got Hawaii on my mind

I read the Rollingstone article about Jack Johnson while waiting in the doctor's office the other day. I can't get out of my mind how cool he is! I am so impressed with how down to earth he is. His priorities are his family first, then his "island life". It talked about how he started out as a surfer, but got out of it because he didn't like how jaded all the surfers were. They were all in it for sponsorships and tv time. He talks about how he will never be away from his family for more than a month, and he'll leave a tour and cancel dates to come home to them. It talked about how he walks a quarter mile to the beach barefoot everday to surf, and how he and his wife have started a recycling program for Hawaii.

So of course it brought back memories of being in Hawaii, listening to Jack Johnson, and laying out. I'm just really craving the ocean and a warm beach. Also the smell of plumeria's wouldn't be so bad.

Then Saturday night, Ryan and I went to see the UFC fight, and BJ Penn won. (Yeah!) And he's Hawaiian so of course all about Hawaii pride. It's just time. I need a vacation.

FHE

Everyone at work loved this story, so I thought I'd share.

Last night was Monday night, so obviously we had FHE. Since it was 110 degrees yesterday (I don't think it DID get that hot, but it was supposed to) we went swimming for FHE. Well I was sitting on the edge of the pool with my feet in the water, and Drake wanted out. But once he got out he was freezing since his cold wet trunks were touching his legs, so I took off his trunks and cuddled him to warm him up. Being on my lap didn't last too long because he wanted his legs in the water too, so he snuggled next to me just sitting on the deck. I was watching Gwen and Ryan play when I noticed a stream shooting in the pool. I looked down and Drake was peeing straight into the pool. And the funny part was him looking down, watching it come out in awe. Well I'm laughing at him watching himself pee when I think, hmmm Drakes sitting funny, why is his hip cocked up? Then I look behind him and I see why. He took a HUGE poo that was coming out at the same time!!!! So I flew into clean up mode and it was quite the ordeal to get all that poop off the deck and off him since he was still sitting on the poo. It was all over his legs, and smelled like an outhouse, but it was so funny!

graduations...

Gwen had her preschool graduation Friday night. It was so cute, and Gwen was such a ham!
She kept doing this cheezy thumbs up thing during the songs or if she caught us looking at her. She also enjoyed waving like she was a supermodel.
The kids sang several songs including their ABCs days of the week, Peanut butter and jelly and other cute songs. She really has learned so much this year. I'm so glad that she was able to go to preschool and make so many friends. She absolutely loved her teacher too.
Check out my cheeseball...


Then Saturday Gwen had her ballet recital. And again, she totally hammed it up! Believe it or not, this is the best picture I got! They danced to "Good ship lollypop", and she was singing all the words as she danced.

And then I guess this can be our official announcement. Ryan has made the decision to go back to school, the question has been where. I have to admit I've really been hoping and pushing for ASU. That way we'll be here, well probably forever. But ultimately it's Ryan's decision as far as what he wants to do. And I guess University of Pacific has a wonderful Trial Advocacy program that Ryan really wants to do. And it just so happens that UoP is in Sacramento, where Ryan's from. So we're leaving my home town to go to Ryan's. Now that Ryan's made up his mind, we're just crossing out fingers that I'll get a transfer. IF that were to happen, we'd move as soon as that happens, but otherwise it looks like we'll be in Cali at the end of the summer. I'm really sad to be leaving all the family and friends we have here. We've really started our family here and I can't believe it's going to be over. But at the same time, the idea of starting somewhere new is exciting. Ryan's mom is still there, and his sister Molly and her family have recently moved back to Sacramento. Plus my sister Tara and her family recently moved to Concord. So I'll get to see her on the weekends. Wow, typing this has just made it even more real and I can't even imagine where I would start packing up my house....

good times

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I know a name, a wonderful name...

Happy Mother's Day to two amazing Moms!

How did you find the energy, Mom

To do all the things you did,

To be teacher, nurse and counselor

To me, when I was a kid.

How did you do it all, Mom,

Be a chauffeur, cook and friend,

Yet find time to be a playmate,

I just can’t comprehend.
I see now it was love, Mom

That made you come whenever I'd call,

Your inexhaustible love, Mom

And I thank you for it all.
By Joanna Fuchs

still frustrated

Never mind all the pictures and music I lost when my hard drive in my Mac crashed.
I brought my Mac in today so they could re-format my operating system, and she assured me I wouldn't lose any of my files. Well wouldn't you know my 2500 pictures I had on my computer weren't there! No worries right? I got an external hard drive for Time Machine to automatically back up every half hour (one of the features of the new amazing Leopard operating systems for Mac). Oh, but of course it's my operating system that corrupted! (That what they say since Macs "can't get viruses") So my Time Machine has been generating error messages and hasn't been running the back up!!!! I might not have those pictures! So tonight I have to go back again to see if my external hard drive has been in fact backing up, and to see if they can get my computer to recognize my ipod, etc.
I'm so over Macs!

warning.... this is a venting post

This is how I feel right now. I HATE HATE HATE my Mac!! I have had more problems, and worse problems in the past year of using a Mac than I have ever had in the 10+ years of using a PC. If any of you out there are thinking of buying a Mac, DON'T DO IT!!!!!!!! I know they are so enticing because they are so awesome looking and have sweet photo and music programs, but if you want a computer that you can use those programs whenever you want, a Mac is not for you.
If this thing could talk, it would say, "my purpose is to make Kristin as miserable as computerly possible!"

where does she get it?

Seriously, Gwen is awesome! She's in this stage where she likes to be my little shadow. And it is so fun, whenever I'm in the kitchen making anything, she wants to help. Probably just so she can lick the beater, but I promise she actually tries to learn how to do the stuff. I think that because she said "did your mommy teach you how to make__________?" And when I say yes, she seems more focused.
Part of her being my shadow, is that she follows me, EVERYWHERE! The other day, I went into the bathroom, and as I was sitting down, the door opens and Gwen's right there. I said, "Gwen remember what we talked about?" "To give privacy when people are in the bathroom." "Okay Gwenny give me my privacy." "Okay mommy, I'll just watch you with one eye then." And she proceeded to shut the door almost all the way except for her one little eye watching me go pee.
Oh, it was so funny I had no problem with stage fright. (That's my solution to peeing in a public bathroom, and you get stage fright. I laugh to myself silently and it's like turning on a faucet) (tmi?)




this is Gwen "walking like mommy"

Gwenny's new obsession....

Death!!!!

Ever since Easter time, my little girl talks about death all the time! She randomly will say things like "I don't want to die mommy". To which what else can you say other than, "well sweetie, everybody dies, but you won't for a long time, until you're old like Grandpa was. And then it won't be scary, because you'll be with the people you love!"

But it goes beyond that. The other night, I was asking her where she wanted to go, and I'm thinking something like GG's house or the ice cream store. And she said to see where Jesus died on the cross. Okay, that's kind cool, we'll go there one day when Ryan's done with school, many many years from now. And then later that night I was talking to her, and she says,

"I don't like some people."

"Oh really? Who don't you like?"

"People who killed people"

"Yah, they're not too nice. We don't like people who kill other people"

"But they didn't killed us, huh mommy?"

"No."

"They're not going to come in our house and killed us huh?"

"No, we'll make sure our doors are locked and ask Heavenly Father to protect us right?"

"Yah, I don't like people who come into other peoples houses to killed them. I don't want them to do that to us mommy."

WHAT!?!?!??!

Where in the world did that come from? We haven't even watched Court TV in years!? The only thing I can think of is maybe she heard a story on the news or something like that. All I know is that Gwen likes to talk about people and animals who have died, and tells me she doesn't want to.

from jasmyn...

What I was doing 10 years ago:

I was a junior in HS getting ready for my first prom and working as an executive assistant at Agate.

5 things on today's TO DO list:

*hopefully get a pedicure
*get some more tootsie rolls
*love my babies
*plan a menu for next week
*have a slumber party w/ my old roomies!!

5 snacks I enjoy:

*fresh fruit like WATERMELON, strawberries, gala apples and almost all yellow bananas
*bread
*candy (wild berry skittles, redvines, redhots, tootsie rolls)
*beef jerky
*salty crunchies (baked lays, pretzels, wheat thins)

5 things I'd do if I was a billionaire:

*travel the world
*donate money to church, hungry countries, and states to build more prisons
*buy a compound in Hawaii and build houses for all our family members
*go to culinary school
*get a pedicure EVERYDAY!

