal with the crowds at the store. Trevor woke up about an hour later. I got him, ready gave him some waffles (his current favorite breakfast) and loaded him in the car to head over to K-mart to buy this a Mickey Mouse Raceway. I spent more time waiting in line than finding the toy. But it wasn't too bad, they were pretty efficient.

Then Roberts was having an amazing sale on Cricut cartridge, so of course, there I go. They were 4/$100 or $29.99 each. I didn't want to spend the $100 and it was still worth it to get one for the $29.99 (This is to me from Santa :))

I wanted Trevor to see Santa so we headed to the mall where I bought some wrapping paper at Hallmark (buy one a $4.99 and get one for $.99!) I couldn't pass that up. Plus Hallmark always good quality and cute paper too! Unfortunately, Santa wasn't going to be there for another 1/2 hour and I didn't want to just hang out. There will be plenty of time to see Santa.

Overall it was a great shopping experience. I am glad I didn't get up at the crack of dawn and try to do that with a 2 year old. I'm ecstatic that I was still able to get what I wanted and not have to sacrifice my sleep or my toddler's sleep. A very successful day if you ask me. Although I am still missing something that I would like: a red "Santa" bag. If you know of anywhere that has them, PLEASE LET ME KNOW! I'm trying to start a new tradition and in order to make it work, I need that bag!

Elmo is ALIVE!!!

2009-11-18T20:23:00.003-07:00

My mom bought Trevor an Elmo Live for Christmas last year. When it ran dead a few months afterwords, I did the logical thing and unscrewed the battery compartment and changed the batteries. But to my surprise and Scott and my anger, IT STILL DIDN'T WORK. Months and months we've been listening to him start to tell his stories only to collapse and stop his talking. Very annoying. Well, tonight my technological genius husband decided to perform surgery. He grabbed a razor blade and made a careful incision in Elmo's back, removed the fur from his fingers and unscrewed the hard, plastic bottom of his feet and pulled back to expose the feet.

Scott then looks in the battery compartment and removes that to fully complete his diagnosis. Underneath the obvious 3 battery slots are ANOTHER 3 battery slots! We change those batteries and sure enough Elmo is ALIVE!

My epiphony

2009-11-14T13:09:00.001-07:00

If you know much about me, you know my love and desire to play the piano. I started playing when I was 5. Before that I would travel to my future teacher's house and sit for hours listening to her students play I was destined. I was ecstatic when I was given the chance to take lessons. I stuck with the same teacher for the 13 years that I took lessons. She was amazing. As I progressed, I became good. I loved to play and I looked forward to anytime that I would be able to perform. I loved being able to share something that I knew I was good at and people would enjoy. I could release my fears, anger, and happy moments by playing the piano. I knew the songs that could release those feelings. The only thing I regret was the inability to memorize a song.

It was a sad day when I left for college knowing that I would have to leave my piano at home. But when I would travel home, it was a relief knowing I could sit down and lose all my feelings in that beautiful instrument. I would look forward to going home, knowing that it was there waiting for me to bring it back to life. As I went throughout my life, I began to lose what I cherished most as a young adult.Traveling home didn’t come as easily as it did as began to live my life: first in Florida, then becoming a wife and mother.These things I would change for the world. They have shaped me into what I am today. I love Scott and I love our children, but I miss my dying talent.

Thursday, November 12 I had the opportunity to attend one of Jon Schmidt’s concerts. I sat mesmerized as I watched him play. I listened carefully to the songs he played knowing that I had the ability to play them. I just needed to find a way to get my piano back into my hands. I found a local company that would only charge at most $500. This is great, considering that most of the places I called in SLC were about $1500. Now if I can sell my Yudu for $150 then I only need to find about $350 more (which I think I may be able to). Any ideas on how to raise money so I can bring my talent back to its full potential are fully welcome.

The great and wonderful Jon Schmidt

2009-11-14T12:30:00.005-07:00

Thursday night I went to the Jon Schmidt here in St. George with my good friend. What an amazing night it was. Here are some pictures that I captured. The people around me probably weren't happy about the flashes. But it didn't say no cameras and lots of people were doing it! And yes, I would jump off a cliff.

