The Life and Times of the Aivaz Family

You say it's your Birthday...

2012-01-06T07:59:00.000-08:00

Two years ago today I looked like this...

Gross, right? About an hour after this was taken, I got this...

Now she looks like this...

Worth. Every. Second. This girl is such a joy in our lives. At 2 Reagan's favorite things are:

1. Her thumb. Hands down, her favorite past time. She is always sucking that thing.
2. Her bed. She sleeps like a champ in her "big girl" bed.
3. The Momma. She's obsessed with me. But who isn't?
4. ELMO!!! She loves that annoying little monster. I swore I would never let my kids have character shirts or shoes...not so much. They are involved.
5. Papa. She has a special relationship with my dad that I don't even understand. She even preferred him to me before we moved. She could really take or leave her dad, her sister, etc. but my dad is sacred to her.
6. Pretty much any TV show.

Least favorite things:

1. NURSERY. She has loathed it from day 1. Continues to loathe it. Screams the entire two hours. Every. Week.
2. Most meat. She is a bit of a bird when it comes to eating and we don't know why. Katelyn cleared her plate from day 1 and Jason and I obviously love to eat, but this kid won't eat much, but almost zero meat.
3. The vacuum. She whines and whimpers and says "scary" the entire time it's on. I think it's funny.
4. Ladybugs. She is petrified.
5. Most people. Just people in general are not her friends.

I love my baby angel. We've had a blast getting to hang together alone these past few months and she is learning and talking and doing sooo many things. She is a love and has blessed our family beyond measure. Happy Birthday, Reagan! We love you! Party pos to come later.

Well we need a little Christmas, right this very minute...

2011-12-23T14:56:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I wrestled with the idea of writing the obligatory Christmas letter and sending it to everyone, but after much pondering, I decided to save the USPS the trouble of hauling 80,000 letters all around the globe and went with the option to do it this way... so welcome to the first annual Aivaz Family Year-End/Christmas Report.

Cue fanfare.

No, no not that... make it a little more seasonal.

That's better.

Anyway, how do these things usually go? We just write about the events of the last year, post some pictures and then just expect people to read it and care? Okay. Well, I guess we'll just start off with the youngest member of our little family, Reagan.

Reagan had a pretty big year in 2011... she turned 1, learned how to walk, talk, count, and most importantly (and most recently) sleep in a "big-girl" bed. Yes, as of tonight, Reagan says goodbye to the crib forever (and Seana and I probably say goodbye to sanity). Reagan loves staying at home with Seana all day, she gets restless at home sometimes when it's too cold to go outside, but she's generally good to go and play blocks or baby dolls upstairs in her room after a small period of freaking out. She's a tender little thing, who gets her feelings hurt very easily, but is physically very tough... she wipes out with the best of them and springs right up, usually saying "I okay". She loves her sister, running around the house, and jumping on beds.

Reagan's Christmas wish list:

Baby dolls
A lifetime-supply of cranberry mixed juices
Anything Elmo-related (Seriously, she's obsessed)
Some fuzzy boots (Her sister has a pair and Reagan flies into a jealous rage whenever Katelyn puts them on)

Next, we come to Katelyn, our little Kindergartner.

As you can probably guess, Katelyn's big deal this year was starting school. When we got the news that UNLV wasn't going to be an option for law school, my one real silver lining to the storm clouds brought by that realization that Katelyn wouldn't be stuck in the den of failure and iniquity known as the Clark County School District. After doing some reading online about the Oxford School District, I knew that even if it wasn't the right fit for me, it would be the right fit for Katelyn. And I was exactly right. Katelyn LOVES school. I honestly think she likes her teacher, Ms. Henry, more than she likes me and Seana sometimes. Okay, most of the time. She is doing really well in school... she's generally well-behaved and was even her classroom's "special friend" one day (the special friend gets to help with things in class and acts like a tiny little teacher's aide) She'll be turning 6 next August and starts 1st grade in August. Time flies when you're having fun (and being naughty).

Katelyn's Christmas wish list:

Books
Not having to listen to her parents (The gift that keeps on giving)
A make-up desk
Her very own TV so she can watch Netflix constantly

Now I can either decide to go in age order, with which I would be next (Seana's a total cradle-robber) OR I can make a legit editorial decision and make Seana next...

Seana seen here in her usual position: Comforting Reagan.

Seana's been a real trooper this year. Of all the adjustments we've all had to make this year, she probably had the toughest. And I can't blame her. Her entire life was in Las Vegas; family, friends, everything she ever loved literally was in that town and suddenly, over the span of a weekend, she was in Mississippi, with no family or friends within 2000 miles, through no fault of her own and with very little time to prepare herself physically, mentally, or emotionally. But, where others might have turned inward or threw a never-ending pity party for themselves, Seana kept at it. Sure, many tears were shed and some homesickness came, but she always picked herself up and keep going. She has even made some splendid new friends and, though it may not feel the same as Las Vegas, she is doing everything she can to make Oxford home. It's not always easy being a homemaker... you can feel very alone and sometimes feel like you don't have your own identity, and I admire her for her faith and her strength. Everything I am or do I owe to her and her example keeps me going and on the right track. I love you, Seana.

Seana's Christmas wish list:

A Forever Lazy (Not kidding)
Some Hostess Snowballs
A clean house
Plane tickets to Las Vegas

Although, maybe Christmas came early this year... Seana's parents came to see us for a couple weeks and a great time was had by all. Except for maybe Seana's parents, who had to sleep on a queen-sized air mattress in our kitchen. We'll pick up the Chiropractor's bill, I promise.

Well, that brings us to... me.

Looking super-duper fly, as always. p.s. Not my real hair-do.

I had a pretty big year, this year, myself. Coming off my epic fail of my first LSAT attempt, I studied hard and was able to get a pretty decent score, all things considered, on my second attempt. I'm not going to discuss numbers specifically, but suffice it to say the second attempt was a significant improvement. I thought the strength of my GPA (3.83 in-program) would carry my mid-range GPA and get me into UNLV, however, this was not to be. I saw Ole Miss on the law school brochures and saw that it was competitive to get into, was ranked relatively high, and was a great value (i.e. My 2nd-and-3rd years COMBINED will cost as much as my 1st year at UNLV ALONE would have cost) so I filled out an application and sent it in, not thinking anything of it. Plus Seana absolutely refused to move to Mississippi. 3 weeks later, I got an envelope from Ole Miss... accepted. All told, I applied to 9 schools, got into 6, got turned down by 1 and wait-listed by 2, including UNLV. After some prayer, we narrowed our schools down to Willamette (in Salem, OR), Washburn (in Topeka, KS), and Wyoming (in Laramie, Wyoming). Ole Miss didn't even make the final 3 cut. But after some prayer, our list began to winnow...

Willamette - Was too expensive. Gone.
Washburn - Hefty scholarship offer, but would have forced us to live in Kansas. Yuck. Gone.
Wyoming - Seana doesn't do snow. Neither would our front-wheel drive Hyundai beater car. Gone.

Suddenly, Ole Miss was the last reasonable man standing. In April I sent my seat deposit in and that was that. I was an Ole Miss Law student. It was weird. We were moving to Mississippi. We were going to live in a state other than Nevada. In May I made the reservations for the moving truck and in July I left the state of my birth and started the 2,000 mile drive to my little family's new home, all our earthly possessions packed into the back of a 16' Penske truck and into our little car. But, somehow, it's all worked out thus far. We moved into a nice cozy little condo, met some great people and have settled pretty nicely into our new little church family. Even law school isn't as bad as I thought it would be, heading in. I figured every night would be non-stop studying, never seeing my family and dying of a blood clot from sitting forever. But I did none of those things. And I still feel like I did reasonably well this semester. Finals are now over and we're awaiting my grades, but I'm just happy I survived this and proved to myself I could do it. Many thanks and love to all those who helped me.

Jason's Christmas wish list:

Some alone time with my wife
To be listened to by my children
An entire semi-truck full of Reese's Trees
The 49ers to win the Super Bowl (The Reese's Trees thing is probably more likely to happen)

Well, I think that just about does it for this letter, however, I would be remiss if I didn't take a moment to write a little bit about the Savior. We, as a family, try as much as we can to focus on Christ not only over the holiday season, but all year long. This is, by our experience, easier at certain times than it is at others, however, Christmas is one of the handfuls of times throughout the year when we, as believers and followers of Christ, can all unite in faith, despite the name of our church or which scriptures we use, and celebrate the birth of that man foretold of by Isaiah as "Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace." Regardless of where you are, or who you're with, the Christmas message is for you. May we all take a moment between the hustle and bustle of shopping and wrapping and stressing and cooking to remember Jesus Christ and the wonderful things he brought us... the true first Christmas present.

We love you all and wish you all the merriest of Christmases and a very happy New Year/Seana's birthday (yes, she's a New Year's baby and yes, she hates it. But I'm going to try and show her a good time, regardless).

PEACE! (onearthgoodwilltoman)

Avent Park

2011-09-30T06:21:00.000-07:00

Since there's not a whole lot to do here in Oxford and we don't like to spend money, Reagan and I spend a lot of time at Avent park. It is so big and so rad. They have two big wooden playgrounds with swings, slides, sandboxes and much more. Reagan loves the swings. She usually has to go on each swing to try them out. She loves to climb all the steps and go down the slides. I like it because it's essentially in the middle of the woods so there's plenty of shade and it doesn't get too warm. Here are some pictures.

They have these rad little xylophone things. She loves them.

One of the times we went with Katelyn she found a caterpillar and insisted on bringing home. Unfortunately, "Mr. Caterpillar" didn't last long.

We are enjoying the lovely weather here and the time we have spent together. That's all for now.

Our home away from home...

2011-09-18T18:11:00.000-07:00

Yeah, hi. We are still alive. Right before we moved our camera broke. We finally got a new one, so I finally felt like I could update. So we've been in Oxford for about month and a half now. It's going really well. Katelyn started school on August 5th. She LOVES it. She has done so well. She has all day Kindergarten. She rides the bus. In Vegas I would never even consider it, but it's worked out well here. She gets on at about 7 every morning and gets dropped off at about 3:30 in the afternoon. It makes for a really long day but she is learning so much and hasn't really seemed to have any issues with it. Her teacher's name is Mrs. Henry and she is amazing. We love her. She is an Oxford native and has been teaching for like 15 years, so she knows what she is doing. We love her school and we love her.

Jason started law school on August 15th. It's crazy and hard and busy and he loves it. I think he was pretty well informed going into this so it wasn't any kind of a shock at how much work he would have each day. It's not easy by any means, and he has A LOT of late nights at the kitchen table, but he is so passionate about what he studies so it's going great!

Reagan and I are still adjusting to being alone together all day. She is so smart and she amazes me with what she picks up everyday. Sadly she has very recently eliminated one nap a day so she only takes one now. Boo!! We enjoy going to the park, cleaning, watching Blue's Clues and reading books together. She misses Katelyn all day and gets sooo excited when she gets off the bus each day.

The south is really cool. I can honestly say that I genuinely like it here. I miss all our family and friends TERRIBLY, but I really like the small town feel and the hospitality here. We made some friends really quickly and everyone has been so welcoming. For the first time in my life I really understand what a "ward family" is.

That's our update for now. Now that we have a camera I'll update it more. Some people have expressed interest in the townhouse, so I'm including pictures. It's only 1,100 square feet, two bedrooms, one full bath and slightly ghetto, but it's ours and we've been pretty happy here. Enjoy.

Here's our front door. Obviously.

When you first walk in you see the stairs. Obviously.

Here's our cute little (!) front room. Don't be jealous of my freaking awesome couch cover. Or my gigantic T.V.

I love my kitchen. It's a lot bigger than I thought. Tons of cupboard space!

Can't say I love my "laundry room" as much, but I'm soo grateful to have it.

Here's the girls' room from their closet.

Here's the girls' closet from their beds. Love all the room for big toys!

Here's my room. Nothing special. But I love it anyway.

We have our desktop on our dresser. Ghetto? Maybe. Convenient? Not Really. Necessary? Yes.

Not pictured: The bathrooms, because, well, they're not clean to the "show this bathroom on a blog" standards. Suffice it to say it's your typical bathroom only with less room and more cracked floor tiles.

Here it is...

2011-05-10T07:44:00.000-07:00

Well, we're moving! To Oxford, Mississippi! After much, much prayer we feel that Ole Miss is where the Lord wants my husband to get his law degree. I know it's not a complete surprise, but we've been waiting to "announce" it until we knew for sure that's where we were going. Here's how it went down...

Jason took his first LSAT in December of 2010. He didn't do as well as we'd hoped and it was evident that he needed to retake it if he wanted to get in to UNLV and other schools. He worked his butt off. Seriously, he studied harder than I've ever seen him for the next 6 weeks. He retook it in February of this year and his score improved by 9 points, which is huge. He started the application process. He applied to 9 schools, including UNLV. He was admitted to 6, some with partial scholarship offers, he was denied at one (Forget you, Louisville!) and wait-listed at two- and UNLV was one of them. We were a tiny bit devastated. We knew we had some serious decisions to make. Since there is no ranking of the wait system, we were pretty sure UNLV was out. It had basically become between Ole Miss and Washburn (in Topeka) at that point. Washburn had offered him a really decent scholarship and we were looking that way, but something kept telling us not to count out MS. We looked into the school districts and Oxford has an amazing one. The town is tiny, which I love and we'd be insanely close to campus. The tuition is also cheaper at Ole Miss and if he lost his scholarship over at Washburn we'd be kind of in a mess so this was another plus. We continued to pray and feel we have our answer.

We don't know where we're gonna live, how we're gonna pay for it, or what is going to happen but we are turning to the Lord and trying to trust completely in Him. I know it's going to be extremely hard, but I have faith in our little family and our ability to find joy in the little things and to make this an adventure. We would like to publicly thank all of you for your support and the many prayers that have been offered in our behalf. I'll keep this updated as regularly as I can as we prepare for our trek to our new home in "Missippi".

Change

2011-05-05T07:45:00.000-07:00

Evidently Jason isn't any better at this than me.

I don't have it in me to do a real post.

Big changes are headed our way.

I'll post about them soon.

That's all.

What Seana Missed: November

2011-02-27T21:13:00.001-08:00

Okay, so we've all had times in our lives that kind of suck, yeah?

November contained a day kind of like that for me. The 4th of November, actually. It started out good enough. I was busy at work when one of the partners pulled me into his office. He cut straight to the chase:

"Jason, this is a termination meeting."

I was floored. I hadn't been laid off since right after 9/11 decimated my former employer's New York City headquarters. My boss did a very good job at comforting me and telling me that I wasn't being fired, but laid off. See, I worked at a Construction Law firm. In Las Vegas. During the worst economic downturn in Las Vegas' history.

My LSAT-taking friends will be able to follow the logical reasoning that's about to come up.

I worked at a Construction Law firm. If the economy is good, people are building stuff. If people are building stuff, they are hiring subcontractors. If they hire subcontractors, sometimes the subcontractors don't get paid. If the subcontractors don't get paid, they hire attorneys. If they hire attorneys, they would usually pick our firm. If they pick our firm, I get enough work to justify my employment. I did not get enough work to justify my employment.

So yeah, that hurt a bit. But it was all for the best. I got to hang out with my family, study for the LSAT (more on that in probably next "month's" post. Epic fail.) and just generally chill out for the first time since I graduated high school. PLUS I get to collect unemployment. I figured I have paid into the system for the past 12 or so years, so now I get to reap all the benefits.

