This past week

A lot has happened this past week. Garrett has all ten applications in for law school. We hope he gets into one. We aren't too picky...just one of them will do at this point! We plan on renting our house at and seeing how things go w/ the housing market. The rent will cover our mortgage so we will be set there.

My sister Mariah and I are helping each other follow the "rules" on being healthy, losing weight, etc. Right now, we are starting small and keeping each other accountable for not eating snacks, junk food, etc on Tuesdays and Thursday. The incentive is b/c if we do, we have to take a pic in our bathing suit and send it to three family members and two friends. I may even get adventurous and put them here (yeah right!). At least I do know we look better than people that are on some TV shows.

We went "hunting" on Saturday. I put that in quotes b/c in reality, I knew we wouldn't even see anything as it was about 20 degrees and really really windy. Our adventure didn't last very long, but it was nice to spend time together as a family.

Maddie had preschool today after a four day weekend! I always miss preschool when there is a long break...Christmas break was hard b/c I had become used to those breaks and didn't get to have them!

Well tonight I am going to do some phone calls at the Obama office and then head to the gym. The saddle bags need to get sinched back up :-)

Well I have done a few mini blogs, but thought I would catch you all up on everything. First, Garrett has 7 of 10 law schools applications. At this point, we are not getting our hopes up b/c we don't want to be devastated AGAIN (we still will be thought). After we got home from Andrew's baby blessing, I walked in the laundry room and smelled something. At first I thought Belle had pooped in there, but I cleaned the floors, wiped up some standing water from our crazy washer and still the smell remained. I even went and bought a room smeller thing from Bath and Body Works, but still the smell remained. One day, being the good wife and mother I am, went to grab the spray n wash and alas! I found the source of the smell. A rotting duck.

Yes you read that right. The place where we boarded Belle while in CA for Christmas also is the place she was born and they had started bird training with her. When she was picked up, the guy gave Garrett two ducks to use to continue "working" w/ Belle. Long story short, this frozen bird (which was next to my ice cream by the way) luckily was in one of those "fancy" GLAD freezer bags so I can only imagine as it defrosted (Garrett said the garage was too cold) what the outcome would have been if it had been a regular bag. So to continue the story, Garrett had forgotten he had put it up there. Lovely, huh?

I really wanted to watch the results of the Iowa caucus and got distracted after giving the girls chocolate pudding. After ignoring the sounds of a spoon smacking on the table, I decided to go and investigate. Reagan had smeared the pudding all over the table. It took awhile, but I got them both cleaned up and in bed. When I finally went to bed, I discovered chocolate pudding in my bathroom (at least they were trying to clean up, right?) and on my bedroom wall (see to the left).



Today, I put the Nutcracker Ballet music on for Reagan in the kitchen. She began dancing and of course got Maddie's dance shoes out of the closet. But the real story is the fact that I decided I should take pictures for my blog, future Heritage Makers projects, etc. I started clicking away and didn't realize until some of the pictures came up that she had taken her diaper off (for the umpteenth time). There was one that was reeeeaalllly bad. This one is a much better one. I sent the "exposed Reagan" shot to my sister b/c it was hilarious, and unfortunately forgot to changed the image quality and size so Mariah ended up w/ this HUGE shot of Reagan w/o a diaper on (You get the picture, right?)

Well now Reagan is tired and should go down to bed early tonight while Madison is in her room until Garrett gets home for writing all over her rocking chair (right in front of me like it wasn't a big deal to boot!).

Elections and Politics

So Garrett thinks I am hilarious for my interest in politics. I just told him that you can't complain about things unless you try to help put your candidate of choice into office. A friend's husband thinks I am crazy for having a sign on the front lawn, but I figured it was a start. Of course I have convinced his wife who the best candidate is, so go figure. My candidate of choice is going to be speaking ONLY 4 HOURS AWAY on Friday afternoon, but I have no idea how I am going to go b/c the inlaws are heading out of town that morning and wouldn't be able to watch the girls. I just got an email about the speech right after I was complaining how nothing exciting like presidential candidates coming to Idaho occurs. I may have to move to Iowa or New Hampshire. So alas, I have a caucus meeting tonight and may figure out a way to make it work...keep reading for updates ;-)

Andrew's Blessing

We went down to UT for my sister's son's blessing. It was a short trip, but fun to see family. Andrew is absolutely adorable and "talks" alot. Madison just loved playing w/ him! On the day before the blessing, the kids played w/ grandma and they discovered that Andrew looked great (!) in this half-ball thing. The blessing was the following day and it was really nice. Of course Reagan started saying "dad" when G went up to stand in the circle. She doesn't have much of an "indoor" voice so her and I quickly exited the chapel.

Here is a pic of Grandma shill w/ Andrew and Madison.

Madison and Andrew (at least one is looking at the camera, right?)

Once there was a snowman in Orem

There was a ton of snow when we arrived in Orem. Being the intelligent

mom I am, I didn't bring any snow clothes for them, but luckily I had

two pairs of my own gloves and had remembered coats. We used plastic garbage bags to cover Maddie's shoes. William did an awesome job of making the snowman, but alas we didn't have coal for his eyes or a carrot for his nose, but we did have an empty glass bottle so at least the snowman had something to drink!