Finishing his upside down performance.

The amazing Jon.

The next couple of pictures are all during his performance of his rendition of "Bumblebee tuna" commercial in which he dons a red wig claiming it helps protect his head as he goes pretty crazy. This first picture is actually him ending the song by finishing with a nice butt chord.

Nothing like jamming in a red wig playing "Bumblebee Tuna"

He pulls the craziest faces!

A new adventure

2009-11-07T20:01:00.003-07:00

I heard of these through a friend of mine. They didn't look they would be extremely difficult, so when my friend was having her baby shower and I saw on her list she wanted a Moby, I had to try it. There were several sets of instructions online, and unfortunately I took the hard route.

Friday night: I head to Walmart and couldn't find the right type of fabric. Frustrated I headed home with the Trevor and later went to Joann's when Scott got home so I didn't have to take the little guy. After wandering quite a while, I found the right fabric calculated that even with the 50% off it would $6.50 a yard! Still cheaper than buying a Moby though! I took it home and threw it in the wash to get any shrinkage out...mistake 1. The fabric was too heavy to throw in the wash because it held in all the water. I wrung 5 yards of fabric out into the bath tub and hanged it to dry. Over the shower rod, across the toilet and over onto the counter.

Saturday morning: Need to leave for baby shower in Cedar at 10, I have time. i throw the fabric in the dryer to finish drying because it's still wet. I still have time, so I grab my book, lay on the couch and let Trevor watch Mickey. I take it out of the dryer realizing now I only have 1 hour until I need to leave and I have no idea how I am going to cut a straight line on 5 yards of fabric 60 inches wide into 3 strips. I put Trevor in the car and run to Walmart to get straight pins. Come home and start measuring and marking with the pins 20 inches. I run to the internet to check the instructions and see how I could have made this so much easier on myself. The directions online say something to the effect of: cut the fabric in half along the crease line and then you have two wraps. Ah crap. The line washed on in the washer, but cutting it in half has got to be easier than measuring 20 inches every little bit for 5 yards of fabric. I remove the pins and try to line the fabric up so I can cut it in half. Oh boy doing this with 5 yards of fabric and a type of fabric that doesn't like to lay flat at that, it might have been easier to keep measuring the 20 inches. I get it where I think it's close enough and go grab the scissors. One problem though...I can't find the scissors! The only pair I can find are the hair cutting scissors, so guess what I use? Yep, hair cutting scissors. I finally succeed and have two pieces of fabric or finished "Mobys"

At this point I look at the clock and realized that I should have left 20 minutes prior and I didn't have my hair done. I grab a brush and a hair tie and am thankful for hair I can't put into a pony. I fold it carefully, type a quick not and print of directions of use for my friend. I wrapped the wrap in the only wrapping paper we have: Cars. Threw Trevor in the car and off we went.

I am glad that Natalie loved it. I hope I didn't cut it too crooked. But I think it will work. I now have my own Moby for when our little bundle arrives in May. I even practiced using it with one of Trevor's stuffed animals. It turned out pretty cute and I think I would get 6 yards next time instead of 5. 5 yards is a bit snug, but I also have my mini-pouch that only Scott and I can actually notice. I do plan on making another one with my mother-in-law. Who hopefully with her expertise in sewing can show me better methods than the ones that I used. This was a great learning experience and I can't wait to use my Moby with our little munchkin!

The final product laid out across our kitchen floor. In case you didn't know, 5 yards is 15 feet.

Wearing the Moby with Trevor's stuffed puppy

I cried over a bag of potatoes and that's why I married the best man ever!