But enough about me.

We discovered something REALLY cool about November...

No one takes their kids to see Santa.

Seriously. The opportunities abound but people refuse to take advantage of them. They'd much rather wait until right before Christmas and spend 87 hours in line to see a Santa who may or may not have their kids' best interest at heart.

But not us. We took our kiddos to see not one, but TWO Santas.

(For those of you who have children who can read and still believe in Santa, that should read "We took our kiddos to see Santa not once, but TWICE")

Once at the Santa's Village at Bass Pro Shops at Silverton and once at the Cactus Garden at Ethel M's... we waited a total of 5 minutes combined for both.

Because we're awesome.

And because people don't realize Santa is just as likely to get you a gift if you ask for it in mid-November than if you ask in late December.

Also, our girls were not terrified of Santa. This wasn't a shock as far as Kate went, but Reagan was like, 10 months old and in the middle of her stranger danger phase. Yet she didn't freak out. I wouldn't say she LOVED Santa, but she didn't scream.

Here's the proof.

And of course other fun stuff like Thanksgiving happened, but we got zero pictures of all that. I know, I know, bad blogger.

As a way to make it up to you all, here's a picture of Reagan being naughty.

Ciao, suckers! See you all in December,

What Seana Missed: October

2011-02-23T22:43:00.001-08:00

Okay, so I guess since LSAT stuff is all done with and I'm not gainfully employed and I only do school 2 days a week, I can afford to commandeer the blog from its neglectful owner.

So what I'm going to do is this: Go through the pictures on my laptop by month and make a post per month. Counting October through this month, that's 5 posts. So enjoy it. Enjoy me. And enjoy...

OCTOBER!

First thing: We went to Disneyland. Yeah, it's no big deal. Our girls were cute. We brought Seana's mom and dad along. Being able to pay for your parents to come to Disneyland feels cool... like you're a real live grown up or something. Anywho, good times were had.

Reagan went through a stage for a few months there where, if she saw a mirror at her level, she would go to the mirror and begin to make out with it. Like, graphic making out. As in, if the mirror were a boy, it would be talking to the business end of my 12-gauge by now. Apparently she's just that cute. She can't even resist herself.

Katelyn was very happy to be there, obviously. She proudly rocked her Tangled shirt.

Oh, and she met Tinkerbell. Again. This was like her 4th time. It's getting to be old hat at this point.

What wasn't old hat, however, was riding Splash Mountain... I need to say, I've ridden Splash Mountain countless times before. I love the ride. One of my favorites. I had never gotten all that wet before.

And then I rode it this time. I don't know if they put more water in the ride or what, but I got absolutely soaked. Katelyn, too.

And it wouldn't be a trip to Disneyland without a visit to Ariel's Grotto for the Princess Lunch. This time around, we had Reagan. They loved them some princess dresses. And some Snow White.

Seana had a great time. It's always fun to see a baby on their first trip to Disneyland.

Well, that was pretty much it for October. Please join us next time for November. Thanks for stopping by.

Updates.

2011-02-23T22:39:00.000-08:00

Seana's not very good at doing them.

Yell at her.

And...she's off!

2010-09-02T13:08:00.001-07:00

I already put one of these pictures up on Facebook, but we have a crawler! I am so so so so so so sad. I am sad that she is growing. I am sad that she is mobile. I hate this stage. I don't enjoy the "dumping everything out that I can get my hands on" stage. She is cute enough to get away with it, though. Here are some pictures I snapped the other day...

A real update soon. Maybe.

Big Girl...

2010-08-05T15:02:00.001-07:00

Katelyn turned 4 yesterday. I am old. I am also tired. Too tired, in fact, to do an extensive report on yesterday's activities. Suffice it to say, she had a great day. Jason took the day off. He does that every year. She got a bike and a bunch of other crap. We went to breakfast. She took like 2 bites of her food. We went to the Adventuredome at Circus Circus. It was crowded and ghetto. But it was fun. We hung out at home and she played with her Tag Reader. We went to Applebee's for dinner. They sang to her. She was happy. She told everyone in sight that she was 4. I love her. We are having her birthday party in a couple of weeks and she is excited about that. Here are just a couple of pics from yesterday.

Here's her loot before she dug in...

Here is when she saw it all. Also, I did NOT put her in that train wreck of an outfit. She dresses and redresses herself before we get her up in the morning.

After she opened her gifts we all got ready to leave. She looked really cute. Obviously.

We ate and then went to the Adventuredome. One thousand pictures were taken. Most of them have me in them and they are horrifying. Here are just a couple.

Here we are at dinner watching her enjoy her cake.

Reagan missed the whole thing. Lazy.

Also, how cute are my parents besides very?

That is all for now. Remember when I said I wasn't doing an "extensive" review of the day? I surprise myself sometimes. Anyway, Katelyn is big. And cute. And crazy. And loud. And frustrating. And really funny. And sneaky. And I wouldn't trade her for the world. Happy Birthday, beauty. We love you.

My baby is weird.

2010-07-22T14:29:00.000-07:00

For the last few days she has been obsessed with the wipes. I thought she just liked the crinkly noise it made, but anytime we tried to take it away she would freak. Like, throw a legit fit. Yesterday and today I have noticed her doing this:

She is a thumb sucker and likes things touching her face while she does it, but usually it's soft things. She is obsessed with these wipes. I don't know if it's because it's cool on her face or what, but if you try and take it away from her she will look at you like this:

I don't get it. She is weird. Cute, though. And very patient when her sister tortures her.

Speaking of her sister...she is a weirdo too.

So long.

5

2010-07-19T11:39:00.001-07:00

I am a little late in posting this, but I wanted to say Happy 5th Anniversary to the love of my life!

For our anniversary date, Jason made all the plans and just told me when to be ready. He got off of work a little early and when he came home he brought me these...

I love them. I always do the girl thing and say flowers are a waste of money and not to get them, but I was glad to have them. They smell good. Anywho, when we left we headed towards Summerlin, so I was pretty sure we were headed to the Cheesecake Factory. I was correct. It was no less than delish. Plus, we had a gift card so it sure was almost free. Jason told the waiter that we wanted our cheesecake to go and he told me to see if they fit in my purse. I knew then that we were going to a movie. Jason really doesn't do movies. He feels like he pays $20 to sit in the dark and not talk. I knew, though, that he really wanted to see Grown Ups and so did I so I assumed that's what it was. I was wrong.

That's right. My husband bought tickets to see Eclipse. Keep in mind, I had already seen it twice and in no way ever asked him to see it with me. He saw it of his own free will. I was dying. He mocked it the whole time and acted like he was being tortured. I told him to forfeit his man card as he was no longer worthy of carrying it. Seeing that movie is not something most men would ever do. Secretly I think he thought it wasn't as bad as he imagined. Bottom line- I never asked him to see it with me and the fact that he did anyway means he must really like me.

That was pretty much our date. It was so fun to go out. We kept saying "what were we doing at this time 5 years ago..." to each other and had fun thinking about our reception and what not. Good times. I am so grateful to be married to such a freaking funny, hard working, really smart, extra cute guy. He keeps me laughing everyday. He is such a good dad and we are blessed to have him. Happy Anniversary, babe. I love you.

Oh, and also, our kids are cute.I just randomly snapped a picture of Katelyn this morning and realized again how beautiful she is...

The end.

6 months...

2010-07-06T15:38:00.000-07:00

Um, hi. I decided to give blogging another go. I thought about abandoning the whole thing, but I changed mind. I also decided not to go private. Obviously. So here we go again.

My baby is six months old today. I know, right? A lot has happened in her tiny life span. When she was about 4 months we quit the nursing. Go ahead, judge. I wasn't making enough and she was not Satan when she had bottles. Shortly after that we put her in the guest room and she became the dream baby. For serious. She sleeps for 2-3 hours then eats and plays. About 1.5 hrs later, she sleeps for another 2-3. She is pretty much sleeping through the night or only up once. Plus she sucks her thumb and sleeps on her stomach. What isn't insanely cute about that? In short, she is amazing and I love her.

About a month ago she was hospitalized at the Summerlin PICU. We took her to the ER late one Friday night because she had a fever of 105 and was throwing up. They ran some tests and told us she had a "raging bladder infection". They wouldn't release her until she had gone 48-72 hours without a fever. While there, they did a renal ultrasound and discovered that one of her kidneys is slightly inflammed and suspect she has renal reflux. Apparently that's when her tubing is kinked somewhere and depending on the severity of it they have surgery or grow out of it. They couldn't test for that till her infection is gone, though. She was such a trooper the whole stay and was so happy the whole time.

Here is where the really crappy part comes in. She was released on a Tuesday. She was fine for a few days. By Saturday morning she had a low grade fever again. So Sunday we took her back in and she had an ear infection. They gave her a shot and sent us home. Again, she was fine for a couple of days. On Tuesday, she woke up with a horrible rash all over her. It appeared to be roseola so I just watched it for the day. The next morning she looked even worse. The bumps were connected and raised up and looked like hives. Back to the doctor we went. She is allergic to sulfa. They changed her antibiotic and so far she has been fine. Now that she is finally on top of her infections, she has the reflux test scheduled for tomorrow. It's going to be so sad. They have to give her a cath (Boo!) and inject some dye into her bladder to find the problem. Hopefully after all this we will finally know what's going on.

She absolutely loved the 4th. She loved watching the fireworks. She just stuck her thumb in her mouth and watched. It was rad. She also looked crazy cute.

Anywho, I love her and I can't believe she is halfway to 1. Not okay. Here is what she can do.

-roll over both ways.
-she tries to scoot. mostly just sticks her butt up and then gets mad.
-completely devours solids. she loves every single kind. especially bananas.
-can say "dada", but she doesn't do it with any consistency and calls anyone that.
-sits up. well, not for a long period, but she does it, okay?
- belly laughs at everything. especially her sister. they are bffs.

Here's what she can't do/doesn't like.

-men that aren't her dad or papa. she hates dudes.
-she can't say "mama". figures.
-she hates getting her clothes changed. so much.
-does not appreciate getting water poured on her head during the bath.

That's about it. She is almost a dream baby. If you have stuck with me to the end of this post, you are a gentleman and a scholar. A true friend. I will try to keep this thing up to date, but I can't make any promises. Have a lovely day.

Blessing Day

2010-02-09T07:51:00.001-08:00

We blessed Reagan this last Sunday. It was amazing and Jason did a great job. She looked beautiful and she was so good during it. Didn't make a peep. I wish I could say the same for her big sister. Nightmare. Anywho, here is what she looked like...

Here she is with her daddy...

I was so busy running around and getting lunch ready for everybody that I really didn't even think about me and her in a picture. Or her with all the men. I suck. Just imagine that really cute baby surrounded by a bunch of guys in white shirts and ties. All in all it was a great day. I am so grateful to have a husband who holds the priesthood who can give our children blessings. It brings me such joy to see him exercise it. I love him. I am blessed to have these two beautiful girls in my life. Sometimes I get frustrated, but I love them so much.

Thank you to everyone that came. I know it's far and Sunday mornings are not the easiest. We love and appreciate all of you.

Oh, and just because, here is a recent picture of Katelyn. She is a freak.

It's time...

2010-02-01T07:24:00.000-08:00

...to go private. I have been putting it off for a long time, but I really feel like it's the right thing to do. So, if you want to keep reading my blog (not that I update) and I know you, leave me a comment with your email address and I will invite you. Have a nice day.

Introducing...

2010-01-10T13:19:00.000-08:00

Reagan Dawn Aivaz
January 6, 2010
5:15 p.m.
7lbs 10oz
18 3/4 inches

We are all in love with her. Especially her sister.

Birth story to come later.

So...about that...

2010-01-04T19:17:00.000-08:00

I did not have my baby tonight. About 1 hour before I was to be there I got a call saying there was a "miscommunication" and my surgery is still set for the 12th. It is a really long story and I am still really mad, but there is nothing I can do about it. Instead I will just end by saying I feel like an idiot that I have no picture of a tiny baby to post. Tear.

Tomorrow...tomorrow...

2010-01-03T19:06:00.000-08:00

In case you've been under a rock for the last 24 hours you probably already know that tomorrow is now the big day for us. That's 8 whole days sooner than expected. It all started yesterday afternoon. I was reading on my blessed new amazon kindle (LOVE) when I got this insane urge to sleep. I fell asleep for like 20 minutes and was woken up by some contracting. I have been having them off and on for a few days so I thought nothing of it. After a few regular ones that, mind you, were rather painful I started to time them. They were almost exactly 4 minutes apart. I drank a bunch of water and put my feet up but that didn't help at all. I didn't really want to go to the hospital because I knew they would just stop them and send me home. After almost two full hours they weren't lessening so we headed to the hospital. I told them I was scheduled for a c-section on the 12th but they had to evaluate me so I changed into that oh-so-flattering gown. They hooked me up to all the fun monitors and I was indeed having contractions. Some went off the page. It was kind of cool. Long story short, I was not dilating, so they decided to send me home, but they bumped up my surgery a week. Translation: no doctor wanted to come in last night. I am okay with the outcome because I am delivering so much sooner now. 5:30 tomorrow evening is the time and I am soooo excited to be done. I still can't eat or drink after 9am tomorrow, but I will take it. We will keep everyone posted via this blog, facebook, text messages, etc. Til tomorrow, friends.

Christmas Morning 2009

2009-12-25T20:51:00.001-08:00

Hello friends. And Merry Christmas!! We had a great day today and hope all of you did too. I will give you a quick recap of how our morning went, just in case you care. If you don't, you are welcome to go elsewhere...rude.

Anywho, this morning began at 7:30 a.m., which is not all that early, but we didn't go to bed until 2 this morning, so it was indeed very hard to get up. Katelyn wanted to see what Santa brought her and tried to run down the stairs, but I reminded her that we needed to wait for everyone to gather for our traditional family prayer. My dad offered it and it was really nice. Well, up until Katelyn said "Hurry up, Papa" aloud. That was awkward. Once the prayer was over I sent Jason down the stairs first to capture the moment. It was excellent.

This was her reaction...

to seeing this...

She has been eying that beauty all year. Every time we went to Target she would have to spend 20 minutes playing with it. Santa was nice enough to include twin babies to care for. She literally screamed on her way down the stairs. She was so excited. It was not only insanely cute, but kind of thrilling for Jason and I. She then perused her stocking.

After some convincing she tore herself away from the nursery and proceeded to open the rest of her presents. In the interest of time, I will just add the picture of everything she got.

She made out like a bandit. That doesn't include all the stuff she got on Christmas eve from the cousins and grandparents. She is spoiled. I fear she didn't really get the real meaning of the holiday, but I did try. She does have quite the soft spot for baby Jesus, so maybe she is getting some of it.

Santa didn't forget me. He filled my stocking with all sorts of goodies and treats. He also brought me a really cool Nintendo DSi. It has a lot of cool features that I am loving. Sometimes I am a jerk to Santa, but he is so good to me.

We hope all of you had a great day and that you were able to take some time and think about the Savior and what He has done for us. I know for a lot of us 2009 wasn't the greatest year, but truthfulness of the Gospel helps me to keep the right perspective. We love all of you and wish you the very merriest Christmas.

Baby Update

2009-12-03T10:16:00.000-08:00

So I had 2 doctor appointments yesterday. At my regular check up the doctor told me my C-section date. January 12th. I said to myself "yeah, no. Thats not going to work for me. That's the first day of the winter semester for Jason". I then explained that to the good doc. He told me there is a chance the hospital would reschedule, but he made it sound like they are less than bendable. I whined to my mom for awhile but then decided maybe it's not that big a deal. Besides, I watch "Baby Story"- aren't scheduled c-sections always in the morning? Jason's class isn't til late afternoon, if he even decides to go. We can make it work, I tell myself.

Off to appointment #2. My final ultrasound. Baby looks good. They measured her and her head is apparently gigantic. So was Katelyn's. "Beautiful lips", they say. So were Katelyn's. Then the doctor tells me she is measuring pretty big. They are estimating her at 5 lbs 9 oz currently. They tell me that she may be well over 8 lbs. Well, I was told Katelyn was ginormous and was probably going to be over 9 lbs. She didn't even break 8, so I don't really trust ultrasound estimations.

When I got home, there was a letter for me. It was from the scheduler for my doctor and the hospital. There was my surgery date. January 12th. Then I looked at the time. 5:30 p.m. Arrive at 3:30 p.m. Jason's class is at 2:45 p.m. My first thought was that it was apparently my turned to be hated by the universe. Then I thought "who the crap has a c-section at 5:30 at night? Don't they know I can't eat or drink for 8 hours prior?". I was real mad. After Jason got home we talked it over. He really doesn't think it will do any good to try and reschedule it. He is just going to miss the first night of school. He actually thinks it's kind of funny. I missed the humor in the situation, but I am trying to find it. The only thing I am truly upset about is the evening thing. It makes no sense.

That's all. I feel a little better now.

Trick or Treat

2009-11-01T11:56:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I am irritated. I have several gripes. I will get to them, but first I just have to say that I can't believe it's November! My favorite month! Thanksgiving is my very favorite day of the year. I am excited. Anywho, I had a Halloween party last week for Katelyn's cousins and friends. It was so cute. Seriously. We had pizza, played musical pumpkins (they had NO idea what they were doing) , and had a costume parade at the park by our house. It was so fun. I would post pictures here, but I don't have any. That would be gripe #1. I don't know what the deal was, but when I replaced the batteries, it just stopped working. Jason was gone so I couldn't just make him figure it out. Unfortunately, he was dressed up then too, so I don't have any pictures of his costume. It was killer. He was originally going to be Jon Gosselin, but at the last minute decided to go with Matt Foley. Priceless, I assure you.

After the party was over Jason fixed the camera and for that I was grateful because we still had the Trunk or Treat to document. Gripe #2 here. When was it decided that it's okay for teenagers with no costumes and giant attitudes to trick or treat?! I mean, come on. I quit trick or treating when I was like 11. These fools crash the church parking lot (which is fine, visitors are welcome), trample the little kids, shove a bag in your face and act like it's their right. First of all, PUT A FREAKING COSTUME ON. Secondly, use some stinking manners! What ever happened to saying "Trick or Treat" and "Thank you"? It pretty much ruined my night. Katelyn couldn't wait to leave. Besides all that, we had fun. Here are some pics.

I mean, besides the smirk on her face, have you seen a cuter Tinkerbell? Didn't think so.

Here are Katelyn, Cora and Andrew as Tinkerbell, Rosetta, and Scary Skeleton Guy.

This is Cullen and Ireland, Shannon's twins. You can't tell really well in this picture, but they hat the best costumes. He is a magician and she is a buuny in a hat. They were adorable. Ireland really hated that hat and would not stay in it.This is all of them. No one was really looking, but aren't they cute? I love that you really have no idea if Andrew is even looking or happy or sad or what. Masks are rad like that.

Now, since we knew we wouldn't be home in the early evening, we turned the lights out and thought it was made clear that we weren't handing out candy at home. Gripe #3. Isn't it common knowledge that if a light isn't on, you don't come knocking? After 26 people rang the doorbell, we had to put a sign on the door. I mean really, what's wrong with people.

The night wasn't very eventful after that. We put Katelyn to bed and just watched useless shows. Then we remembered daylight savings time was to begin. Happy Dance! Momentary bliss. Then I remembered...gripe#4. Daylight savings time means nothing to Katelyn. And, just as I expected, instead of the usual 7:30 wake-up call, I got it at 6:30. Why are kids evil? Just kidding. Only sort of.

As for everything else, it's all good. I am 29 weeks now, but I look like I am about 49 weeks. It is going faster now, though, and I appreciate that. Everyday I keep thinking I will start to get things together, but I keep putting it off. One day. That is all for now. Til next time.

Cravings

2009-10-03T16:21:00.000-07:00

So, I have a lot to blog about. For real. Katelyn's birthday party (2 months ago), our trip to Cherry Creek, etc. However, I don't want to. Sorry. Today it's all about me. And my cravings.

Last time around I never really had cravings. If something sounded good I just had to have it right then. This time has been the same- with the exception of one little thing...

I can't stop thinking about the goodness that is this place. I always want it. Like, ALL the time. I had it last month when I went to St. George and since then it has been even worse. I almost made Jason take us there today just to have it for lunch, but I stopped myself because he and I are going in 2 weeks. I am seriously counting the days until my beautiful fry sauce and I will be reunited.

That is all for now. Any of you preggo's having cravings?

I love Sundays...

2009-09-13T15:54:00.001-07:00

...and this is why.

And the winner is...

2009-08-18T21:59:00.001-07:00

...anyone who said girl. The big reveal did not really go as planned. My phone is not capable of sending many photos at once so if you didn't get a picture and are expecting one, you will probably get it tomorrow if ever.

I am not going to lie- I was wanting a boy. Bad. But in the back of my mind I always knew she was a she. Everything looks good. Jason is crazy excited. Katelyn is happy. I am tired.

Good night!

My guess

2009-08-14T16:54:00.000-07:00

...changes everyday. I want a boy so bad that I don't think I will get one. So, I guess I am saying girl.

Gender...

2009-08-12T16:36:00.000-07:00

Okay so here's the deal. We have an ultrasound scheduled for next Tuesday the 18th. As long as the baby is cooperative, we should find out the sex. As a lot of people have asked how we are going to announce it, here's how it's going to be done...

Katelyn is going with us. She is very excited and we thought since she is going to be the big sister she should do the honors. I will be taking a pink shirt and a blue shirt of hers to the appointment. When it's all done, we will take a picture of her with our phones in the appropriate color shirt announcing whether she is getting a brother or sister.

If you know me well enough to be in my cell phonebook, you will get said picture. If I don't have your number, you can check the blog and we will post it here too. If you don't really give a crap- well, then stop reading my blog, jerk.

Anywho, I know I don't have many followers, so maybe this is a dumb post. Whatev. I am okay with being a weirdo. Also, I am computer illiterate and don't know how to put a poll on the side, so everyone (all 6 of you that read this) please leave a comment with your guess. There is no prize or anything- just the satisfaction of knowing you happened to get a 50/50 guess right, so Congrats.

Til next time, friends.

3 Years...

2009-08-04T20:19:00.000-07:00

This is an interactive, multi-media presentation, brought to you but the Aivaz Family.

When prompted, please hold down the CTRL button (for those of you running PCs... Apple users, figure it out for yourselves) and click THIS link

3 years and 9 months ago today (or sometime around there) Seana decided that she loved me enough to throw me a bone and we, well, got biblical...

(Remember the link from 2 sentences above? Click it now)

9 months after that...

Katelyn Sue Aivaz was born at 1:45 p.m. on Friday, August 4th, 2006, weighing 7 lbs., 15 oz. and measuring in at a lengthy 20.5 inches.

1 year later, she was a chunkerball.

This picture got her on Live With Regis and Kelly... True story.

2 years later, and she walked and talked and was generally a menace to society.

That was her birthday cake... for serious. What? We were broke.

And today, my baby turned 3.

She's big now. Tear.

Okay, you can kill the music now.

If you couldn't tell by the title, or up to this point, the content of this post, Katelyn turned 3 today. 3 is one of those birthdays that sometimes get caught up and bunched together with the 2nd and 4th and tend to be forgotten, but for members of the Church, 3 is kind of a significant age. This upcoming January, she'll graduate from being with all the little kids in Nursery to being in Sunbeams (3-4 year olds) in Primary school. Instead of learning about how best to not get the good toys taken away by the other kids, she'll get to go and learn about the good things that will help her become a better person (and yes, this includes learning the Popcorn Popping On the Apricot Tree dance). It's just weird for a first time parent to see their kids hitting milestone. I love her. Anyway, here's how her birthday went down.

Last night, Seana and I went to get Katelyn her big present, a Tinkerbell table.

Also in this picture, her two wrapped presents (a bubble machine and some bubbles), a booster seat for the car (bye-bye little girl car seat) and her pretty birthday dress.

She liked them.

After we all got showered and dressed, she got in her new booster seat and we went to Original Pancake House.

She liked that, too.

But the "big" event of the day was going to the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay. Complaints aside, Kate had fun.

My baby girl is growing up so fast. I need to realize that and be grateful for the opportunity I have to be her daddy. I love her and look forward to many, many more birthdays, and many, many more chances to hold her hand in mine and just walk with her.

Happy Birthday, Katelyn!

4 Years...

2009-07-16T07:33:00.000-07:00

4 years ago today, on July 16,2005 at 9:30 am, Jason and I were sealed for time and all eternity in the Las Vegas temple. With the exception of the birth of my daughter, it was the best day of my life. I will never forget how amazing it felt to know that we were marrying each other in the right place at the right time by the right authority. It was awesome to know that we were going to be together forever and nothing could take that away from us. In some ways it feels like we have been married for 4 months and in other ways it feels like 4 million years. I have loved every minute of our adventure together. Thanks, honey, for choosing me. Thank you for all you do. I love you. Happy Anniversary!!

Just an FYI to anyone who cares: Jason and I decided that since my parents are leaving next weekend, we will be having a "staycation" and my sister has graciously agreed to take Kate for the weekend. It will be a blast.

Someone...

2009-07-14T13:31:00.000-07:00

Should update the blog every now and then.

Not much is new.

Seana's still pregnant... we find out what it'll be on August 18th, so that's cool.

I'm getting a ton of money in student loans, so it'll be nice not being desperately poor.

Oh, and Katelyn's almost 3.

Here's a picture of her to tide you all over.

Drumroll Please...

2009-06-08T08:07:00.000-07:00

MY AWESOME/CRAZY SMART/HARDWORKING/REALLY CUTE HUSBAND MADE THE DEAN'S LIST!!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe that's not that big a deal to you all, but he worked his butt off last semester, so it's huge for us. So there.

A lot has been going on, but I don't want to update right now. I have some pictures I need to put up. For the most part we are good. Katelyn is peeing and pooping on the potty all the time now and i want to kiss her face right off. She says some seriously funny stuff all the time and can't wait to see "her baby" in my tummy. I am feeling much better and the nausea only comes in waves now. I go to the doctor in 2 weeks and hopefully will hear the heartbeat. We are excited.

Seriously, though, I will do a real update soon. Just wanted to congratulate my husband. Good job, baby!! We love you.

Boo...

2009-05-23T21:27:00.000-07:00

Morning sickness has officially begun.

I am so sick.

I want to die.

Katelyn's Fairy-Tale Stories Vol. 1

2009-05-21T08:56:00.000-07:00

:: Before Daddy left for work this morning ::

Katelyn: Wait! Daddy! I have a tell you a story!

Daddy: Okay baby... hurry up, daddy has to leave.

Katelyn: Once upon a time, there was a ghost in gwamma's woom, and it had a go potty. The end. You go bye-bye now.

:: Katelyn runs away to watch 'Handy Manny' ::

Goodbye, Grandma Chicken...

2009-05-16T20:49:00.000-07:00

I am feeling a little sad today. And quite nostalgic. My grandma, Henrietta Garber, passed away yesterday. She was 91. Many of you know that for the past 3 weeks she has been in hospice care in our home and I was her primary care giver during the day since my parents both work. I didn't want the responsibility and was quite nervous about it. As the time went by I grew to be grateful for the opportunity to serve her. I was able to be there at her bedside along with my mom, dad, and aunt when she died. It was an amazing experience. I love her very much and can't wait to see her again.

Since I am feeling nostalgic I am going to list my favorite things she always or did. I know most people who read this(which I know isn't many) won't get them, but my family will.

-the title of this blog is "goodbye grandma chicken". We called her that my whole life. When my oldest brother was little he couldn't say Henrietta, so he called her Grandma Hen-Hen. That turned to Grandma Bawk-Bawk and then it eventually evolved into Grandma Chicken. She loved that name. It kind of became her m.o. and she starting collecting chicken and hen decor for her kitchen.

-While I hate them, she loved Boston bull terriers and owned several. The 2 I remember had awesome names- Boots and Pocahontas.

- "I'll knock you into next week..."

-the amazing/ridiculous porcelain baby doll collection.

- When asked how she was doing she would almost always reply " better than I was when I was worse".

-cream soda

-The "hatred" she had for chocolate, yet she always took bites of ours.

-"oh?"

-Buttermilk

-the delicious vitamin c tablets she always had when we were kids. I have never been able to find them. soo good.

-Her "program". (Jeopardy)

I could go on and on. Mostly I will just always remember the fabulous grandma she was to me. She was always faithful and true and I know she and grandpa are continuing to do the Lord's work.

Here is a picture of she and my dad just 2 months ago at my niece and nephews blessing. She is cute.

Love you, Grandma. See you soon.

Happy Mother's Day...

2009-05-10T13:29:00.001-07:00

Seana got the best gift of all...

The countdown to February 2010 begins!

Disneyland 2009 - Return and Report Vol. 2: Our Weekend Starts On Wednesday

2009-04-28T12:38:00.000-07:00

Hello Kinderfriends!

Seana has threatened to disembowel me with a "The Hills: Season 1" DVD if I didn't finish the job and complete the Return and Report series as it relates to Disneyland... so, as an attempt to avoid having to try and pull shattered parts of Spencer's creepy, flesh-colored beard out of my abdomen, I figured I should respect her wishes and bring you...

The awesome...

IIIThe amazing...

DAY TWO OF DISNEYLAND~!!!

(cue fanfare)

I SAID CUE FANFARE!

That's better.

Now that we're all in the mood, let's talk a little about Disneyland, shall we? Wednesday started out much like Tuesday, except we left the hotel about 20 minutes EARLIER to arrive at the park that much earlier. Because of this, we got a decent place in line.

Now, you may be asking yourself "Jay, why in the world would you possibly need to get to the park that early?" And I would answer you: The Nemo Submarine, of course.

You see, the Nemo Submarine isn't any regular old run-of-the-mill crapperware ride, oh no no. It is apparently the greatest ride in the history of man, judging by the constant lines (a minimum 60-90 minute wait) that were seen from open to close. Now, we had wanted to ride Nemo's Submarine, but didn't want to wait in line... what were we to do?

Oh wait!

Do you guys remember when I told you about RideMax?? Well, we did. We told RideMax we wanted to ride Nemo's Submarine, and so it told us we should make it the very first ride we do when we got into the park. Here's where the astonishing part comes in:

People run to rides at Disneyland.

Seriously.

And we're not talking a "Hey, I'm trying to catch the city bus" run, we're talking an Olympic-level sprint to rides.

Hey, Usain, how was Space Mountain??

I must stress this as much as humanly possible: I did not run to Nemo’s Submarine. I am a self-respecting person who doesn’t like to look like a giant moron. I was also on my vacation, and I’d be damned if I was going to run on my vacation. This concerned Seana... after all, our entire schedule relied upon getting onto Nemo’s Submarine in its first run, because we had other, bigger plans for the day. So, as soon as I got into the park, I made a bee-line for Fantasyland... and I was getting passed by people doing their ultimate Michael Johnson impression. But I stuck to my guns and calmly walked.

I must report to you, there is no better feeling than the one I got when I calmly walked up behind the first person in line, who was already sweaty and red-faced from his exhilarating sprint from the gate to Nemo.

The ride itself wasn't awful... kind of cramped and a little loud. But Kate liked it, and that's all that matters.

He's looking for his refund.

After Nemo, we rode Autopia... Katelyn is a terrible driver, by the way.

And then, we headed to ToonTown, where Katelyn got to meet a hero:

Kate and Minnie Mouse

But the highlight of the entire day was no doubt the Princess Lunch. For the uninitiated, the Princess Lunch is in Ariel's Grotto, at California Adventures. For about $30 a person (ouch) you get to go have lunch as 5 of the Disney Princesses walk around and do a meet, greet and photo with the kids at the table.

Since the party was at Ariel's House, we got to meet her first:

Unbeknown to us, we were selected to be the "Guest Family" of the meal, which meant we got to go up in front of the room and announce the first of the Princesses... she got a kick out of that, and, I'm sure, thought that everyone was there to see her, and not the Princesses.

Belle was the Princess we announced:

Then we met Snow White:

Princess Kate didn't feel like leaving her throne... the Cheese Shells and Goldfish were too good.

Then Cinderella:

Kate thought it was hilarious that they had the same dress

And Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty):

Katelyn's waving to me in this picture, as Sleeping Beauty told her to say "Hi, Daddy"

After the Princess Lunch, Katelyn was having sensory overload, so we decided to go back to the hotel (2 block walk!) for a rest. We came back to the park later to ride Jungle Cruise and afterward, this happened:

So, the second day ended much like the first, and a tuckered out Katelyn slept back to the hotel.

Bye-Bye friends.

Disneyland 2009 - Return and Report Vol. 1: Goodbye, Ruby Tuesday.

2009-04-07T20:54:00.000-07:00

"There is stupidity, there is insanity, there is complete and total disregard for ones mental health... and then there is Disneyland with a toddler"
- Ancient Jay Aivaz Proverb

Okay, so the above isn't exactly ancient... in fact, I just wrote it at... but it IS a proverb, and I'm sticking by that. It does, though, speak to a broader point: Disneyland is CRAZY, and if you dare to do it with a child... well, you're crazy too.

Hello, my name is Jay, and I'll be your tour guide over the next few days worth of blog updates regarding the Aivaz Disneyland 2009 trip.

Monday started early for us. Very early. About 6:00 a.m., actually. We all got up, got dressed, showered and fed and began our trek (walking OMH!) to the Park. It actually wasn't that bad... literally a 2-block walk... easily done in about 10 minutes. We got out of our room at 7:30 and arrived to the park at about 7:40. Getting our tickets took 10 minutes and we were at the gates at 7:50. As I was going through the pictures, I discovered something interesting: Katelyn is bi-polar. The below picture was taken at 7:52 a.m.

Katelyn is happy and ready for an exciting day of fun.

The following picture was taken at 7:55 a.m., 3 minutes after the above.

Katelyn is crying and pouting and ready to go home.

This was before we even got into the park. HOWEVER, when we did get in... we were not alone. It's like Disneyland sent out invites to their party and told everyone that there would be Twinkie Casserole for everyone.

However, all the complaining about crowds and cost and noise etc. goes right out the window when you see THIS...

...the look on your daughter's face when she sees Pinocchio up close and personal for the first time in her life.

This isn't to say that the entire day went off without a hitch; I've been to Disneyland a few times, and personally, I had never seen it as busy as it was today... there were people EVERYWHERE (Though I expect going to Disneyland expecting no crowds is like watching Twilight and expecting believeable or even passable acting) and in the afternoon we were all hot and hungry and tired. This is where living literally 2 blocks away really helps. We left Disney at 1:30 and came back to the hotel to regroup. Seana caught a nice nap while Katelyn and I unwound, grabbed some snacks and played. At 4 o'clock, we headed back to the park to finish up our plan.

THAT REMINDS ME!

A couple weeks before we left, Seana found this nifty little program called "Ridemax". What Ridemax does is use historical data about park attendance, line waits, etc. and it prepares a completely detailed, infinitely customizeable "game plan", giving you the optimal ride schedule to wait for the least amount of time possible for your Disney park visit from info like which rides you want to ride, when you want to arrive to and flee from the park, and even includes "free time" and any breaks that you request. Anywho, we decided that we would do all the possible Fantasyland rides in the morning and the New Orleans Square rides at night. We seriously rode every single Fantasyland ride between the hours of 8-11, with the longest wait being 20 minutes at Peter Pan. After lunch, an unscheduled visit (and 45-minute wait) to Pixie Hollow, our break and dinner, we were able to ride Matterhorn, Pirates and Haunted Mansion in 1 hour, with the 15-minute wait at Matterhorn being the longest. At the risk of sounding like Vince from Shamwow (minus the "tongue-kissing women of ill-repute" part) I HIGHLY (so highly that I put it in all caps!) suggest Ridemax for anyone considering a Disney trip. It's $15 dollars for a 3-month subscription and only $25 for a year-long one... a price well worth something that enables you to see everything you want to see without all that pesky waiting that goes on in Disneyland. Go to www.ridemax.com or click here to check it out for yourself.

The highlight of the day by far, however, was Katelyn's trip to Pixie Hollow. A 45-minute wait, being surrounded by obnoxious kids (including your own) while standing in the sun, whilst in the middle of a line and being bombarded by horrible fairy music would normally be a deal-breaker for me, but Seana and I kind of had to subject ourselves to that punishment knowing what lay inside of the "Hollow". Disclaimer: Katelyn loves Tinker Bell to a degree not yet seen in other normal toddlers and the joy on her face is only a smidegon of the actual intensity of the euphoria that swept across her as she entered the Hollow.

First, she met Tinker Bell's friend, Rosetta

But nothing could prepare her for what came next...

A face-to-face meeting with her "pavit", Tinker Bell.

I don't know if she thought we were lying to her or what, but Katelyn acted totally shocked to see Tink there. She froze up when she turned the corner and Tink was standing there. After a couple seconds, Katelyn squealed and ran directly to Tink, dropping her pen and autograph book in the process. Tink was so nice and cordial, even though she'd no doubt seen possibly hundreds of kids up to that point.

Note Kate's hand placement... I'd get kicked out if I tried pulling that crap.

All-in-all, today was a huge success... the meltdowns and tantrums and accidents were so seriously outweighed by the shouts and laughs and hugs and kisses that I can hardly remember the negatives.

But the best part about Disneyland??

It is more potent and effective than the highest-grade elephant tranquilizer... as I type this, Katelyn is fast asleep in her Pack 'n' Play.

Well, that's all for Disney Day 1. Stay tuned for more (hopefully shorter) updates!

- Jay

Feeling Sentimental...

2009-04-03T21:26:00.000-07:00

Jason brought 3 discs home from work with pictures of Katelyn from the time she was born. It made me almost cry to see how much she has grown. I really, REALLY miss those baby days. Enjoy...

I. Want. One. So. Bad.

FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2009-03-23T19:06:00.000-07:00

Katelyn pooped in the toilet tonight!!!!! Way to go Kate!!!!

Twilight Party...Don't act like you don't heart that movie.

2009-03-21T22:49:00.000-07:00

So, tonight my mom and I attended a Twilight party in honor of it's release on DVD. I have to say that I generally shy away from things like that, but my sister was co-hosting it with another lady in her ward and asked me to come so I did. She decided to go all out with the decorations and I helped her. Here are some pictures. And FYI, the wedding/prom idea is what we were going for.

My favorite part was getting pictures taken with Edward. He is so choice.

Even my mom loves him.

Before we watched the movie we played a couple of games. I usually hate games at parties, but I tried to play along. I ended up winning the trivia game. We watched the movie, which was excellent as usual and just hung out. Everyone contributed something and we all got these sweet goodie bags filled with stuff that was twilight themed. Here are all the bags.

It was a fun night. I don't usually hang out with so many people, especially people from my sisters ward, but it was so fun. That is all.

The Holy Ghost according to Katelyn

2009-03-02T08:15:00.000-08:00

Yesterday while we were in church something was revealed to me. Not in the sense you would think. What was revealed is that my daughter is not taught enough in our home. During testimony meeting a teenage girl was talking about about the Holy Ghost. What followed was really embarrassing. Almost at the top of her lungs Kate says, "The Holy Ghost gonna get me!! It care me!! No like it. Get it out of the room, daddy!". We hung our heads in shame, but laughed a little too. Everyone around us was chuckling. I thought that was the end of the discussion, but I was wrong.

I am now a nursery worker so I am in there with Kate all the time. She talks alot in there. Like, never shuts up. Tells everyone who will listen about everything in her life. So, she goes up to the other leaders and tells them that the Holy Ghost is going to get her and that she is afraid of it. They just laugh, of course, but I am mortified. It proceeded throughout the day. Of and on she would tell me she hears the Holy Ghost and doesn't like it. Once while she was on the potty she said "mom, look. A bug. A holy bug!". I don't even know what that means. She is a kook. A very cute little kook.

Katelyn Speak

2009-02-11T07:43:00.000-08:00

I was just sitting here on the computer and I hear Katelyn calling to me from downstairs. As she comes up the stairs this is our exchange...

Kate: " Mom?"

Me: "Yes, baby?"

Kate: "I get da banana."

Me: "You got a banana?"

Kate: "Yeah, I get my chair and I get banana from da counter. It's okay" (Not okay).

Me: "Oh yeah?"

Kate "Yeah, I bing it my room to eat. It's okay" (Also not okay).

She is funny. Or at least I thought it was funny.

Yes, I realize it's almost Valentines Day, but Merry Christmas!

2009-02-08T18:38:00.000-08:00

Okay, so here's the thing- I am having a rare moment when I feel the need to blog, so I figured I may as well put up Christmas pictures. Mostly to prove that we do have them and we did in fact celebrate said holiday.

This year was so fun. Since we live with my mom and dad we got the added bonus of having my mom's mom, Grandma Bette with us the whole weekend. That was so fun. Another bonus was that my sister Shannon had her twins on the 22nd of December so they came home on Christmas night. Best. Presents. Ever. Anywho, the morning of we got up about 7ish and gathered for our traditional Christmas morning prayer. As a child I was pretty convinced that my parents did this to us as a means of torture, but now that I myself am a mom I am so glad that they did. It really invites the spirit. After prayer I sent Jason downstairs to capture the moment, if you will.

Now Katelyn had asked for just one thing all season long. A tinkerbell doll. Over and over. Santa did not disappoint.

She flipped her lid and started playing. A minute or two later she realized that she had a stocking full of good stuff. She dug right in.

After awhile we convinced her that there were other gifts under the tree. That was so thrilling for her.

In the interest of time I will just say what she got. Clothes, dress up jewelry, building blocks, and some other random crap. I can't really remember. I was going to put up pictures of me opening my gift, but I didn't look so hot. My husband (who by the way is the best) got me airline tickets to see one of my best friends and former mission companions, Jenn BOEHRER Mize. I went and visited her in Mid-January, but that is another post. Anyway, I was crazy excited.

All in all, it was a fun day. A really good Christmas. Another present came 4 days later when I received a call from the movie theater where I lost my wallet (see previous post) telling me it was found with everything still in it. It was a Christmas miracle.

As for the rest of the goings on, well, not much. Katelyn was sicker than a dog last week. She has croup. We spent 6 hours in the E.R. during which she was severely violated, poked, forced to drink icky medicine, and throwing up. It sucked. And now Jason has it. Life is grand. Hopefully in the next couple of days I will post about my aforementioned trip to see my friend Jenn. I make no guarantees. This weekend will find me in a jacuzzi suite with my hubby for Valentines Day. I will not post about that, though. I love all you guys.

Blogging Blah

2008-12-22T08:07:00.000-08:00

So, I am having a hard time blogging, obviously. Sometimes, the thought of sitting down and uploading pictures and telling the stories that go with them is just too exhausting to me. Why do I feel that way?

Its been a month and seriously not really much has gone on. Or stuff has and I never take pictures. Katelyn is doing really well with the potty training. Kind of. If she is wearing panties she makes every effort to get to the toilet and pee. Poop- that is another story. Won't even try. No amount of bribery has even come close to working. I have been reading about it and "they" say not to get too frustrated and just continue to let her poop in a pull up for awhile. Its annoying, though.

My wallet got lost the other night. Thats another reason I feel less than excited to blog. I am in so much trouble. It had EVERYTHING in it. License, debit&credit cards, social security card (mine and Kate's), temple recommend, etc. I am amazing. And yes, I know you aren't supposed to carry your SS cards around. No need to lecture me. I never dreamed I would be such an idiot and lose it. Anyway, I spent quite a while on the phone yesterday and will be again today trying to get all that straightened out. Week of Christmas- fabulous.

I will try to end on a positive note. I am getting excited for Christmas. Katelyn even kind of gets it. She knows Santa is coming soon and that she is getting presents if she pees on the potty. I know, we are awful parents. I hope all of you are feeling the spirit and getting excited. I also hope that you still love me even though I never update with pictures.

2 things I am excited about...

2008-11-19T15:45:00.000-08:00

1) my baby has peed on the potty twice!! The instances were a week apart, but A for effort, right?

2) Twilight. Need I say more?

Any ideas or methods that worked for you mommies as far as potty training consistency? When I constantly remind her she gets frustrated and rebels. Too young? Going about it the wrong way? Opinions and ideas greatly appreciated.

New Hair!!

2008-11-08T15:44:00.000-08:00

I have always had long hair. Ask anyone. Once every few years I get the itch to cut it all off and so I will go kind of short and donate all my hair. Well, the itch came again. This time with a vengeance. I have been getting so sick of always shedding these really long hairs. They were always all over my house and things. Yesterday I let my very talented friend Eliza have her way with it. I should have taken a before picture, but you all know my hair was long. Crazy long. Obscenely long. This is what it looks like now (I look like crap, sorry):

Keep in mind I am new to styling and it will take me awhile to figure it out. But I love it. I especially love the blonde in it. It looks great. Thanks Eliza. You are a genius!!

Whats going on....sorry no pictures

2008-10-08T18:41:00.000-07:00

So, September is over. It was a busy month for us. I haven't taken any pictures because I suck. Sorry.

The beginning of the month found us starting our move into my parents house. Most of you who read this blog know our situation, so won't go into much detail. Suffice it to say that my older sister Shannon is 6 months pregnant with twins and has two teenagers. Her 2 bedroom apartment was no longer big enough and we all decided it was best for her and her husband and kids to live in our house. There's more to the story, but that's all that matters. Anywho, we moved in with my parents and it seems to be going well. Katelyn has adjusted quite nicely. She loves getting up every morning and barging into my mom's room. She then waits to be adored and serenaded with "You are my Sunshine". My mom hearts her. She has found an ally in my dad and gets away with ANYTHING when he is around. Overall, it's working out just fine. We absolutely hate living this far north and it's inconvenient to go anywhere, but we shall deal.

The middle of Semptember found me on my glorious annual girls trip to Disneyland. I had the most fun. It was such a needed break and I had such great company in the other 5 girls. We spent 3 fabulous days going park-hopping, eating, laughing, seeing random kids peeing in bushes, eating, screaming, making fun of other people, eating, and sleeping. I took my camera, but when I got there I realized I didn't have my freaking memory card. So me. Anyway, Eliza took pictures so look at her blog (if she ever posts about it). I missed my hubby and my kiddo, but I am already ready for another trip. Can't wait for next year, gals. Yes, I did just say gals.

The end of the month found me not really doing anything, I guess it just seemed like a busy month. I have been dredding an update because it seems like so much happened, but I am a lot more boring than I thought.

October is going to be busy. It's also going to be interesting. Interesting in that we are entering the world of potty training. Kate is barely 2, but has expressed quite an interest and is constantly telling me she is "too wet" after one pee in her diaper. It will be fun. By fun I mean messy and gross. The month will culminate with Shannon's baby shower and Halloween, both of which we have been planning for a long time. Our costumes are going to be rad.

If you are still reading this, bless your heart. Here's a treat for you: yesterday Katelyn threw the house phone at me. I bled profusely and had the fattest lip ever. I looked like the mom on "A Walk to Remember". You know what I am talking about. Trainwreck. Total trainwreck.

Thats all. Sometime I will take pictures. Maybe.

"No, I do it...."

2008-09-12T08:58:00.000-07:00

That is all I have been hearing lately. My baby has to do everything"self".

Nevermind that it would take 75% less time if I did it. Love her.

Also, everything is "mine". The very air I breathe belongs to her and she lets me know.

That is all. A real update soon.

Cutest Ballerina Ever!

2008-08-26T12:09:00.000-07:00

So, I skipped right over doing Katelyns birthday post. The reason for that is two-fold. One, I am not sure which memory card they are on. Two, I am lazy. I'll own it. Sometimes the thought of going onver the details just seems too daunting. Maybe I'll do it later and maybe I won't. Anyway, she had a great birthday and I can't believe she is freaking 2. Tear...

For part of her birthday present we enolled her in the summer fun dance camp where my nieces and my sister take ballet. It was twice a week for 2 weeks and it was 3 hours at a time. They not only did ballet. There was reading, art, and imaginative play. Going in to it I wondered if she would love it or not. As the classes approached I talked to her about it and she seemed really excited. Plus, my 2 nieces were in it and she was jazzed about that. The first day, she freaked out when I left but the ballet director was quickly able to calm her down and she had a great time. I thoroughly enjoyed 3 hours of "me" time. My sister/girlfriend Marchezt (her daughter was in the class too) and I were able to go shopping and to lunch. Each class following was the same routine, only my sister Erin was able to join us and we had a great time. Katelyn loved it. She loves to dance and entertain. It was so fun to watch and definitely worth the time and money. Here are some pics.

Ready to leave...

Having fun in class...

She had such a great time. She looked adorable and I love her. That is all for now.

KateTube (Or, Why My Husband Laughs When My Daughter Falls)

2008-08-17T14:44:00.000-07:00

Another shameless braggy post about my Kate

2008-07-31T11:36:00.000-07:00

You read the title, so consider yourself warned. I haven't dedicated an entire post to her in a while and I have taken some fun pictures of her as of late. Actually having a camera affords that luxury. Anywho, she is doing really well. She continues to amaze me with the things she knows. She has said some really funny things lately that I will share. Some of you may have already heard these stories, so bear with me.

Lately she has been asking me to wear panties. That should probably thrill some parents, but she will have nothing to do with sitting on the potty for longer than 30 seconds, so it just gets old following her aroung and making sure she doesn't pee on my floor. Anyway, one day last week, she insisted on wearing panties. I got her to sit on the toilet for a minute and nothing happened. She wiped anyway. Later that morning she wanted a bath and when she took her panties off and climbed in this is what I saw...

I laughed alot. Also, later that day, I forgot she had panties on and I sent her to the naughty step for something and after 2 minutes I called her to me. She never came. After 5 or 6 times calling her I went over to the step and she wasn't there. I am not proud of this, but I proceeded to yell at her about how we don't get up from the step until mommy says. She stuck her bottom lip out and burst into tears and said, "Mommy, I wet." I felt like the worst mom ever. She peed on the step and I yelled at her for it. Yeah, I know. She forgave me, fortuneatly.

She is still doing well in her bed. She has, however, realized that she can get out of her bed and mess around, so naps have been interesting lately. The other morning she never made any noise and I wondered why she was sleeping later than usual. I found her in a very funny position. Obvioulsy, she had thought about getting up and then realized she was too tired.

She has gone swimming a few times this summer. I would post pictures of her at the public pool, but those jerks decided that I am not allowed to take pictures of my own child. So stupid. Last weekend we were invited to go swimming with some good friends in the ward (Thanks Motts!) and Kate had a great time swimming with daddy.

She has started to get a little attitude and get real snotty with me lately and talks back. Yesterday I was not even talking to her, I think I was on the phone with Jason and she came up to me and put her hands on her hips and said, "Mom, Don't talk a me!!". I said, "Don't talk to you?". And she said, "Yeah, Don't talk a me". And then she proceeded to walk away. I couldn't believe it. Such a brat.

Another funny story. I know, I know, but this is a braggy post about Katelyn. Recently, after she took a bath I wanted to do her hair, but she wouldn't let me. I asked Tyler (my neice) if I could do hers instead. I put Tylers hair in a cute little bun and Katelyn saw it and of course turned green with envy. She then said, "I want ballet hair, too". I died. I have no idea where she connected a bun with ballet. Here is a pic.

One more picture and I will end this post. Maybe. Yesterday morning I told her I needed to change her diiaper and so I got one and she got another one. She went and got her dog that she carries around 24/7 and laid it down and started to put a diaper on him. So cute.

I love my baby. I just realized that this will not be the only braggy post about her fo awhile because she turns 2 on Monday the 4th. I am sure I will dedicate another post to her then. But thats all for now.

Happy Anniversary!

2008-07-17T07:15:00.000-07:00

Ok, so this will probably be a lenghty post, just telling you now. If you want to skip around, I won't be offended. First and foremost- I FINALLY bought a new camera!! It't the exact same as the other kind we had but we found it for $50 dollars cheaper. We were way excited! It's just the Kodak easy share that they come out with every year, but it takes pretty good pictures and given my camera history, inexpensive was the way to go. But anyway, that is that.

Anywho, yesterday was July 16th. Just an ordinary Wednesday to the rest of you, but for Jason and I it was our 3 year anniversary. All of you who have been married for 10+ years are probably laughing, but it's an accomplishment for us so back off. Well, unfortunately our computer does not contain any wedding pictures of us (I need to take care of that) so I am going to post a picture of us on our honeymoon 3 years ago. Yes, thats temple square. We went to Park City, okay. What else was there to do?

Much thinner. Oh, right. Okay, back to last night. Last year I planned our anniversary so this year it was Jason's turn. He planned a couple of things and told me to be ready by 4ish. When he came he had a dozen of the Southern Belle cupcakes from the Cupcakery that I heart so bad. We left and drove for a while and ended up here.

Mini Golf holds a very special place in our hearts. We love it. We played it twice on our honeymoon and once on our anniversary get away last year. I suck but I love to play. Anyway, I really liked this place for a couple of reasons. First, it's indoors. Whats not to love about that in July? Second, it is all under black lights. What's not to love about that? Also, it had an Egyptian theme. Here are a couple of pictures.

+

After mini golf, we went to Target. No pictures, sorry. Just had a few minutes before dinner and needed a couple of things. We headed down to the strip for dinner. When I saw Jason turning into the Fashion Show Mall, I knew we were going to Ra. My favorite sushi bar. To be clear- Jason HATES seafood in any form. But he took one for the team and got chicken teriyaki while I ordered my favorite foods.

That's the edemame (sp?) that I ate. Serioulsy. I ate that whole thing.

I also ordered a california roll and my favorite, the Viva Las Vegas roll. Here it is in all its glory.

After dinner, we went to the wax museum. I had never been there before. It was a little expensive, but very entertaining and I would highly suggest it. I mean, the golden opportunity to take amazing pictures alone is worth it. We took many, but here are some of my favorites.

There were many, many more. I think every now and again I will just include random pictures with wax celebrities. Bottom line, that was a fun date and Jason is the best. We missed our baby and I think next time we mini golf, we will take her. I will do another post soon with pictures of Katelyn's bed.

Thanks for sticking with me. This post was almost unbearably long. I love you Jason! Thanks for 3 great years!

Just a little update...

2008-07-08T16:05:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to do a quick update on how the big girl bed has been going. I didn't actually start putting her in it until last monday, so it has been just over a week. Let me just say, I love my baby. She is amazing! She hopped right in on the first night and never got out. Just went right to sleep. We thought it must be a fluke and so I was expecting a fight at naptime the next day, but again she went right down and fell asleep. And such was the entire week. The only problems we are having are that all last week she woke up once each night and wanted milk. The last two nights, however, she has slept all the way through. She loves her bed!!! I find her in there all the time reading books to her baby and her doggy and telling them to go night-night. In short, I love my big girl and she loves her bed. Here's a question, though. Am I a terrible mother if I turn the monitor down or off at bedtime? She is on the complete other side of the house from us so it makes me nervous, but if I don't hear her then she just goes back to sleep. Also, I have a dark blanket up over her window to keep her room very dark. Is that wrong? Just asking.

In other news, after cleaning and de-junking I still never found my stupid camera. I can't even imagine what has happened to it. It makes me ill. We are going to buy another one next week. Then I will post pictures of her big girl bed. I hope everyone had a fantastic 4th. We did. My parents have the carpet stains to prove it. Later on!

Celebrity Morph by MyHeritage

2008-06-24T18:34:00.001-07:00

MyHeritage: Celebrity Morph - Family tree charts - Geneology

Celebrity Morph by MyHeritage

2008-06-24T18:13:00.001-07:00

MyHeritage: Family trees - Genealogy - Celebrities

Celebrity Morph by MyHeritage

2008-06-24T18:00:00.001-07:00

MyHeritage: Family tree - Genealogy - Celebrity

So...

2008-06-24T10:14:00.000-07:00

Yeah. I never found my camera. I havent taken any pictures in over a month. I am distraught(sp?) about it. I don't really have the funds to buy a new one right now, but I need to take pictures of the latest happenings. I have had a busy month. If any of you care I will give you the low down. FYI- there are no pictures to document any of this.

I went to girls camp two weeks ago. I was there for the entire week. I have to say, I had a great time. It was so nice to have 5 minutes for myself. The young women were so well behaved and we hardly had any problems. We had a death in our ward while we were gone and it was really hard on all of us but it turned out really good as it gave us an opportunity to teach the young women about the resurrection, eternal families, etc. I think they left with stronger testimonies of the plan of salvation. I know I sure did. We had alot of fun activities to do up on the mountain. The only thing I hated about the whole thing was that it was FREEZING most of the time. Anyone who knows me well knows that I loathe the cold. I don't love being hot, but I would take it over cold any day. I never wore short sleeves the whole week. I had long johns and long sleeved shirts the whole time. I was, however, very warm at night. I borrowed my dad's zero degree mummy bag and was toasty warm. Not so much comfortable, but warm. I missed my baby and hubby terribly and was soo glad to get home to them. Katelyn would not have anything to do with me for a couple of hours, but we have since made up and she is back to bugging the heck out of me.

This last week we have been house sitting at my mom's while she and my dad were staying at a beach house in Oceanside with their best friends. Jason has been in heaven. My parents have a vent right above their bed that blows ice cold air. We have a vent above our bed at home, but what little air it does blow is equal to the outside temperature. We liked to pretend that that big ol' house was ours and that we had money. Yesterday we were forced back into reality when my parents came home. They told us we could stay as long as we wanted, but it just wasn't the same.

This morning I finished going through all of Katelyn's baby stuff and got it all boxed up and put in the garage. She now has a big girl room. This afternoon/evening will be her first night in her big girl bed. She already told me that the crib is hers and no i cannot move it. This ought to be a fun week.

If anyone is still reading this, you are a true friend. I am going to start cleaning my room tonight and if I don't find my camera I will have to kill myself. Well, not really, but I will be bummed. Wish me luck.

The Big Day!! Well, the first of 3 Big Days...

2008-05-27T08:13:00.000-07:00

So as promised, here is a post about Jason's Graduation. For those of you who don't know what his school situtation is, here it is.

Jason just finished his associates degree in Political Science. He has 2 more years at UNLV (maybe) until he gets his Bachelors. After that he has 3 years of Law School. He hopes to be a Constitutional lawyer. His dream is to be a judge. I see Politics in his future, although it doesn't thrill me. Anywho, he has a long road ahead, but we are very proud of this accomplishment. The light at the end of the tunnel isn't as blurry now.

Back to the Graduation itself. Yeah, it was last Monday the 19th, which you might recall as being hotter than my mom (and she is HOT!!). It was 109 or something sick. The thing started at 6 and the graduates were supposed to be there at 5. I just went with Jay as I wanted to get there early and save seats. Well, we got there at 4:30. They didn't open the doors until 5. As all of you probably know, the Thomas and Mack does not offer much in the way of shade. I wanted to kill myself. It was about that time I started to be really grateful that I didn't have Kate. That would have sucked. They finally opened the doors and I was able to get a bunch of seats saved. Jasons family soon joined me and the thing started. I have to say for as much as I hate graduations, it wasn't that bad. The program was short and sweet. Soon they started calling the names. My hubby was very close to the front because his last name starts with "A" and he was in the high honors section. Here he is taking his turn.

After what seemed like 5000 names it was over and we waited outside for him. He looked so cute in his little hat.

It was a good night. We went to metro pizza afterwards and it was its usual level of delicious. I am so proud of you Jason. Keep up the good work. We love you. As a side note, I have misplaced my bloody camera. I can't find it anywhere. I am not able to take any pictures lately at all because Todds camera broke recently. Please pray that I can find it. We just bought it in October and I don't want to have to buy a new one.

Still Alive...

2008-05-19T13:03:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I am forcing myself to sit down and type. After the last one anything could be an improvement, huh? No I didn't off myself, but that was a rough week. I honestly can't think of anything worth writing about at this current moment. Jason's graduation is tonight so I will post about that later. I hate when people post and dont include any pictures, so here is some random ones that I found of Katelyn. More to come...hopefully.

Happy?

Boo.

2008-04-21T08:03:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven't posted in a while because nothing of note was going on. I was sick for 2 days last week with some sort of stomach bug I would prefer never to have again. Boo!! I was looking forward to the weekend as it was Jason's birthday and I arranged a party for him at Chuck E. Cheese. Well, Saturday morning rolls around, and he starts to feel crappy. Boo!! We decided it was too late to call and cancel the party so he put on a brave face and we went anyway. We had a great turn out and actually had a great time. After we left I realized that we forgot our camera. Doubel Boo!! Hopefully any of you who did bring your cameras will email me pictures so i can post them. While we were there Katelyn had a blow out. Boo!! No extra pants. Boo!! I sure did let her run around in a shirt and diaper. Yesterday morning we skipped church and I took Jason to the Quick Care. I don't even need to emphasize the Boo!! here as all of you know how much I hate that facility. However, it was quick. Long story longer, Jason has strep throat. BOOOOO!!!! I am starting to get a sore throat. Boo!! Katelyn is on day 3 of runny diahrrea. Boo!! I will be leaving shortly to go babysit Erin's kids for the week while Kindle is in the hospital having procedures done on his head. Boo to hospitals!! I hope everyone has a nicer day than I have. Love you all, though.

We loveTown Square!!

2008-04-09T14:07:00.000-07:00

I stink at posting lately. This will be short. Just a quick update and pics. Yesterday Kate and I went to Town Square with Todd, Karalee, Tyler, my mom, Erin and her kids. I had never been before, but heard it was great. We went specifically for the kids park. It was soo cool. If you have kids and you've never gone there- do it. Its worth your time. They have a treehouse with slides and nets for climbing. They also have several playhouses with kitchens and table and chairs. It was adorable. There is also a little stage where the kids can put on little plays or just run around. It was so cute. Here are some pictures.

I couldn't get Katelyn to cooperate, but Cora and Andrew wanted to go on the stage. Cora more so than her brother.

It was a fun day. However, I can't wait to go back without kids and look in all the stores and get another one of those boba smoothies from "Lollicup". They are fantastic.

Thats all for now. I hope to do a long post soon, but I make no guarantees. As a side note, I hope you all enjoyed conference. I loved every second of it. President Monson looks different to me already. I am so grateful to be able to hear his words. I feel like the "smack was laid down" by several speakers and I am so glad as they are things I need the most improvement in. The church is pretty cool. Anywho, that is all.

I DID IT!! I FREAKING DID IT!!!

2008-03-29T21:34:00.000-07:00

Well, obviously I am alive, so I made it. I didn't chiken out. I jumped out of a freaking plane and it was amazing. There are no words to describe how fun/scary/best thing I've ever done. Here's how it went...

We arrived at the Jean airport at about 9:30 this morning. My stomach was literally in knots and my hands were all clammy and cold. I was trying to act tough, but I was seriously contemplating not doing it. We went into the office and signed our lives away, literally, and watched the insruction video. It was informative and just made me more scared. After that we got suited up and harnessed.

Then I took what I thought might have been some final pictures with my family.

We then headed out to the plane. By this time I'm thinking that this is the dumbest thing I've ever done, but I am obviously not going to chicken out. The guy who jumped with my was so great about reassuring me. He did goof around a little, too, and teased me about the chute not working. Anywho, the little ride up seemed to take forever!! Mind you, I am not a fan of heights and petrified of flying. Fabulous activity to engage in, right? After what seemed like an hour, I was suddenly being hooked to my jumper and given some last minute insructions. The doors opened and the first few people were gone. Then we slid down our little bench and kneeled at the door. At that moment I promised myself that I was not going to freak the whole way, but that I was going to love every second. He leaned out and we were flying. It was the most amazing sensation in the world. I loved it. I screamed, but because I loved it. All too soon, the free fall was over and he pulled the chute. I immediately yelled to him about being glad that I did it. We had a fun little ride down which he filled with little twists and what not. The ground got closer and closer. I was a little worried about the landing. I just stuck my legs out and slid in like they said.

My family and friends were there to greet me. It was so fun to land to their cheering.

All in all it was an amazing trip. I am sooo glad I did it. I think everyone should do it at least once in their life. So worth it. Thanks again to Jason for not only paying for this but for humoring me and coming to watch even though it made you so nervous. I love you babe. Thats all for now. I will see if I can post the video of the entire dive that I purchased in case anyone has interest in that. Later.

So Scared!!

2008-03-28T07:42:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow I am going skydiving. I know, who does that? Well early last month, my best friend Eliza went with some family friends of hers and said it was the most amazing thing she had ever done. She said she wanted to do it again and asked if I wanted to. Thinking it probably wouldn't happen very soon I said sure. Well, she decided she wanted to go as a group for her birthday that was this monthe. So, within 2 weeks of her dive I put down a deposit for mine. Tomorrow is the big day and to be frank, I am scared you-know-what less, but also excited. I will include pictures with my update tomorrow. If I don't make it, it's been a pleasure knowing all of you.

I know it's late, but Happy Easter

2008-03-25T20:43:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. I am a failure. I just wanted to do a quick post about Easter and Spring Break. Jason was able to take off 31/2 days last week. It was bliss. No work, no school. Just us. And Katelyn. On Wednesday we went to St. George to visit one of Jason's mission buddies, Elder Monroe. He and his wife live in Bloomington just outside of St. George. We just went up for the day to have dinner and hang out with them. We arrived in there at about 2:30 and they didn't get out of work until 5. No problem, we thought, we will just kill time until then. I don't know if you've ever tried to kill time in St. George, but it's no easy feat. I should have known that, I lived there for 7 years. Anywho, we went to Old Navy for like 10 minutes. Then we thought we would hit Red Cliffs Mall. That was hilarious. There are like 9 stores and an Orange Julius. Hasn't changed a bit since I lived there. After that we just went to a park and hung out until we met Scott and Eryn at their house. We ate at Texas Roadhouse. It was delicious and I loved every bite of it. After that we hung at their house for a while. That was fun, guys!! It was so good to see you. We need to do it again.

We didn't do much else the rest of the week. Kate had to go back to the doctor because she had what we thought was a reaction to her vaccinations, but it was nothing. She has a fabulous immune system, apparently.

On Easter, we got up and showed Kate her basket. She was in heart with it. I told her that the Easter Bunny and I talked earlier and decided not to hide eggs this year. The bunny was concerned that maybe Kate didn't give enough of a crap, if you will, to go find them. Maybe next year. Anyway, she played for a bit. Here is her basket and her enjoying said basket.

Soon after all this goodness, I had to go to a meeting. I left Jason her Easter dress and accessories and hoped for the best. I packed hair bows in the diaper bag just in case I had to do some last minute hair surgery. He met me at church and this is the goodness I saw.

She is freaking cute, I know. She was so excited when she got to church because my parents were there for a friends mission farwell. She loves my dad probably more than anyone else. She had fun with him throughout the meeting. After church we went to my parents house for my dads famous tacos. They were fabulous as usual. We then stopped by Jasons parents house so they could love on her and give her another basket. She definitely got spoiled. It was a good day. Oh, and the Easter Bunny didn't forget me.

Unfortunately, he did forget Jason. That Easter Bunny can be an inconsiderate jerk sometimes. I love you Jason. Maybe next year the bunny will remember.

Katelyn

2008-03-19T22:44:00.001-07:00

I have been thinking lately that this blog doesn't have enough about Kate on here or many pictures. Here's the sitch on Katelyn Sue. She had a well baby check up yesterday and she weighs 31lbs and is 33 inches long. She is a brick house, if you will. The doctor is very concerned and told me to not give her any "crap" and to limit her liquid calories. Hey thanks, doc, why didn't I think of that. I started crying after the appointment feeling like a crappy mom, but Jason assured me that it's going to be okay. She then got 5 shots and was not very appreciative of it. Her leg is still swollen and sad. On a positive note, the doctor is really impressed with her development and language. She asked us if she knows 5-10 words and I was proud to say that she knows at least 30 and is making simple sentences.

As I have been watching her the past few days, I am amazed by how much she is like her dad. Not just in looks, although that girl is the spitting image of her father. They have so many of the same quirks and personality traits. For example, that girl HATES clothing and frilly hair bows. It saddens me. Everyday I pick out cute little outfits and put her hair in pigtails, but within minutes it is all off. She usually leaves her shirt on but sometimes just prefers her diaper. Recently, its been diaper and crocs. The pictures below illustrate most of this point.

Another Jason trait she has is the way she sleeps. Now, I don't know about when he was a baby, but Jason has a certain way that he sleeps every single night. On his right side with his arm behind his head. Kate does not sleep in that particular position, but she has to be the same way every night. Instead of utilizing all the space that her crib affords, she sleeps horizontally (sp?) and curls herself into a ball but on her stomach. She, like Jason, likes no covers and as little clothing as she can. When I sleep it is several different positions and I have to have many covers. Here is Kate sleeping how Kate sleeps.

Mostly, though, she reminds me of Jason simply by being so cute and fun. Everyday, she can find joy out of the simplest little things. She loves to jump and bounce and just have fun. I love her to death!!

On a side note: Nursery is going a teeny tiny bit better. She still cries most of the time, but the leaders say it is mostly because the other kids cry and set her off again. Hopefully, it will get easier and she will continue to adjust. Thanks for all your advice, guys.

Just another quick note. Many people have been asking me about how Todd and Karalee's little boy Elijah is doing. They have set up a blog with daily updates and pictures. The procedures and the diagnosis are explained in depth on there, so check it out if you want. http://www.thegarberfam.blogspot.com/. Please remember that handsome little devil and his parents in your prayers. Thats all for now.

HELP!!

2008-03-10T11:01:00.000-07:00

Quick question to all you mommies of toddlers. How long did it take your kids to get used to nursery? My daughter has been in for 1 month and every sunday she has cried the entire 2 hours. Once they even asked me to take her. Now, Jason and I both teach during the 3rd hour and we can't be doing that. Any thoughts, suggestions, or anything? I feel bad for the leaders, but I also feel like those two hours are my time. Am I wrong?

Tagtosterone Part II

2008-03-08T14:45:00.000-08:00

Just when you thought it was safe to go back on the Internet.

Seana tagged me.

Again.

Yay.

This time, it's 5 things.

So let's get the prerequisite crap out of the way:

DISCLAIMER: If tagged you here's what you do. Post the words in all caps below and fill in info about yourself. Then, at the end you tell who you are tagging & go and tag 5 friends on their blogs. It's just a way to get to know fun little things about people.

TEN YEARS AGO - From today? I was 15 and probably playing the NINTENDO 64~!!!! that I got that December past.

FIVE PLACES THAT I HAVE VISITED - Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Alaska, Canada

FIVE THINGS ON MY TO DO LIST - Hang out with my family, write a 2-part report for my ECON 103 class, not fail my Poli Sci class this semester (I need it to graduate), go golfing and play Call of Duty 4 on the XBox 360.

I ENJOY - My wife, my baby, professional wrestling, golfing and playing the 360.

THREE BAD HABITS - "I work too hard. I care too much. And sometimes I can be too invested in my job."

FIVE THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT ME -
1. I was in a punk band in High School. Seriously. I was the lead singer and can also play the guitar a little bit.
2. I was voted senior class vice-president my final year in High School. I ran as a joke and ended up winning the deal.
3. I was the 2nd VP ever impeached in the history of Las Vegas High School. Apparently, I didn't show the desired amount of school spirit, nor did I care about the senior class' float in the Homecoming Parade, so I got the axe.
4. Most of my "won't eats" come from a food texture hyper-sensitivty I have... I cannot eat a food with a mushy texture, like oatmeal, mashed potatoes, etc... It's weird, I know, but that's how I am.
5. I have saved 2 lives, both times while on my mission, both times choking toddlers, both times I used the infant Heimlich maneuver, and both times I was successful. Those didn't get me any baptisms, though...

FIVE JOBS THAT I HAVE HAD
1. Construction work with my Grandpa (remodeling LDS chapels around town for $2 an hour.)
2. Delivery driver for Little Caesars (yes, they used to offer delivery)
3. Remittance Processor for Bank of America
4. Escrow Opener at Nevada Title Company
5. Legal Project Assistant at Peel Brimley

I tag no one.

Good-bye.

Another Tag... Thanks, Nat.

2008-03-06T20:38:00.000-08:00

If tagged you here's what you do. Post the words in all caps below and fill in info about yourself. Then, at the end you tell who you are tagging & go and tag 5 friends on their blogs. It's just a way to get to know fun little things about people.

TEN YEARS AGO.......I was 16 and probably watching the new Backstreet Boys video on TRL. Seriously, I was a loser.

FIVE PLACES THAT I HAVE VISITED........California, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland

FIVE THINGS ON MY TO DO LIST........Clean my room, finish Kate's laundry, do the dishes, catch up on sleep, cuddle with my hubby.

I ENJOY..........Reading, taking bubble baths(seriously, like, daily), going to the movies, hanging out with my hubby, playing with my baby girl, Edward Cullen.

THREE BAD HABITS........Procrastination, eating crap, laziness. Wow, I'm a winner.

FIVE THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT ME.........
1. I was born with thick jet black hair. I got meningitis and my fevers got so high that my hair fell out in one day. Literally. And when it did grow back it was red.
2. I double and triple check the locks at night. I drive myself and Jason crazy, but you can never be too careful, right?
3. I freaking hate folding and putting away laundry. I fold it, but then it just ends up being piles of clean clothes that eventually mixes with the dirty. It irritates me, but I won't change.
4. Most of you already know this, but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE sushi. It is so good. Any kind. I would eat it everyday if I could.
5. I have a girl crush on Amanda Bynes. She is so funny. I love that she can laugh at herself while making others laugh. Her show "What I Like About You" is my favorite thing ever. I watch the reruns all the time. She and Vince are so fun.

FIVE JOBS THAT I HAVE HAD.............
1. D.I. before my mission.
2. A missionary. Thats work.
3. D.I. after my mission. I know, I am not too quick.
4. Receptionist at a dental office.
5. Oh, I forgot I worked for Nate Bell for a minute, but who didn't?

There. I don't really know why anyone would give a crap, but there anyway. I tag Jason and Jenn Mize.

Hubby Tag

2008-03-05T21:41:00.000-08:00

What is your husbands name? Jason, Jay, Jayvaz, or Baby.
How long have you been together? We have been married for 2.5 years, but have been toether for 3 years.
Who said I love you first? He did because I refused to be the one that said it first.
Who is smarter? Jason. Totally. We both have our stengths, though.
Who does the housework? I have to admit that I suck at keeping the house neat, but what does get done is done by me. Almost all of the time. He does entertain our daughter so I can lots done, though.
Who sleeps on the right? Standing at the foot of the bed I am on the right. I have this issue about being the farthest from the door. It's dumb, I know, but if someone breaks in I don't want to get shot first. Just kidding. It just is what it is.
Who pays the bills? We actually share. He pays the car payment and other important bills online and i take care of the utilites.
Who cooks dinner? In our interesting living dynamic, my sister in law does most of the cooking. She is fabulous at it.
Who drives when you are together? Jason. Always Jason.
Who is more stubborn? I'll own it. It's totally me. He pretty much always gives me my way, though, so it doesn't manifest that often.
Who kissed who first? Not really sure. Kind of mutual. Although, and not to share too much, I didn't french kiss first. Sorry if that makes anyone uncomfortable. Maybe you make me uncomfortable.
Who asked out who first? He did. Valentines Day. We had our faces morphed together and made a baby. It was hot.
Who proposed? He did. What kind of loser asks the guy?
Who has more siblings? I do. I have 2 sisters and 3 brothers and he has 1 brother and 2 sisters.
Who wears the pants? Me. He likes to think he does.

I love my husband a whole lot. He takes good care of me and Katelyn. I appreciate everything my husband does for us and his cheerful manner as he does. He works fulltime and goes to school fulltime and never complains. He is amazing. I love you Jason. Thanks for putting up with all the garbage. You're the best.

Valentines Day

2008-02-21T20:26:00.000-08:00

I know, I know... but better late than never, eh? This valentines day was pretty cool. It was like any ordinary day in that Jason went to work and I did my usual things. I knew something was coming for me, though. I kept waiting and waiting and acting like I didn't care. Then around 4 a delivery man came to the door. He brought Katelyn and I a box from the PajamaGram company. Inside was some pajamas for me and some pajamas for Katelyn. I didn't take a picture of Kate's, but this is what mine looked like:

It came in this cute little hat box withe a little potpurri bag for your drawers and a DO NOT DISTURB sign. The pajamas themselves looked like this:

Yeah, I know- my husband is cute, right? Katelyns came in her own little box with a stuffed puppy and a note from daddy. She was so excited and kept saying, "prize" all day. As in "surprise" because I told her that daddy sent us a surprise. He also came home with 8 of those red velvet cupcakes from the cupcakery that I heart so bad. He is amazing. Guess what he got from me? A card. A CARD!!!

Bag Tag and My Life as Is

2008-02-21T20:09:00.000-08:00

Well. I guess I have been "bagged tagged."

The Rules...

Take a picture of your bag
Show a picture of ALL the contents in your bag... NO CLEANING OUT FIRST!!!!
"Bag Tag" five people

Heres what's in my deceptively small bag: George Strait concert ticket, Phantom ticket and program, tithing slip and envelope, bag o' goldfish, delicious 5 gum, random papers, candy wrappers ( i go to the movies alot), checkbook, wallet, coughdrops, change, random receipts, and a condom. I feel compelled to explain. My daughter found this prophylactic and brought it to me and my purse was the first place I thought to hide it. I am not some wierdo that has trysts that I need to be prepared for-although maybe I should.

I suck at this

2008-02-03T19:11:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I really do. Just a quick note and I really will try to post more later. I had hopes to do a good long one all decked out with pictures today, but my daughter ended up in the E.R. this morning. She is having her respiratory issues that she frequently has. She is fine, but spending 6 hours in the hospital isn't fun and Jason had to deal with it himself (I had to teach YW, which I didn't end up doing). She got a breathing treatment and some chest x-rays and they pretty much told us to wait it out and that it was viral. They sent her home with a prescription that, naturally, tastes like caca and she is not willing to take. She is not herself and that stinks for us. Also, I went to see George Strait last night and it was soo fun. He is great. Josh Turner opened. Yummy. He was awesome, too. I shall try more later when I am not completely exhausted.

Sick, Sick, Sick

2008-01-20T17:04:00.000-08:00

This will be a short(ish) post. I have been sick. So sick. Sick enough to want to die. Not a joke. I got this cold thing right after my birthday, but it quickly ran its course and went away. This past Tuesday I woke up and felt a tightness and congestion in my chest. It was more annoying than anything. By evening, it was bad. Wednesday, my sweet sister in law took Katelyn out of the house for a few hours so I could rest. That night I took some Nyquil and hoped some good sleep would do it. The next morning I felt worse. I don't know how, but it was awful. Again, Karalee took Kate for me and I went to the quick care. Let me just say that I am not really sure why it is called quick care. It is neither quick nor caring. I waited 3 hours to be seen and was diagnosed in about 4 seconds. Early bronchitis. Antibiotics and nose spray. As a side note: while I was waiting to be seen I was watching the front desk crew in amazement. It was like an episode of "the offfice" only not even a little bit funny. Just annoying. The women were gossipping, brushing eachothers hair, and clipping coupons. The one male at the desk thought it was his duty to have playful banter with the dude next to me about scooby doo, the mystery machine and hippies(the scooby doo movie was on). I wanted both of them to take a long trip in that stupid mystery machine and never come back. Friday was by far my worst day. I was nauseated and just so sick. My little niece Tyler had gotten it by then and I felt really bad. Yesterday was Saturday and I was feeling better, but Katelyn woke up with a temperature of 102. We were bummed because my dads company has a luxury box at the Orleans and my friend Eliza was going to take Kate to see Princesses on Ice with the rest of my family. That didn't happen. So here we are on Sunday and I have to say that I am starting to feel much better. Katelyn just had a breathing treatment and seems to be perking up. Hopefully this week will be better and I will take more pictures and have a much happier blog entry. Thanks to everyone who continually checked on me and make me feel loved.

My baby is a star!!!

2008-01-11T13:01:00.000-08:00

Ok, so my baby was on Regis and Kelly today!! A couple of weeks ago, I entered her into their Beautiful Baby Search. I hadn't read the rules so I didn't realize that the picture I sent was too old. I haven't thought much about it since then. I usually watch just their host chat in the mornings, but today I didn't. My mom called me and said that her friends daughter saw Katelyn on the show. Of course, the one time I don't watch it. If any one has interest in seeing it, you can watch it on their website: liveregisandkelly.com and click on videos and go to todays chat (fri the 11th). If you don't want to listen to their blabber, you can fast forward. It is about 13:30 in. The picture is the one I have on facebook, which most of you have already seen. But, check it out if you want. And also, I sooo am not like a stage mother. She won't be in pageants or anything like that.

Christmas 2007, Happy Birthday, and Edward Freaking Cullen

2008-01-10T10:47:00.000-08:00

So, yeah. I stink at keeping this up to date. Legit. Anyway, I thought I ought to report on Christmas and include some pictures. This is going to be a long entry, so if you skip to just the pictures, I won't be offended.

Christmas was crazy this year. On Christmas Eve, Jason was working and I finished some last minute shopping. Wal-mart was pleasantly uncrowded that day and many cashiers were working. Anyway, I got everything wrapped and ready to go. Jason didn't end up leaving work until 1pm, which created all kinds of drama for me, but thats another story. Anywho, we headed over to my moms first. Our family does Christmas eve early since my oldest brother lives in Overton and they usually travel to St. Goerge anyhow. Well, the food was delish as usual. My mom and dad made the traditional enchiladas. They were off the hook, if you will. The house was full of kids and chaos and I loved every second of it. After we ate, the grandkids exchanged gifts, which is our new tradition. Katelyn drew Joe. She got him a book he really wanted. Andrew got Katelyn. He gave her a doctor kit. She loves it and plays it every day. After that, we put kate in her pajamas and headed over to Jays grandmas house. More food, more presents, more fun. Every year, they have everyone bring a different soup. I enjoyed my mother in law's taco soup. It is her specialty and this year it didn't dissapoint. After our gift exchange (during which Jason got an xbox 360), we all went and looked at some really elaborate Christmas lights. They were rad. We then headed back over to my moms to spend the night and wait for the big guy. Katelyn doesn't usually sleep well outside of her crib, and this was no exception. She woke up at 2am and 4am and just cried. My parents were right next to her room- oops. Well about 7am we woke up and went downstairs and Santa had come!! We only took pictures of Kate...

Christmas day was pretty much just a veg out day after that.

My birthday is on New Years Day. It's never really been that exciting. It's right after Christmas, so everyone is tired and busy and poor. I don't really care, I am old now. About a month ago, though, I made a list of a few small things I wanted and my sweet husband made sure I got all of them. First, I GOT TO SLEEP IN!!!! It was amazing. When I woke up my baby girl said "Happy Day". It was awesome. I got my annual birtday bubble bath and instead of my usual sparkling cider, Jason made me pomegranate lemonade. It was fabulous. After that I went and had sushi with my mom and sisters and Liza and Chelsa. It was sooo good. My mom and some of my sisters and Liza DO NOT do sushi. They came and were good sports and ordered other items. I appreciated it. I ordered my favorite roll, the Viva Las Vegas roll. It is comprised of crab, spicy tuna and cream cheese. It is the celestial kingdom in my mouth. Lunch was great.I also got a pedicure. It was a great day.

So, on to the last bit of this uber long post. Jason got me the Twilight book series for Christmas. I made fun of Natalie and Eliza for getting so into those "dumb vampire books". That is, until I partook of their goodness. I LOVE those books. With a love that is deeper than love. Edward has become an integral part of my every day life and I am not ashamed to admit that I am both in love with and obsessed with him. If you have not read those books, I highly recommend picking them up, they are so choice. My sisters are all now reading them and are in love with him as well. I can't wait for the movie and I am thrilled with the casting thus far.

Well, if you made throught this entry, you might not have a life. Just kidding. I appreciate it. And I enjoy feedback, so keep the comments coming. I love all of you a lot.

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-18T19:30:00.000-08:00

Okay, not that many people read this, but I must apologize. I have been most remiss in updating this. And also, these are the pictures on our Christmas cards(which I still haven't sent) so I apologize for the repeat. I have had a busy month and we are entering the REALLY busy point. I am not really sure where to start. Katelyn, I guess.

She is her usual cute self. She has learned so many words in the last few weeks. She can count to 6, although she usually just goes right to 4,5,6. She can say her own name and constantly says "fox", which sounds like something else. Today she asked my sister Erin, "where's Andrew at?". She is so smart. Certainly didn't get it from me. We had a couple of minor disasters this week. On Sunday she and daddy were playing "headbutt". She headbutted daddy a little too low and way too hard and hit him in the front teeth. She has a goose egg and he got a fat lip. Speaking of fat lips, we were watching Erin's kids today and she leaned too hard against the gate at the top of the stairs. It fell and so did she. She rode it, sleigh-like, down the stairs, but hit her lip pretty good. If she didn't have that gate to break her fall she could have been seriously injured. I swear someone will call CPS on us soon. She always has bruises on her head and face. Anyway, she is so fun and we are enjoying getting her Christmas gifts wrapped and telling her about Santa coming. I love her.

Jason is enjoying school being out for the next month. He got straight A's again this semester, so he is maintaining a very high average. I just realized that this is sounding like a christmas letter. Well, it kind of is. I don't ever write those, so there we have it. We went to his company Christmas party on Saturday and really enjoyed ourselves. The shrimp was delicious. Well, at least I thought so.

I have enjoyed the past couple weeks with the service we do in Young Womens. Last Thursday we went to St. Vincents and served dinner to the homeless. It was an amazing experience. I won't lie, I never look forward to it because I hate being out of my comfort zone. The youth were such good examples to me. They had perfect love for everyone they saw and loved every minute of the work. They were bummed when it was time to go. A couple of weeks ago, we took the youth to see the live nativity. That was a great night. I love to watch the story unfold in front of my eyes. I always feel the spirit. Good times. This week we will go on our annual hayride/caroling to the elderly in our ward. I look forward to this one every year. The look on their faces is so rewarding. I am trying to really get into the Christmas spirit this year and remember the excitement I had as a kid.

That is all. I hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas. I can't help but feel close to the Savior more than ever at this time of the year. I hope that I and all of you can feel that same spirit and closeness and that we strive to keep it with us all year long. I love you all.

Here is some more of the freaking cute goodness that is Katelyn Sue Aivaz.

Tagtosterone.

2007-11-30T19:36:00.000-08:00

Ah. so this is what a blog looks like.

Anywho, I am Seana's husband, Jay.

I should explain why I'm here, I guess.

Last week, my lovely wife was tagged by her best friend to reveal 6 deep, dark, embarrassing secrets about herself. Normally, I would have no qualms about my wife divulging any secrets online, because quite a few of them would probably make me look very good... however, as part of being tagged, not only was she given the responsibility of writing down the secrets, but she was also given the charge to assign the task to 6 more poor, unsuspecting souls.

But she only gave it to one.

Me.

So here I am.

Ultra-thrilled... can you tell?

Anyway, I guess I'll start with the secrets.

1. I am a HUGE fan of professional wrestling. I've always liked it, ever since I was a little kid... not too sure why, though. Maybe because, when I was a little kid, my dad would take us to events when they came to town... we never had much money and my dad worked a lot, so I guess those times were when we got to spend some time with him. Bet you guys feel real bad about teasing me for it now, huh? Anyway, the apex of my wrestling geekiness came on October 19th, 2007 at a Ring of Honor wrestling event. I post on a message board for other nerds, err, wrestling fans and I was given the task of making a report of the events. So, yes, I took notes. Of everything. And wrote them on the website. Seana laughed at me so hard that I shredded the index cards. I still had a blast, though.

2. I was in an anti-smoking commercial. It was like, a month after 9/11 and we were at the haunted house they used to do at The Huntridge. Anyway, xposecoalition.com was there, shooting a commercial, and asked if anyone wanted to be in it. My friends and I all said sure and they put us in front of the camera... they told us to talk bad about smoking, so I made some comparison to the number of people killed on 9-11 and the number of people smoking kills every year... well the producers lost their minds, kicked everyone out of the shot and made me do it again. It was on TV eventually, and I even got recognized from it a couple times.

3. I have OCD, but only when it comes to personal hygiene. In the shower, I have a certain pattern (called "rituals" in OCD talk) in which I wash. If the pattern is disrupted at all, I have to either start over, or go back to the last stage. It's weird. When I get out of the shower, I dry off a certain way, and wear my towel a certain way until I'm in my room. Then I get dressed... socks on first. I hate being in bare feet. After I'm dressed, I put my deodorant on... this is the part that freaked Seana out at first: I MUST apply the deodorant in multiples of 5, and the number has to the same on both arms. 5, 10, 15, 20, 25... I've even gone as high as 30 or 35. I don't know why I do all this, but it works. Seana says I've never smelled bad since she's known me, so I guess I'm doing something right.

4. I was a 4-year Theater student in high school. I was in a total of 2 plays and 4 musicals over those 4 years, I was even the lead in the play my senior year. But what's even better, I earned my Letter in Theater... imagine how lame someone would look walking around with a letterman's jacket... for theater?? Anyway, I am a member of the International Thespian Society and loved every minute of it.

5. I used to soap fountains. For the uninitiated, that means that my juvenile delinquent friends and I would go around to different fountains in the valley and pour large amounts of soap into them. This may not seem that cool, but after 45 minutes and a Slurpee... there would usually be a gigantic plume of suds coming forth from the fountain. They provided for truly awesome visuals, I assure you. One time, we soaped the fountains outside of the Paris. This was our Ocean's Eleven heist. We parked in the Venetian parking garage, walked through the casino, down the Strip and to the fountains. There were 5 of us... each with 1 gallon of hand soap borrowed McCarran International Airport bathrooms, and 4 40-ounce bottles of the FINEST dish soap to use on fountains:

Crystal White Octagon

So that was 9 gallons (1,152 fluid ounces) of soapy goodness. The resulting suds avalanche was so massive that Metro had to shut down the right hand traveling lane and sweep the bubbles into the gutter for about 2 hours. Immature, yes... but it makes for a DARN fine blog story.

6. I won a Bike Rodeo in 3rd grade. Why was this my final secret? Because it's the only time in my life that I won a trophy. For all those unfamiliar with the awesomeness that is a Bike Rodeo:

Go here.

And it was just like that. Figure 8's? Check. Lame-looking helmets? In abundance. Training wheels? Heck no. Not for me. I was rocking my K-Mart bought Huffy. The judges were dazzled... in awe... amazed by my skill on my bike. They also happened to be my parents' home teacher and my scoutmaster, so there may have been a small bias. But I earned that trophy. I don't know what I did to prove that I was a better bicyclist than every other 3rd grader at Oran K. Gragson Elementary School, but on that day... I was.

Well, you all have plenty of blackmail and extortion material on me now (especially for the fountain-soaping thing... I think that may be misdemeanor vandalism, and the soap from McCarran... that could be a felony, I don't know) so I hope you're happy. I'm going to tag Bill S. Preston, Esq., Ted "Theodore" Logan, Rufus, Jane Austen, the Writers Guild of America (take that!) and... OH, Becky Parry.

Thanks, and have a nice day.

I have been tagged...

2007-11-25T18:30:00.000-08:00

Yeah, I don't really like this kind of crap, but since it was Eliza that tagged me, I will oblige.

I want to put a disclaimer up now and say that some of these facts are strange and almost sick, so I hope that I won't lose any of you as friends. And if I do, Good Riddance to bad rubbish.

