2:54 P.M

That was the time our daughter Natalie was born 8 years ago today!
She has been bringing us joy and laughter every minute since.
We had such a hard time even getting pregnant with her. 3 years, 3 miscarriages and a little too much worrying on my part she came to us. And she has been the most perfect fit into our family since then.
Natalie takes her time on everything she does. But when she does do something it is with a flourish and no looking back. Natalie didn't walk until she was 18 months old. She didn't crawl either, she bounced around on her butt. It was funny to see! One day she just stood up and walked. Perfectly! She has never bounced or crawled since.
Natalie is our social butterfly. She makes friends with other kids she sees out shopping or at restaurants. She loves friends and is nice to every single one of them. She tries to be fair with everyone and it breaks her heart when someone is mean. She will tell them how they should be nice and she is not ashamed of it at all! She has a big heart that just keeps growing.
When Natalie was 2 her little brother was born. The day we brought him home Natalie took her little chair and sat it right next to his swing and let everyone know she was in charge of him. She loves to take care of people and practices on every one of her stuffed animals.

Natalie had a pacifier until she was 3. When she was little she would put old beads and necklaces around her neck and even tried to hang underwear (clean of course) around her neck. She loves to dress up and has my passion for clothes. She loves mermaids, fairies and unicorns and wants to own a pony one day.
Natalie is an artist, a dancer, a singer, a budding writer , a great cuddler and a jokster. She loves to swim, sled, ride her bike and throw a ball. Her favorite food is Mac and Cheese with spaghettios taking a close 2nd. Most importantly she is ours. It may have took some time to get her but she is one of the best additions to our family. She makes us proud everyday.
We love you Natalie and am so glad to share in your life. Have a very Happy Birthday!

Frustration

We have changed our email addresses recently. The usernames for our blogger accounts are the old email. I want to use the new emails as our username. I somehow got mine to change but Greyson's blogs are all messed up. When I go to the google accounts it tells me that I can't associate a gmail account with a google account. YET, that is exactly what I did for my blog account! The old email accounts will be cancelled this week and I do not want Grey to lose any information from his blogs! he would be so mad! So, does anyone know how to fix my problem or do you know if the username will still be usable? I've been working on this for over an hour and I just keep getting more and more frustrated! I'm going to go play some wii bowling with the littlest Harness.
Amberlie, I know how to add authors to blogger, there is my silver lining for the day.

Hope and Possibilities

Here I sit on inaguration day of the new 44th American President. To me this day is about hope and possibilities. It feels like the beginning of a new year, a new home, a new town and going way back, a new year of school. There is so much that can be done. So many possibilities. All you need to do is look forward.
I do not know for sure if Obama can hold true to all of his promises, my crystal ball has been broken. But I do know that we should all give him a chance to do what we have elected him to do. Even if you did not vote for him at least give the man a little respect. He deserves that, just like anyone does. But ridiculing him before he has even had a chance to prove himself is unfair.
Maybe he will be one of the worst Presidents ever or maybe he will be one of the best. We have given him the possibility to do both. There is hope for both. If you take either of those away then what do you have?
Here I sit today and hope for the possibility of a United America. Let's just all get along. Let's not throw stones, let's not judge people based on pre-conceived notions. As I believe Obama himself said "We are not a white America, we are not a black America, We are America".

P.S. My sister is in that crowd watching Obama become our newest President. Please say a prayer that she is kept safe and warm. And yes I'm a little jealous.

Something for my exercising friends

I have alot of friends and family who like to exercise to keep in shape. I really admire their discipline and dedication they have to exercise. I myself can not exercise. I am allergic to it. Don't laugh I really am. It is a really serious problem for me. Fine, I hear you all still laughing at me so here are those reasons why I am allergic to exercise.

1. While doing any type of exercise I start to breath hard. Isn't this called asthma?
2. My face gets red and blotchy anytime I exercise. I think it may actually be hives!!
3. My muscles seem to quiver while exercising and then hurt the next day after exercising. I'm sure my muscles were NOT meant to do this!!
4. My throat actually tightens up and as stated before I breath hard but I also gasp for every breath! Serious allergic reaction there, people go to the hospital all the time for it.
5. My joints also hurt. Isn't this a sign of something bigger and not just a simple allergy?
6. While exercising my body starts to water. EVERYWHERE, arms, legs, forhead, back, and even my knee pits. It is not normal for your body to produce that much water. Clearly my body is trying to fight off the toxins that exercising is creating.

SEE!! Your thinking that you might be allergic too! But, if you aren't allergic and want to proceed with the tormenting of your own god given body I have a great product for you........


How cool is this! It just screams SERIOUS EXERCISER! And who wouldn't look good in it? You can also buy it. I know! Can you believe it? Just go to http://www.hoodthong.com/. It almost makes me want to forget about my allergies and exercise. ALMOST! I'm not that nutso!

My version of Wordless Wednesday

It's a Wonderful life

I have finally found a little time to get this post on her about last week. I should be doing about 50 other things but I need to get this out there so I don't waste my Christmas title.

Cue last saturday (the 13th) in my kitchen. Bob and I are starting to bake some Christmas goodies for a Friday afternoon bakesale. The bakesale is for our Son's Europe trip (which still needs its own post). I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with this whole thing. We have a payment coming up on the 20th and we aren't even 1/4 of the way there. I'm scared and I'm second guessing myself. "did we make a mistake signing him up", "can we just cancel?" I cry to Bob, I feel better (he's such a good rock). We focus on baking and finishing up the Christmas shopping.

Monday morning I am focused on the bake sale. We do what we can when we can. My craft cutter arrives and I get no time to mess around with it like I want. But my husband did.

Tuesday, it freakin' snowed. Wake up Grey to go scoop a friend's driveway for some extra cash for his stinkin' trip. Once again think this is going to take forever and what the hell were we thinking? But Wait,

Remember those friends that have the porn in their home? Both of them called me with a TON of good ideas for Grey and raising the money. Start to feel like we just might actually make this. I love having good friends and they will never know how much their words saved my day. Thanks guys. We do a small Hot cocoa sale at the ditch where everyone sleds that night and make 8 bucks. Better than nothing.

Wednesday, I have no baking done. I have too many crafts done (which was not on my list to do) and once again I have a small melt down. I try to focus on the bake sale but I have a million other ideas running through my head. 2 friends think I should sell some of my crafts to help raise the money. I'm flattered and decide I will add some crafts to the bake sale. Got some baking done. Give up even worrying about the money thing, we do what we can and deal with it later. Let God deal with it because I'm too stressed and too tired.

Thursday, freakin' snowed again. Wake up Grey go get the neigbors done. Bob calls and says I'll be having a crappy day Friday because it is to snow all day long. Freak out once again about the bake sale and wonder what I should do. Those good friends once again save my day, they say I should cancel the bake sale and have Grey shovel driveways instead. I decide to cancel, I feel better. We go across the street to shovel the neighbors driveway and find out that they too have had kids go on these trips and they are so happy to help him. YEAH!! things are looking up.

Friday. Day of the supposed bake sale. One of Bob's friends calls and wants the treats for a party they are having that night. Make up cute trays and get another call from one of my friends that they also want some treats. See, things are looking up. She gives us way more than she should and I cry for the first time that day. I can't help but feel that God is really looking out for us. We would never have made that type of money on a regular bake sale. So thankful for my friends.

Friday Grey also got a huge check from a friend of his Grandparents. Sold some crafts to a good friend and Grey received his passport. We count out all the money we have received and we are only $5 short of our payment. In one week we made the money! We were all amazed. Not only did we make the payment but we also have ideas for so many other fundraisers and jobs.

And I owe it all to my friends for helping out with ideas, phone calls, and a supportive shoulder. My husband for being a rock and helping me stay focused. To Greyson for wanting to go on this trip in the first place and pushing even me to rely on others. To God most of all for putting me in this place at this time because he knew I'd be needing it. He never abandoned me when I was mad that he wasn't following my plan, but when I gave it up and let him take care of it, he rewarded me. Things always work out for a reason.

THis is a long post just to say what a wonderful life I have. The week held so many other small calamities that I didn't mention. I did feel like a basket case. But I made it through because of the support system I have created. I don't know if I can ever truly let them know how much their generosity and support really means to me but I hope that Karma comes around to them some day and they are all rewarded, they all deserve it. Thanks guys and gals for being some of the best friends that any girl could ever want.

It's a wonderful life. One I am thankful for each and every day. And even better, this week I get to show off my house to 2 sisters, one brother and one mom. This is their first time to my Utah home. I can't wait to see them. They are driving here so I'm praying for good weather and leaving it up to God. He seems to really know what he's doing.

More crafts that you must look at because I said so....

Yeah, Yeah. We've been playing with my new toy. Crafts are becoming our crack. I have the ideas and true to form my husband is my worker bee. I really haven't been able to play with my craft cutter as much as I want but the crafts we are making have gone soooo much faster. So, without further ado, here are the newest projects.

These two were made for Teacher presents. The kids did most of the gluing but my cutter did all of the cutting and I did not have to measure ONCE!! Gotta love that.



Next up is friend gifts for a neighbor.























These next ones are some more glass blocks. But these ones are rectangle and can be used alone or all together. I'm going to get a better bow on it but for the purpose of this blog I took the picture before the truly finished product.



Lastly I have done a bunch of different teacher plaques.


























This one was taken with a camera phone so it is not the best quality. But I still like it.




I know they are awesome yes? You all want one yes? YOU can totally buy them from me. I'm trying to raise money to get my son to Europe ( another post for another time). He helps me around the house more and is nice to his brother and sister and I will give him SOME of my profits. And the other part, I really like this stuff its fun and let's me become creative again. I'm so becoming my mom. So, let me know if you want/need or can't live without anything. I'll hook you up. Email me or just comment. I'll be getting a blog just for crafts made sometime before I go completely insane so look for it shortly. Thanks for the applause.

I'm a sexy crafter!!

Yep, more crafts. Blocks again and one new craft. I finally got a craft cutter and it is going to make these craft projects go so much faster!! This time I finally got some pictures of doing the crafts. Figuring out how big to make the words for the glass block. (See, I'm a sexy crafter huh?)

Messing with the bow, it's really hard to get it just right.

Making sure it prints well.

But, my hard work paid off and here is the glass block. It's a gift for a friend. I hope she likes it. I worked really hard on it.

More blocks. I seriously think these ones are the most gorgeous of all of them. Bob did help me cut the papers and stuff but really, they are totally my crafts. I'm such a sexy crafter!!

Wow, they really do grow like weeds

Jake, Natalie and Greyson December 2006. We had really JUST moved into this house. Hence all the boxes and huge mess!!


Fast forward to December 2008. Holy cow!! Did you see how fast Grey grew? Natalie's shoulders are above the banister now and so is Jake's head.

I know that kids are supposed to grow but I don't remember then growing this much in the last 2 years. Made me a little sad when I saw the first picture when I was organizing them.

Just another good reason to make everyday and every word count. I really need to remember that when my kids have pushed me to the breaking point.

Another one bites the dust

Remember that table I finished a few weeks ago? Well, I finally found the fabric that I wanted and today my wonderful husband is putting it on the chairs.

VOILA......

The fabric has a slight diamond pattern on it because that is what Jake wanted. I was debating whether I wanted to refinish the chairs or not and now I think not. I love the way it looks. ONE full crafty project DONE!! That feels so good.