2009-11-03T06:26:00.004-07:00

Yes, you read that right. Pregnancy hormones are in full swing! Sunday night I was getting ready to make some delicious homemade mashed potatoes (so much better than the fake stuff and just as easy to make; just a tad more time consuming). Anyway, I opened the pantry door, searched for the potatoes, located them, found that they were over 5 pounds, went to get Scott to lift the potatoes for me, and that's when the water works started. Scott asked if I was okay and my sobbing response was 'I can't life the potatoes!" Scott hugged and told me it was okay and then responded "I'll carry 4.99 pounds and you can carry the rest." We went to the pantry where he proceeded to dig out the potatoes. He separated 1 potato from the rest and handed it to me and let me carry that potato. I felt quite silly. Two people to carry 1 fairly small bag of potatoes from the pantry to the sink to be washed. But that is how great Scott is. He knows I am truly struggling with not being able to lift much and he finds ways to make it so I can.

Then he gets even better! Sunday night I awoke around 2:30 with a horrible stomachache and was not able to get back to sleep. When my alarm went off, it woke Scott up as well. I told him my woes and he just held me until I jumped out of bed and made a beeline for the bathroom. When I was done in there he opened the door and handed me a glass of water. I called in for a sub and crawled back into bed and into Scott's arms where we fell asleep. I slept for most of the day. Scott waited on me hand and foot. Scott left to have lunch with his mom and her husband; when he returned I could hear him tell Trevor "Go wake up Mom and give them to her." The door creaks open and Trevor comes in with a bag a Ginger Snap cookies. He hands them to me, leans his head on the bed and says "more more please" I open the cookies and hand him one. Scott follows Trevor with a glass of water to help wash down the cookies and a dozen roses.

I am so grateful for Scott. The wonderful husband and father that he is. He is being so helpful and making sure that I'm not doing anything the doctor says. He told me "yeah, it sucks that I have to do like most of the housework, but it would suck even more if you got put on bedrest." (Here's the mushy part) He is my everything and I am so glad that I chose him to be my eternal companion.

Halloween Fun!

2009-11-01T09:27:00.003-07:00

This Halloween it was decided that we would all do a Star Wars theme. It all started when I knew Trevor would still fit his Yoda costume from last year and I didn't want to spend the money on a new one. I dressed up as Princess Leia and Scott was Darth Vader. We went to our ward's Halloween party and we got a lot of compliments on how good we looked together. Trevor loved the "Fishing Pond." He wanted to go in the bounce house but it was too crowded with a lot bigger kids to let him go in. He loved playing around and running and getting candy. It was a lot of fun. But one of the cutest things was this little girl who was OBSESSED with Vader. Scott talked to her and everything and she was so happy to see him. It was like her dream had come true. She even followed him around for a little while. Scott was so welcoming to her. It was cute.

The little girl who loved Vader. She could really care less about Leia and Yoda.

This was supposed to be Yoda kissing Vader, but the camera took it a second too late.

Star Wars Family

Trevor thought Scott "rarring" was hilarious. My favorite part is when Trevor throws his head back and laughs. Sorry the lighting wasn't the best.

Northern Utah October 2009

2009-11-01T09:21:00.003-07:00

I had a nice long 4 day weekend mid-October and Scott had too much vacation time. So we went up north to stay with my family and go to the Discovery Gateway museum. Trevor loved this! They had a little town and plenty of hands-on activities. It was so nice to escape St. George and spend some family time. After playing in the museum. We hit up their water fountain. Trevor loved it and got a little wet. Here's a slideshow of our adventures and a video of Trevor getting splashed pretty good. Gotta love that face!

So I can't get the stupid slide show to play. Go here to watch!

Announcing...

2009-11-01T08:49:00.007-07:00

Cleveland baby #2

We found out Sept. 7 that we were expecting our second child. Although, it has been hard emotionally for me, we are very excited to begin this new journey. I first spotted around 6 weeks, I was sent in for an ultrasound and saw our little dot:

Everything was fine with the baby. The placenta had implanted over my cervix, but nothing to worry about this early. I went home happy and that everything was okay. My 10 week appointment was on Oct. 22nd and I spotted then. It was actually kind of a little gush. I didn't worry about it since they said this could be normal as the placenta continues to grow with the uterus. That visit was awful. My appointment was at 3:00. It was fairly busy and there is more than 1 doctor. So I waited patiently as person after person was called back. Finally as a lady who arrived at 4:00 got up to ask how longer it would be and they told her she was next, I was like oh no...I got up to ask and my cry baby pregnant self lost it. I signed in, but they never checked me in. They marked me off and everything, but it was an over sight! Oh, they felt really bad. I got right in and started my appointment. At my doctor's office, the first visit is done with the Nurse Practitioner. She brought my wait to the dr.'s attention and they gave me a free ultrasound with their portable machine. It was nice; plus everyone in the office, and I mean everyone was apologizing! I got a few free extras. They definitely made up for it.

Anyway, when I went in I told them about the spotting from earlier that day and they said they wanted another formal ultrasound. This was Wednesday the 28th. The placenta is moving, but it is tearing a little bit which is causing the spotting. After evaluating the results with the doctor, I was called on Thursday. This is where it is hard for me. I have been put on a lot of restrictions. I can't exercise, I can't lift/push/pull anything over 5 pounds. I was told no vacuuming, things like that. Well, my 30 pound 2 year old is off limits. It hurts emotionally when he reaches for me and I can't hold him. Scott is good and will pick him up and place him on my lap. But I want to cry every time. As the days have gone by, I have come to realize how restricted I am. I can't move my desks at school. I can't lift a laundry basket. I can't push a cart at the grocery store. It seems like everything that I have taken for granted is being taken from me. I know it is all for the best for the baby and I am terrified of what may happen if I don't follow his orders. The last thing I want is to be on bed-rest. I am a very independent person and this news has been hard on me. I want to hold my son, I want to do the laundry. These things I am looking at in a whole new light.

I got this news on Thursday and I was a disaster. Scott was at work and I needed to talk to someone. I drove to my friend's house and she was so kind to listen to my woes. Especially since she is having trials of her own. And it was even better when her husband came over later to help Scott give me a blessing. It was a beautiful blessing and helped put me at ease, but I am still dying inside as I deal with complications that I never had with Trevor.

On the bright side, here's a picture of our child at 11 weeks. It's amazing how much he/she has grown since 6 weeks.

I won and I don't know what to do!

2009-10-13T06:33:00.002-06:00

Yep, I won a drawing. Not just any drawing, a $300 prize drawing. I never win this stuff, so when I walked into Roberts at 5:30 Saturday night and randomly decided to enter the drawing I had no intention of walking out winning. I walked in for Glue Dots; that's it, Glue Dots. I saw that they were having the drawing to celebrate customer appreciation and decided "what the hey?" I entered my name and called my dear friend Julie to see if she wanted to participate. She said she needed stuff their anyway and would get her son ready and be over. Well, I wandered around, found some more stuff to buy and when Julie got there we headed back to the embroidery floss(because that's what she needed). The time came for the drawing, we're in the back corner all by ourselves when they say Sarah...Cleveland! I start jumping up and down screaming and working my way to collect my prize. my body was rushed with adrenalin as I made my way to the front. There I collect my Yudu Machine. Now don't get me wrong I love my prize. But I don't really foresee myself using it. I tried to see if they would give me store credit, but they were given that machine especially to give away. I totally understand. I found out my co-worker wanted a couple of them for his class. I tried to get him to buy it, but he already bought 3 on Saturday (he entered the drawing too). Scott says he thinks someone he works with who runs a printing business might like it. Either way, my co-worker says I can come watch it in action next week. I thought about donating it to the school, but I want at least SOME money for it. Sigh...if anyone has any ideas or would like to use it, just let me know!

Don't get me wrong, I LOVE that I won. I'm ecstatic that I won. I've never won anything like this...EVER. Now I just need to find a use for it.

Student Poem

2009-10-08T15:36:00.003-06:00

One of my student's brought me a poem today. I would like to share it. It really made my day.

