I DID IT!

I am so proud of myself. I finally got the pictures off my camera and on to the computer. Now it is time for a really emabarrassing admission and I hope somebody can help me on this. I feel really stupid but everytime I load pictures on and then I want to put little captions beneath them but I can't seem to figure out how to do it. I know it is probably one of the most simple things to accomplish but I can't get it. Can somebody please help me?

Anyway, life is good. Mason was blessed a couple of weeks ago and continues to get bigger every day. I bought his blessing outfit in a size 6 months and I barely squeezed him into it. I keep questioning if it is ok that my 3 month old wears 6 month clothing. Then I started to pay attention to the pounds that these clothing makers say 3 and 6 months old should wear. Now, don't get me wrong. I am aware that my little mason is a beefy kid so I am not trying to fool myself into thinking all babies are like mason, BUT I just do not think that most babies are 10 lbs at 3 months old. I think that Osh Kosh and Carters need a reality check and need some size adjustments so mothers like me don't get a complex over thinking they have an obese baby. Climbing off my soap box, I can now continue. Tylie is rapidly approaching 3. Jake and I keep looking at her waltzing around the house and wonder how in the world she got to 3 already. It is a strange thing that I am not comprehending. She has done so many funny things lately but by the time I get around to blogging, it is old news and I don't get it on here. Man, I really need to work on this blogging thing. I will make it a goal to blog once a week. Maybe I can do it every tuesday night right after American Idol while Jake is still at work. I would try to do it while watching American Idol but let's be honest, they would be pretty boring blogs because all of my attention would go to the crazy people that think that can sing but, in reality, can't carry a tune in a bucket. Wow, I have really rambled on. Enjoy the pictures and now that I have figured out how to get them off, I will get them on a little quicker.

I did it

slacker

I have all of these really cute pictures from Christmas, Mason's blessing, and New Years but for some reason my laptop is not reading my camera card so I can get the pictures off. I keep trying and then I get frustrated and give up without updating my blog. For some reason I have this mind block that I can't get past. I think that if I don't have a picture attached to an update it is somehow flawed and unworthy to be posted. I just think that everybody would much rather see pictures then listen to me ramble on about my worries, opinions, etc. It has been so long since I have updated it though that I am finally conceding and updating so everyone will realize and I not disappeared into some sort of "blog black hole." Anyway, I am working on getting the pictures loaded and will post them as soon as I can. I hope everyone is doing well.

random pics

I haven't been very good about getting new pictures on here. I keep trying to get mason to smile when I have the camera on him but right when I bring it in view, he becomes enthralled with the flash light and won't even pay attention to me. Here are some of my attempts. I have also posted a funny picture of Tylie hanging out in our room while I was getting ready the other day. Now, I know you are probably wondering why she is clinging to a blender; it is a legitimate question. To be honest I was wondering the same thing too. So I did what any mom would do, I asked her. When she replied I couldn't help but laugh. It was not so much what she said but how she said it. It is hard to portray a moment through writing (I try to leave that to my Journalist husband) but she said so matter-of-fact, like it was so common and shouldn't be questioned. I simply asked her why she was holding the blender and she said "Because mom, I can't find my doll." OH! GEEZ!!! What was I thinking??? Of course, it is only natural that she would get the blender. It's not like she has 50 other baby dolls in her toy room, or another 50 in her bedroom. That would be silly to get one of those. A blender is the obvious choice! ( I really hope you could sense my sarcasm in all that, I feel silly even putting this disclosure in here.) So, while other children are creating childhood memories with baby dolls and stuffed teddy bears, my daughter will continue her memories with a blender.