5 bad habits: (these are hard to admit)

*picking split ends
*eating too much candy
*using my fingers to eat
*saving my gum on the back of my hand
*gossiping

5 places I've lived:

*Mesa, AZ
*Provo, UT
*Grand Prairie, TX
*South Plainfield, NJ
*Kansas City, KS

5 jobs I've had:

*claims adjuster-Progressive
*"Management trainee"-Enterprise
*making everything-Hogi Yogi (this was quite possible the funnest job I've ever had!)
*juice maker-Jamba Juice (in the Wilk. at BYU and this is probably the worst job I've ever had)
*Executive Assistant-Agate, Arrow, and Salt River Sand & Rock

now I tag Dezi, Lindsey and Carrie<3

p.s.

Something I forgot to mention by that cute picture of Drake waving goodbye to everyone in Sacramento...he was a little hellion on the flight home!!! For the last twenty minutes, he screamed his head off because he couldn't walk the aisle, or watch the DVD player. So I had to hold his arms with one hand, cover his mouth to muffle screams with the other, and pin his kicking legs between mine. Aweful!!!
Well, yesterday when my mom went to work, her supervisor asked if her daughter flew into the airport last night. Yes. From Sacramento? Yes. Oh, he and his wife were on our flight, and noticed me because they wanted to see who the mother was of the out of control, screaming boy!
Talk about embarassing!!!!

weekend whirlwind

We had a crazy busy weekend! Thursday night we packed up the kids and flew out to Sacramento! Molly and Darren have moved there recently, so Gwen and Drake had SO MUCH fun getting to see Grammy and playing with their cousins. They are such busy bodies and always on the go!


Gwen and Claire are "BEST FRIENDS" and Laurel had such a fun time keeping up with those two. And Gwen and Drake were just in awe of baby Marie! While we were there, we got to watch Jack while Tara had her baby!!!!!!!!!


Saturday, April 12 at about 4:00 pm, Aubrey Taylor was born. She was 8 lbs 2 ounces and just beautiful!! When we took Jack to the hospital to see the baby and his mommy and daddy, you could tell he just had no clue what happened. Oh poor Jack, how your world has changed! All in all we had a wonderful trip. It was so good to see family and I also got to see one of my BFF's Desiree. Thank you all for the wonderful weekend!

bunker bed

That's what Gwen calls it.  For those of you who didn't know yet, Ryan is going to be going to law school in the fall.  Where?  That hasn't been decided yet.  But one thing we do know: we have to downsize.  Wherever we are, I'm sure we'll be living in some small apartment or even student housing, so Gwen and Drake will be sharing a room.  

Enter bunk bed. 

Ryan and I assembled the bed this weekend, thank you very much Ikea!  The kids absolutely LOVE it!  They both love being up high on top, and also making forts on the bottom.  Seriously, bunk beds are perhaps the raddest beds ever!  I asked Ryan if we could have bunk beds too, and being the cool guy he is said "I call top!"  So we're getting bunk beds too!  Okay not really, he quickly vetoed that and was just saying a line from Big. (fyi-that movie is soooo awesome!)


That's my silly girl "slithering out of the fort 'cause I'm a snake!"And one of the best parts of all of this, is that we were able to turn Gwen's room into a PLAY ROOM!!

she's very thankful!

So yesterday marks a year.
One full year now Gwen has been saying in EVERY meal prayer that she is thankful for easter eggs! For a while even, she would get upset if Ryan and I failed to mention our appreciation for easter eggs in our prayers. We thought for sure it would die off after a week or two. Nope. A whole year!!

fitting for easter

Sunday, Drake's nursery teachers gave the kids gold fish. The kids were so excited!!!

They loved the fish so much, and Gwen named the fish Ruby after her favorite doll. We put it in one of my bowl shaped water pitchers, and both Gwen and Drake loved to just look at her and talk to her. Now don't get the wrong idea that the kids were total angels about this fish. Monday I came downstairs to find Drake on a chair, the bowl half empty the other half of the water was all over the table and floor. And he thought the fish was hungry, so naturally he had the bottom of the pitcher covered in conversation hearts! We cleaned up the mess and explained the importance of clean water and "fish food" for Ruby. The kids were so happy when they got to feed Ruby her food, and every morning as we would leave the house, Gwen and Drake would say "bye" to her. Well, yesterday morning, when I came downstairs, the water was murky, so I dumped it out and put in clean water. And the whole time I was doing the transfer, she didn't move at all. She just stayed at the bottom of the bowl. I thought either she's dead, or she's gonna be soon. So I thought I should prep the kids and tell them that Ruby was sick so remember to say bye to her. Gwen was so dramatic in her "oh no!!! Bye Ruby, I LOVE you!!" Then when we got home last night, I told Gwen it looked like Ruby had died and we were going to need to flush her body. Gwen insisted she wasn't dead and we couldn't do that because she loved her. So I figured I'd wait for Ryan to do it.

Well this evening, when we came in, Ruby was floating at the top of the bowl, and her eyes were clouded. We showed Gwen and told her the fish really was dead and that we needed to flush her body. We went to the toilet and dumped her. Gwen immediately started to get teary and said "but I'll never see her again!". We then talked about Grandpa Bostwick who just had died, Grandpa McPhie, and Jesus. We talked about why we celebrate Easter and that we will see them all again. I love Easter, and I love that Gwen has such a tender heart.

SPAM

No, not the kind in the can. The annoying kind that fills up your email in box CONSTANTLY! Tonight I finally got fed up and instead of deleting all of the emails, I actually took the time to open each one and UNSUBSCRIBE to them all (at least all of the ones from today). So I opened 27emails from people/places that I had no intentions of reading their junk and I was just so ready to be done with them and do you know what? Six of them actually had the nerve to SEND ANOTHER EMAIL confirming that I've asked to unsubscribe. Now I know this post is probably just as annoying to you as those emails are to me, but I needed to vent.

To make up for it, here's a funny pic. :)

That's Ryan and one of his BFF's, Brannan. They're doing home facials back in college. And yes, that still is one of Ryan's favorite shirts. :)

Grandpa

I have been so blessed to have the amazing grandpa I have.

Grandpa Chet died Saturday, March 15, 2008.

He has been such a great example to me, and a wonderful patriach to our family.

I love you grandpa!

And then to compound the pain of the loss, my iMac hard drive crashed last week, with so many pictures of grandpa with my kids. If only I had backed up my files...

MIDLIFE CRISIS

Yesterday I had my "womanly appointment". That's right, any males reading this can stop now if you want. Anyhoo, my doctor was covering her bases, letting me know about what's out there etc. So she starts telling me about Gardasil, a new vaccination to help prevent cervical cancer. Then she says, "although I don't know if your insurance would cover the vaccination since you will be turning 27 within the next six months. However, they are coming out with a new vaccination for older women soon."!!!!!!!
I'm officially in the "OLDER WOMEN" category!!!! How did my youth so quickly escape me?

Wednesday

Can I tell you something funny?

My little Gwenny has a new obsession...

FOLDING!!!

She loves to fold everything! From her colored papers,

that she then wraps rubberbands around, to towels and blankets.

In fact, it's gotten to the point where I can't have towels hanging on

the towel racks anymore.

Gwen will take them down and fold them up!

her folded up blankets
yes, this towel was hanging on the oven handle
and this towel was hung by the sink

She's an organizer. In addition to folding, she likes making sure

everything is lined up too.

And this is Drake hiding behind the chair during a scary part

of the Incredibles.

New NEPHEW

Congratulations to Kolby and Tawnya!

Kitseelie Gene Collard

was born Tuesday, March 4, 2008.

8lbs 2oz, 20 inches long.

FHE

Tonight was AWESOME!!!  Seriously perfect weather tonight.  It was like 75 degrees outside (maybe a little cooler with the breeze) so we had dinner out on the patio by the pool, and the kids ate ALL of their vegetables.  Then it felt so good out, and we had some new footballs, so we played some football for a while.  I gotta say, I should be in the NFL!  My hands were like magnets to the ball!  ;)  Gwen and Drake loved watching Ryan and I throw the ball to each other and loved chasing after the ball too.  Then, we went to the temple to see the new display of the photos of Christ, but we didn't have tickets.  (Apparently you have to have tickets on Monday nights)  So we enjoyed walking around the temple grounds instead.  And of course no FHE would not be complete without ice cream.   Can every night please be like this?