My Teacher....
For of course: Mrs. Cleveland

I love my teachers, yes I do,
They teach me math, art, and Language Arts too.
Language Arts is my best topic,
But mostly everything is,
Now back to the subject.
I'm thankful for her,
Her name rhymes with seasons,
Have you guessed it?
Yup! It's Mrs. Cleveland!
She had us do a book report on biography or auto,
I picked biography and right choices is my motto!
My book was on Hitler,
Just kidding, gotcha!
My book was really on Queen Cleopatra
The book report went very well,
But for now, I must say farewell.

Isn't that cute? She's one of my 6th graders. The paper is even filled with little drawings all over the place to illustrate things in the poem. My favorite was she wrote this on cursive day and she even pointed out that it was in cursive.

These types of things really make me glad I do what I do!

Adventures in Teaching

2009-10-08T15:23:00.003-06:00

I really enjoy teaching and over the past few days I've had some thoughts rolling through my head. First off is bribing really THAT bad? I have two classes: both of which are very loud and hard to keep quiet. One I like, we have a good raport in that class. The other one...well...I like about 5 kids in that class. No matter what I seem to do with them, that will not stay quiet. Even after a test, they immediately start talking with the person nearest to them that has finished. Annoying right? Well, I do a ticket system with my kids. They're good, they earn tickets and I do a weekly drawing for various prizes. Well, the class that I enjoy has lost ALL candy privledges because of candy wrappers being left on the floor. So yesterday I tell the kids "If you guys can finish your study guides by the end of the period, I'll let you have your choice of a ticket or a Jolly Rancher."

A nice young man followed up by saying "But we're not allowed to have candy" (immediately followed by "shhh!!!").

I reply "I know, that is how bad I want you to finish these study guides, so I'll make this ONE exception" Yep it was dead quiet the rest of the period. It basically went the same way in my other loud period, except they haven't lost candy priviledges.

Lesson #2. Well, this is more of a thought. During the study guide making time, I was passing back some work and I smelled it. The smell of starting puberty and the smell that never really leaves us for the rest of our lives: B.O. I about gagged. One of the worst I've smelled in a long time. My first thought was poor kids that have to smell that; that quickly changed to poor young student who needs to be told about the glorious invention of deodorant before he/she is teased for the rest of his/her school career! I tried to identify the culprit of this awful smell. But I could not pin it down. I have it narrowed down to a few, but my biggest guess is a young lady. But there's no way that smell could come from girl, it's just too bad. I didn't smell it today. Maybe she does use deodorant and forgot yesterday. But either way, it's a sad situation.

Yeah for the little man!

2009-10-02T20:17:00.002-06:00

We've known that Trevor has been ready for the potty for a while now (please read previous posts to confirm). He just recently has started waking up with dry diapers, so we know he is getting closer. Well, he started going back to the sitter on Tuesday. She has one that just finished potty training, and two (including Trevor) that are in the process. She lines them all up at the door and they take turns using the potty. I think this helps since Trevor is seeing the other kids doing it. Since Tuesday he has used the potty twice at the sitters. While we encourage the potty use at home, I guess we never get it at the right time. We put him on the potty and you can tell he tries because his poor body his shaking as he's trying to push out the pee (poor guy is trying). Well, tonight he did it! He went pee in the potty! It was rather cute. We would count to three and he would go a little bit and stop. Then we'd count to three again and he would go a little. YEAH FOR THE LITTLE MAN!!!

Night night momma!

2009-09-17T16:55:00.003-06:00

Lately, I cannot seem to get enough sleep in me. I blame it on reading a REALLY REALLY good book. Scott left for work and I was lying on our couch (which we've only had a week by the way). I turned to Trevor and said "oh, buddy, I'm so tired!" He looked at me and ran away. He returns with his Elmo doll in hand. He gives it to me and runs away again to return with his Elmo blanket, which he carefully puts on me (well, the best he can since I'm on the couch). He runs down the hall one more time with me wondering "What could he possibly bring me this time?" HIS PILLOW! He pushes my head so it's facing the inside of the couch and reaches up and gives me a kiss on the cheek. "Bye, Momma, love you!"

Can you get much cuter than that!

p.s. here's our new couch: