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Archive for the ‘family and friends’ Category

We all have a favorite book. What’s yours? Stop for a minute and think about why it is your favorite book. Does it take you off to far away places? Sweep you off your feet with romantic secrets? Or does it warm your heart and soul?

Now image you are a parent separated from your children for whatever reason, deployment, divorce, work etc. And all you want to do it curl up with a good book and your little ones before bed. Hard to think about right? No parent wants to be away from their child (at least not by force! Ha!) Kids have a hard time with parents being away too, even if it is just for date night. But what if your little one could get a “hug” from you anytime they wanted? What if you could get a “hug” from your child while you are thousands of miles away on business? Sound Intriguing?

The best substitute for a real hug? A Paper Hug. A book written by my mother-in-law and illustrated by her daughter, they are truly an amazing team. My MIL had 2 boys deployed to Iraq at the same time (one of which is my dear husband). So she knows first hand what it is like to miss a loved one. This book really does warm the soul and makes my eyes well up EVERY TIME I READ IT! It never gets old.

Please take a minute to explore the website, read some of the comments and think about someone you know who might benefit from this book. Or just buy it for yourself to add to your collection. It’s only $6.95 through this website: http://www.design-ability.com/store_paperhug.html. I have spent more than that on a cup of coffee!!

If you are feeling generous and have some space on your website, you would really help out by copying the text below into your html widgets, gadgets or sidebars (depending on who you blog with) Ask/MSG me if you need help. It will place a cute little icon on your page just like the one at the top of my page.

I don’t care who you are, thats gonna look cute on your page!

You know you wanna do it…

Thanks!

So little time to blog! Today marks the last day of class for almost 4 glorious weeks! I don’t have to go back until June 24th… until then, I am hoping to get caught up in the bloggity blog goodness.

A few TOP NEWS stories just to keep you up to speed:

I have some amazing in-laws. My youngest SIL headed out on her ASL Mission for the LDS Church last week (Wow, thats a lot of acronyms). She will be headed to Anaheim, California mid-July. Good Luck Victoria! I know you will do your family and church proud.

My other SIL (whom I will not refer to as the “oldest”, but simply the “most experienced in living”) is headed to Kenya to do some humanitarian work in a small village. Way to go! You are truly an inspiration.

Addie will be turning two in just 2 short weeks… TWO! *sigh*
We booked her first trip to Disneyland for this July. We will be flying out to visit my paternal grandmother for a few days, and decided to extend the vacation a little further and add two days of Disney in there as well.

Jess will be turning…. welll, lets just say he is older than me. His b-day is coming up quicker than Addie’s and Fathers Day is also just around the corner. What a busy month! (Not to forget My brothers birthday, the day after Jess’s, and my Mom’s is at the end of the month). Whew, that sounds like a lot of pictures and a lot of blogging. Let’s hope I can keep up.

Now onto the Addie Milestones:

She has started to quote her favorite movies. Aristocats is HUGE in her world right now. There is a scene in the movie where the cats get abandoned by Edgar the evil butler, and Marie (the little girl cat) says (in a very whiny voice) “Ma-Ma…I’m Afraid. I wanna go home.” Addie says this constantly. For a little while we were actually convinced she was afraid of something. She also says “Are you KIDDING me?”… hmmm, wonder where she got that one from?

She can count to 10, identify about 6 numbers (out of sequence) on flashcards, say her ABC’s and identify quite a few letters. She knows more animal sounds than I do (thanks to my iPhone) and is still quite good at going pee-pee on the potty.

One more thing… I had an “Addaracktome” on April 22nd. *snicker* thats all I’m gonna say.

Well, now you are up to speed. There is much more to blog about.. so stay tuned!

My absolutely too-creative-for-her-own-good SIL put together this collage of Addie’s trip to the zoo. You can read her very creative blog here. Thanks Ali!

Addie can play!
While Jess and I were in D.C. Addie got to stay with her Grandparents. Gaummie and Grumps for the first few days, and Grandma Steph for the last. It is unwritten law that grandparents must spoil the grandchildren, I think it is safe to say Addie’s grandparents do a great job!!

Here are some highlights from Gaummie and Grumps:

Bath time the night before Daddy left

From 21 Months

Addie and Grumps playing with her tunnel in the backyard

Addie’s favorite time of day. BREAKFAST!

When Addie went to visit Grandma Steph, she had a very special surprise! Cousins Will and Walker were also visiting!

It is so weird to see her playing like a big kid

They went for a ride on Frontrunner

Played at the park

From 21 Months

Flew some kites with Uncle Ryan

And enjoyed each others company

I guess Jess and I don’t have to worry about Addie having fun while we are gone! The grandparents have it under control!!

What fun it was to have a child this Easter. Not quite like Christmas, but boy, did her face light up when she saw the living room scattered with eggs and her very own Easter Basket!

Then began the egg “hunt”…
She ran from Egg to Egg picking them up and moving them all around. None really made it into her basket, but she had a great time. I’m just glad we used plastic eggs as one of her favorite things to do with the eggs was STOMP them.

After a fun morning, we headed off to Easter Brunch with my family at Marie Callenders.

From Easter 2010

(I was bending down because I thought my brother was directly behind me…oh well!)

Later that day we were all supposed to head over to Ryan and Melissa’s house for Easter Dinner. Unfortunately, illness caught up with Jess and I that afternoon. Jess was running on only about 3 hours of sleep, and I (after a visit to the doctor) had a sinus infection, ear infection, and pinkeye…YIKES! We couldn’t risk getting little baby Zoe sick.

Fortunately, Steph saved us some yummy leftovers and we were able to have Easter Dinner on Monday.

The Saturday before Easter Jess, Gaummie and I took Addie to an Easter egg hunt at Farsnworth Farms. We were a bit worried about te cold, and if Addie would even understand what to do. The hunt proceeds went to Muscular Dystrophy so even if she didn’t, we could leave feeling good about it.

Fortunately, Addie did AMAZING! She was fascinated by the idea of it and was thrilled that her little basket held 3 eggs. The most fantastic part was that each time she bent over to pick up a new egg, the eggs already in her basket fell out… so there were always more eggs to pick up!

Despite the cold she was a trooper! She laughed and giggled at the Easter Bunny and high fived Grizby the Grizzlies Bear.

As the morning went on, she began to get a little tired.

So we headed for home so we could all take a nap, but not before one last picture and a big “Cheeeeeeesssssse” for the Camera!

I was very disappointed to wake up to 8-10 inches of snow. However, my little monkey was thrilled. She got up and looked out the window with me and started screaming “SNOW!! SNOWW! SNOOOOWWWWW! snOWing!!!” When I took her out to the car, she would put her hand into a pile of snow and pick up a bit and say Brrrr!

I knew at this point in time, it was a “snow day,” So back inside we went to get her snow boots and gear to take to Gaummie and Gumps house. We weren’t there more than 2 minutes before she was whining at the back door about playing in the snow.

When I left for work, she was still playing in the backyard…

From 20 Months

From 20 Months

From 20 Months

From 20 Months

From 20 Months

*edit: It was pointed out to me, no where in this post did I explain “neighborgood”. That is how Addie says it. It’s not a typo.. but thanks for keeping tabs on me, most days I need it!*

This isn’t really about the people in our neighborhood, but Addie does mention my parents neighbors when prompted.

Another conversation in the wee morning hours from anout 2 months ago. I got recording a little late, as I had to wait for a stoplight to find my phone. Addie remembers everyone, she will most likely grow up to be one of those people that never forgets your name, and you are struggling to remember theirs. Ack! I hate when that happens. Good thing she will be around to remind me of everyones name!

Everyday someone does something new on the interwebs. Some experiments prove to be rather successful others, not so much.

365 Day Girl, has no motives that I can see to succeed or fail in marketing and entrepreneurial… things,  but keep an eye on her. I think there are big things in her future. Check out her Blog here. She has about 10,000 online accounts. You can find her on Youtube, Twitter, Flickr, Facebook(but not myspace cause that creeps her out) among others.

The project intrigues me! Learn everything in regards to mastering social media. Doesn’t sound that tough, people do it all the time right? Wrong. Have you ever thought about how many aspects of social media there are? If you think you have, check out her website, blog, youtube, etc and you may change your mind. Aside from that, she is super funny and completely adorable. I’m totally addicted.

I check her pages a few times a day when I need to mellow and distract myself. She talks about poop, and beauty. Who does that??? She open and honest and I totally adore her personality. Check it out!