BYU Fan

When I was growing up, football was not even a remote part of my home or family life. As a kid, the most I knew about football was that it was the annoying thing on TV that kept popping up as my dad was surfing the channels looking for his "John Wayne" movie. I became a little more aware of the game when I started Bingham and there were games every Friday night. At that point, the games served as a perfect social scene which I rarely missed. I attended those games faithfully for 3 years but I probably watched about 3 minutes in the whole 3 years I went. I only cared that my friends were there and we were probably going to go get ice cream after. I was aware that Bingham players were out on the field, but to me it just seemed like they were a bunch of frustrated teen agers letting out some aggression and tackling eachother. I did not see any rhyme or reason to the game, nor did I care to learn. Then I met Jake and the choice was no longer mine. I married into a family that "bled blue" (a phrase I am now familiar with but originally thought that they were just trying to describe a bad bruise) and were season ticket holders since the dawn of time. As a matter of fact, my and Jake's first date was a BYU game and what an eye opener that was. Imagine going on a first date with someone you have only known for about a week. First dates are always a little scary and inevitably awkward no matter how hard you try. Now add in the facts that he takes you to a game that you know nothing about and actually somewhat despise because all of the football players you have known in the past were cocky pigs. AND.... as you are walking into the stadium, your date informs you that his entire family is there because they are avid BYU fans and have season tickets. (I still give Jake a hard time about this. It would have been nice to tell me these things on the phone when he asked me out. Somehow, these facts were left out.) So, there I am, sitting with his whole family, trying to impress them and not look like a complete goon but I don't have a clue what is going on. I don't know when to jump up and down in celebration or when to get upset. And then the worst part of it all. Cougars score and everybody gets to their feet and starts singing the fight song word for word as if it were a song on the Top 100 radio station that plays everyday and gets in your head and you can't get it out. I felt like a complete idiot. I sat there wishing I had paid closer attention to all of those Bingham games but what could I do. I just hoped they wouldn't notice what an uneducated fool I was in the arena of football.

Fast forward 8 years later. Yesterday was the infamous BYU vs. Utah rivalry game and the Hancock BYU party was at my house this year. Now, you are probably thinking that this is a day that I would dread, but ironically, it is a day that I had been looking forward to for quite some time. Since marrying Jake, I have become very fond of this crazy game of football. When we lived in California Jake would love to spend his Saturday afternoons watching college football and since we didn't have any family around and my idea of fun did not include wandering around LA by myself, I would sit down and watch it with him. Somewhere along the way I got sucked in to the excitement and that is when I was hooked. Now I am addicted. I find myself sitting on the couch screaming phrases like "quarterback sack" and "third and out". Phrases that might as well been Chinese 8 years ago. I love it though. I love talking about the game for days after with Jake. I love getting together with the family and feeling the emotion of the game surge through the room. And finally, I love that I now can proudly say, without any hesitation, I "bleed blue"!

P.S. Congrats to all you Ute fans out there. It was a tough game for us Cougars but you earned that win! We'll see you next year in Provo!

What happened???

Have you ever had one of those moments when you look around and wonder how in the heck you got to where you are that very moment. This happened to me the other day and I have been reeling from it ever since. I was driving up to my mom's the other day and Tylie was in the back seat going on and on about things that only Tylie could understand. I glanced in the rear view mirror and I saw this adorable little girl with pigtails smiling back at me. Then I realized that Mason had been cooing in his seat the whole time but I had been so busy listening to Tylie that I hadn't really heard him. That is when it hit me. A moment that I am bound to remember for a long time. I felt like I had warped through time I and was completely stunned that somehow along the way, I had aquired the "american dream" and I did not even realize it. In what seemed like a matter of moments, I had gotten married, had 2 children, built our first home, and became one of those mom's that drove their kids around in an SUV with the back seat full of diaper bags and car seats. It freaked me out! I swear that just the day before I was walking down the hallway at Bingham headed to choir class. At this time of year, we would be preparing for our annual "Candlelight" performance and my biggest stresses would be to make sure that I could stay awake through the rest of my classes until 3:00 when school got out and my day would be over. (How would it be to be done with your day at 3:00???) It truly was a strange moment. I would have sworn to you that someone had locked me in a time capsule and I was just waking up after someone else had lived my life for the past 8 years. I felt like I should introduce myself to Tylie because it just did not seem reasonable that I would have a two year old that called me mom. I felt like I was way to young to be in the situation that I was in. Oh, but then reality hit!!! I am turning 27 this year. The days of Bingham and easy living were long over. I do have 2 kids and a husband and all the responsiblilties of the average adult. It just always seemed like having my own family and owning my own home was an unattainable goal when I was younger. And then somewhere down the line, it just happened with out me realizing what was happening. Well, whatever steps it took to get me where I am, I am thrilled. But it is a crazy feeling to have those moments when you realize where you are in life. I wonder what kind of moment I am going to have when I am helping Tylie into her wedding dress or standing at the airport waving goodbye to Mason and he leaves on his mission. I can only hope that I am just as happy with my life as I am now.

Halloween

Here are a few pictures from Halloween. Tylie loved being Cinderella. She felt that it is only natural that she is a princess. With the way that her attitude has been lately, I started to think that she decided to permanently be a princess. Anyway, as you can tell from the pictures, Mason did not think that dressing up was much fun. It was a fun Halloween and now it is time to gear up for the holiday season.