1. I will just say the most embarassing one straight out: I was a finger sucker. Bad. Like until I was 13 or 14. I know, gross, right? My parents tried hot sauce, pickle juice, bribery, the whole nine. Nothing worked. Then I got braces. That did it. Plus, I eventually realized that thats what toddlers did and I was ashamed enough to make myself quit. I can hardly type this without wanting to kill myself.

2. I am borderline obsessed with reality TV. And its the dumbest crap that I watch. ie: The Hills, Dancing With The Stars, Biggest Loser, Kimora: Life in the Fab Lane, Kardashians, Little People, Big World, John and Kate Plus 8, etc. The list goes on forever. My hsuband has refused to watch tv with me any longer. I don't know what sick pleasure I get out of these crappy shows, but I love them.

3. I have always had this wierd fear about driving. I hate it. I was 23 when I finally got my license(i know, i know) and I still very rarely drive. It makes everyone around me crazy and even me most of the time. I hate not knowing what the people on the road are going to do, and it makes me nervous. Its a ridiculous thing, I know, but its me.

4. I love wierd boy movies that most people think are sucky, such as Rocky 1-6, Karate Kid 1&2, etc. A nice Saturday afternoon will find me watching any one of the Rocky movies and recting every line. Matter of fact, today I watched Karate Kid 2 just because I felt like it. I visited the art museum this summer where Rocky climbed the steps. One of the best moments of my life.

5. I love, love, love Harry Potter. Books, movies, you name it. I have spent many an hour waiting in lines for midnight showings and book releases. I think the story is so clever and have loved every minute of reading the books. I have even been known to cry and/or get angry when things happened that I didn't appreciate. I am a nerd.

6. I enjoy circus peanuts, peeps, and any other marshmallow treat a great deal. They are things that 5 year olds eat, but I like em. Easter is my favorite candy holiday.

Well, thats all. If you need to go vomit, I will understand. I don't even know 6 people to tag. So I am just tagging jason.

Happy Thanksgiving

2007-11-23T11:12:00.000-08:00

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!! We hope you all had a great holiday. We did. This post will be short as Katelyn is screaming at me for my full atttention. I have guilt that I havent updated this forever, but not too much guilt considering only a few people even read it.

Baby girl is doing well. She has really started to say lots and lots of new words and even a simple sentence now and again. For example, yesterday we started our first fire of the season. I was very nervous because Kate loves to climb on the fireplace and what not. After the fire was going, she thought it was amazing and wanted to climb up and take a closer look. I told her "it's hot" and to be careful. She immediately said "its hot" and kept on saying it every time she saw the fire. This morning we had another fire burning and she climbed up and sat on my lap to look at it for awhile. Then I asked her if she wanted to get down and she nodded and said,"bye its hot". I nearly died. It was so cute.

Thanksgiving was amazing as usual. My family and Jason's both live in town so every year we hit both houses for the meal. We went to my sister Erin's house first and had the whole spread including the chips and dips that I was full on before the meal started. By the time I ate dessert, I was feeling some regret for not pacing myself. About an hour and a half later, we went to Jason's grandama's house. They had 3 full turkeys and all the fixins (if you will). By my third bite of yams, I was in pain. By the fifth, I wanted to die. I didn't eat any dessert there and came home with a large stomach ache. I wish I could say I learned my lesson, but I am sure that next year will have the same results.

All in all, it was a great day. On a side note, my tooth that I just had that root canal on was crowned the other day. No pain in a long time, which I am grateful for. Thanks to Eliza for babysitting, by the way. Thats all for now. I don't really have any pictures from yesterday because i forgot my camera like an idiot. Til next time.

I Wish I Were Dead...

2007-11-10T21:06:00.001-08:00

Wow. What a week. Well, more like 2 weeks. So much happened that my brain is actually a little fried. I will attempt a recap.

Last weekend I took a nice trip to Disneyland with my friends Eliza, Natalie, and Nat's sister Jennifer. It was soooo fun. We stayed in this really cute little hotel just down the street from the park. There was shuttle service to and from the park and that was so convenient. The continental breakfast was better than any other that I have had in the past. The really good part about the weekend was that for some reason, the parks were not busy at all. Both Disneyland and California Adventures were unusually empty. We didn't really have to wait in any lines. I think the longest we waited was 20 minutes. We got to go on everything many times. I think our favorites were Soarin' over California and Tower of Terror. Eliza and Natalie forced me on the ferris wheel which I am scared of for some strange reason. The gondola we had swung back and forth as we went around. I almost wet my pants. I was glad they made me though. I would have felt like a wuss if I hadn't. We were also able to see Billy Hill and the Hillbillies, which is mostly Disneyland's appeal to us. They were amazing as usual. For anyone who doesn't know who they are, I would highly suggest looking them up online. Please see Eliza's blog for pictures.

While we were gone, Katelyn was so sick. She was throwing up and had really bad diarrea. I initially had a lot of guilt about being gone when she was so sick and that Jason had to be the one to deal with it. Then, the more I thought about it, the more I was glad that I wasn't the one cleaning up vomit and was instead having a great time on free falling rides. I know, I am a jerk. Anywho, it turned out to just be a little 24 hour bug and she quickly recovered. For anyone who has seen Kate, she is so not a mellow kid, so to see her just lay there was so sad. We are glad she is back to her normal crazy self.

The last few months, I have had small aches in one of my upper molars. All this week I have been watching my friends daughter, Kaedance, at her house. The first 2 days were fine and then on Tuesday night and all day Wednesday, my tooth started to really hurt. My dentist was able to see me late Wednesday. She said what I already knew and was very familiar with: I need a root canal and a crown. Merry Christmas. Thats gonna be cheap. Not. She doesn't do root canals, but she is having a specialist do them in her office on the 17th. I scheduled for then. In the mean time, she prescribed me an antibiotic and ibruprofen 800. I took them and started to feel a tiny bit better. I went to the movies with Liza and Nat that night (my thoughts on that film later). When I got home, my tooth was bugging me again, but I was able to fall asleep. About an hour later, I woke up to it just throbbing. Literally the worst pain I had ever felt. I took more medication, but to no avail. I was laying in my bed just sobbing. My amazing husband tried to console me, but there was nothing anyone could do. I had a C-section with my baby, but the contractions I did have were nothing compared to that tooth pain. I was seriously considering taking a hammer to my face and dealing with it that way. I was wishing for death. Somehow, I finally fell asleep. I got like a total of maybe 2 hours sleep that night. In the morning I called my friend and she told me someone else would be able to watch her daughter that day and to try and get my tooth taken care of. I called my dentists office and told them there was no way I could wait any longer. They called an endodontist that I have seen in the past and they were gracious enough to fit me in that afternoon. To make a long story even longer, I was there for 3 hours and could barely keep my mouth open any longer. That doctor gave me some Darvocet and now I am a happy camper. Moral of the story: Don't ignore tooth pain. It will cost you. Literally.

Anyway, this week was good. Just painful. As for the movie, it was called "Bella". So good!! I highly recommend it. It was an indie film, so it has a different feel to it, but go see it. Worth your money and it was surprisingly clean.

After my rant last week about Dancing With The Stars, justice was served this week and Jane Seymour went home. Rightfully so. I am still sickened that Sabrina is gone, but hopefully America won't be so retarded in the future. Then again, we did elect Bill Clinton... thats a whole different blog. Until next time.

OH! And before I forget... here's some pictures of my baby at Halloween.

WHAT THE DEUCE?!!

2007-10-31T06:25:00.000-07:00

There is a rage and fire in me today that I will write about in a minute. First, though, my usual daughter stuff...

This week has been a little difficult because she has not been feeling well. Part of it is the teething, and part of it is that she is still fighting some kind of cold virus. In any case, her nose won't stop running, she won't stop coughing, and she certainly won't stop whining. I am aware that she is only 15 months old, but she follows me around and just pulls at my legs until I almost go crazy. She has managed to redeem herself with a couple of funny moments. Yesterday I was in the kitchen and she was in the hall. I could hear her kind of grunting and pushing, so I went over there to make sure she was okay. She looked up when she saw me and said, " I poo". I picked her up and she sure had. She is funny. She was also hilarious to watch at our ward Halloween party. Everybody loved our costumes. They mostly loved Pebbles. She looked so cute. We are going to Jason's mom's party tonight and will take more pictures.

Okay, on to my rant. I will give a disclaimer now and say that it has nothing to do with anything important and that my husband made fun of me for being so upset about this. Anyone who reads this blog knows that I am nigh unto obsessed with "Dancing With The Stars". Such a great program. My only beef with that show, and has been since the beginning, is that the nation holds the power to vote. Most of the time its okay, but sometimes people are voted off that have the most talent and do not deserve to go. Example: 2 seasons back, Jerry Springer was on the show. Now I love him just as much as the next guy, but it was painful to watch. He sucked. Just awful. Now, he was funny and a tiny bit entertaining. Vivica A. Fox was also on that year. She was good. Elegant, fun, graceful. The total package. She was sent home before him that year and it made me sooo mad. Last night my anger was rekindled. I am not a fan of the Cheetah Girls, but Sabrina Bryan is one of the stars this year and she is fabulous. Amazing. Monday night she and her partner danced the fox trot. It wasn't their usual amazing routine, but still high scoring and really good. So, at last nights results show, I was shocked to see that she was in the bottom two with none other than Cameron Mathison, who is also amazing. She was voted off and Dr. Quinn, and Marie Osmond are safe. I'm sorry, but they are old and not even remotely as entertaining. I was almost throwing things. I understand that more older women view the show and are more likely to like a little more country than a cheetah girl, but come on. I think that the judges ought to say who goes home and the retarded fans should not have a say. Having said all that, I don't ever vote, so I guess I shouldn't be allowed to be mad. That is all about all that. I know I sound like an idiot, but perhaps I am.

Until next time.

Sorry, no cutsie title.

2007-10-24T14:57:00.001-07:00

Not much has happened this week, as in most weeks. I am trying to be faithful and write these blogs weekly following the good example of Eliza. Thanks for your encouragement, by the way. Well, let's see, Katelyn is cutting her molars on the bottom. She is actually a very good sport about it. When these ones come all way in, she will have 10 teeth!! My baby is not a baby anymore. So sad. She cracks us up and keeps us constantly entertained. She learns a new word almost everyday, with her favorite one this week being "bath". She says it all the time and runs to the bahtroom. She also calls my cell phone "daddy". She is so smart to notice that I always talk to him on it. I love her. She makes my days happy.

So, again following Eliza's example (and Chelsa's), I returned to Boe Boxing to start the kickboxing class again. Let me just say, when I was going before I was married I was at my thinnest and healthiest and I could never finish a class. So, obviously, I was scared to return. It was the hardest thing I have done in a long time, but I was able to pretty much finish. He works us so hard that I almost wish I could throw up and then die, but I am glad that I went once its over. I have gone twice this week and hope to continue going often. Last night the instructor came and had me do the combinations on her mitts and I told her that I wished I was dead, then she made me go longer, so I said under my breath that I wished she was dead. I hope she didn't hear me.

We found out that Jason's loans for this year will be coming in soon!!! We are happy. Merry Christmas to us. Just kidding. Only not really.

I think that is all. For anyone who cares, my brother in law Kindle turned 30 yesterday and my Grandma Garber turns 90 on friday. I thought he was old and then I typed her age. Dang Gina.

We are looking forward to Halloween. This year we will be dressing as the Flinstone Family. Katelyn will make the cutest Pebbles ever and Jay and I will look as hot as Fred and Wilma could be expected to look. I know I keep lying and saying I will put up pictures, but I really will. Especially for halloween.

I guesst thats all. My life is pretty boring, but if you are reading this, yours must be too. Just kidding. Kind of. I love you all and hope all is well with all of you.

Cute Stuff My Baby Did This Week.

2007-10-16T12:59:00.000-07:00

So, I guess that I underestimated how quickly kids pick up on what we do just by watching. Before I tell this story I must give a little info for those of you who don't know our situation. We live in my mom and dad's house that they still own with my brother and his wife and their baby. Before they moved, my dads parents lived here, so we are still getting mail for like 4 different families. When I get mail for my parents or grandparents, I sort it and put in slots above our filing cabinet- out of the reach of children. Or so I thought. Yesterday I took my eye off Kate for 4 seconds and she had reached up and took 2 pieces of my Grandmothers mail and put them in the shredder. The SHREDDER!!! I freaked out and screamed because I thought she was going to get her fingers cut off. That, of course, got her upset and she started wailing. I hit the reverse button and was able to salvage just a little corner of some document. Upon further investigation it appeared to have been a check of some sort for a significant amount of money. I have no idea who issued it or if it is replaceable. After a couple of minutes all I could do was laugh that my 1 year old daughter knows how the shredder works. I have since moved the mail to a VERY high location.

So, something else she does is (sorry Eliza, I know you hate potty humor) whenever she or anyone else passes gas she says, "Oh Wow!". It is hysterical and I try not to laugh so she doesn't make a big production of it, but its so cute and now she goes out of her way to do it. Maybe you have to be there, but I think it is hilarious.

Now, finally, I believe I have saved the best for last. I found out (quite humorously and quite by accident) that if you play the song by Beyonce called "Crazy in Love", my daughter will do the booty dance the exact same way Beyonce does it. She will bend over and just start shaking it. Its awesome. Beyonce is not my favorite or even close to it, but now I try to play it frequently so as to enjoy my baby's show. She is rad. I love her.

Thats about it for now. I hope everyone is doing well. Thank you, drive thru.

Testing, Testing...

2007-10-10T20:18:00.000-07:00

1...2...3?

First blog.

Not too much goes on in my life so I will mostly talk about Katelyn. She is now 14 months and can be quite the challenge. She has pretty mcuh mastered walking and is working on running. Mostly, she only runs when she gets a hold of something naughty. She can say lots of things and her favorite word is "dog". We don't have one, but she says it constantly. Over and over again. If she sees them on T.V., she goes crazy and will maim anyone who gets in her way. She has 4 teeth and is growing the sixth right now. It can be torture sometmes . Last week she had a virus that caused her to break out into roseola. Bad. The doctor told me she was no longer contagious, though, so we took her out to watch Playhouse Disney Live (shut up Eliza, the tickets were free) which she loved. All of her cousins were there. Then on Monday I went to babysit Erin's kids and her son Andrew was COVERED in the same rash. I felt some serious guilt. That was pretty much our week. We loved General Conference and I made myself take notes, which I haven't done since my mission. I got soo much more out of it. I loved Elder Oaks' talk and Sister Becks' as well. Sure made me want to be a better person. On a side note: Jason got his Graduation packet last week so he will get his associates degree in May. You all may laugh and turn up your noses at a two year degree, but it's lots of progress and we are excited. In a couple of months he will begin the application process to UNR, SUU, UNLV, etc. We are hoping for some sort of scholarship. I am also hoping for 100 grand to show up on my doorstep one of these times. Oh, I forgot to write at the beginning that we are sorry to report about the death of Jason's grandpa Jerald Wasworth. He went into the hospital 2 weeks ago with encephalitis and never recovered. His funeral is this Saturday. This is Jay's first death in the family. He is handling it well. I will end here and hopefully the next one will be either interesting or funny or perhaps even both. Jason will add pictures soon cuz I am computer illiterate. I hope some Parrys besides Eliza read this and give me some feedback. Becky, you can correct my spelling and/or grammar. I love you all and will write again soon.