Takin' a snooze...

I added another freelance job to my resume a couple of months ago and in December it finally caught up with me! In addition to the Salt Lake Tribune (www.sltrib.com), the Sandy Journal (www.sandyjournal.com) I am now writing for the South Salt Lake Journal (www.southsaltlakejournal.com). It's been such a blessing to be able to use my talent and work from home so that I can be a mom first. I am lucky! If you're bored one day, caught up on all your blogs and read all the new Facebook posts, go to the Tribune's and the Valley Journals web sites, search for my name and you can catch up on all the stories I've submitted.

Any way, so the last two weeks especially have been extremely hectic, between the three jobs I had 20 stories to write in eight days - a crazy week for me! Bridget was on her own a bit more than usual this week and I am happy to report that besides a few issues, she was an angel!

On Wendseday I was just finishing up my stories and had sent the last revision - yes! It was finally time to have some Christmas fun! Bridget had been in my room watching 'toons and it had been quite for a few minutes. When I went in, this is what I saw:


So cute huh? She had been playing and having so much fun that she just conked out on my bed, her card game in hand. She is such a cutie and I love that she's clutching the Christmas tree card for dear life!

Being thankful

I feel like today of all days I should be blogging about what I am thankful for because my wonderful husband and beautiful daughter are driving me CRAZY!!!!!! James has developed the pig flu and although he's been a good patient, he just lays downstairs coughing and moaning. If I was 100% it probably wouldn't bother me, but it's driving me crazy!

And Bridget has just been winy all day. Everything that comes out of her mouth is in the form of a wine. It was an early bedtime night to save me from going insane.

That being said, I do have a lot to be thankful for. Here is my list, in no certain preference or order:

1. My husband - he is wonderful and he was so sweet to take care of me when I was so ill last week. I have tried to be as patient and caring as he was and I hope I am succeeding.

2. My daughter - she is the light of my life and I think she probably doesn't feel well today so I will try to be more patient with her tomorrow and be smarter and give her some Tylenol earlier in the day. We sat at the table today and made hand print turkeys to give to the grand parents and she had a great time making them.

3. My home - my parents helped us get into this house and we feel like we are finally home. It is perfect, despite all the upgrades that need to be done. We have been looking for a place to lay down roots and I am so pleased we have finally found it. We love the Little Cottonwood 8th ward and have made such great friends here.

4. My friends - I have so many that I can't possibly list them all here. Most of you I have known longer than my spouse and I can't tell you how much I appreciate and LOVE you all. You occupy such a special place in my heart that I wonder if you will ever truly know how much I love you all. Thank you, thank you, thank you for your kind words, support, racy jokes, shopping trips, movies, ect.....

5. My family - I have been so truly blessed to have such a wonderful extended family. My in-laws are wonderful and I am especially grateful for Alyse, Cindy and Jenny. My own family is of course the best a girl could have. I am lucky to have a sister and best friend and I miss her so much that when I think about her being so far away at this time of year, I just start crying. She is the most talented person I know and I love her and her sweet family so much. My brother is wonderful and I have missed seeing Tara and the three babies this fall. I call them my babies, but Jack is 6 1/2 and Bailey is 5 - hardly babies anymore. And little Abby, I wasn't so sure about her for the first little while, she was a little annoying with all the damn crying. But she is such a sweet heart and Bridget loves her so much. My wonderful parents - they over look so many of my flaws and promises that never quite get full filled and yet they love and support me. I am the woman I am today because of them and I love them so much.

6. My cousins, aunts and uncles - how is it possible to have so many people in my life that I love? I am so lucky. I have the best cousins in the world (sorry everyone else). My Ballou girls are wonderful and I am looking forward to going to the movie with them on Saturday. There is no bullshit with the Ballou girls and I love that about them. I love their kids and their spouses and I am so lucky. My Jensen cousins are so great. Erin and Sheri are my sisters and I am so excited for their new babies. Catching up with Jeremy and Jenny in September was wonderful as it had been a few years since I've seen them. I can't wait for the reunion next summer, it will be a blast! I have the greatest aunts and uncles on both sides and they make me want to be to my nieces and nephews what they have always been to me - amazing, loving, supporting and my strength.

7. My talent - writing is by far the thing I do best and I am amazed every day that I can help support our family by doing the thing I've wanted to do since I was in elementary school and still stay home and be a mom. I am grateful to Jim Patrick at the Salt Lake Tribune, Linda Peterson at the Sandy Journal and Josh McFadden at the South Salt Lake Journal for giving me the opportunity to fulfill my life's calling.

I know that I have much more to be thankful for and if I've left you off, it's just because my mind is like Jell-O right now and it's time for bed. If you read this post, please tell me something you're grateful for - I'd love to hear about it.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, I love you all!

Season of the witch

FiFive little pumpkins sitting on a gate,
The first one said,
"Oh my, it's getting late."
The second one said,
"But we don't care."
The third one said,
"I see witches in the air."
The fourth one said,
"Let's run, and run, and run."
The fifth one said,
"Get ready for some fun."
Then whoosh went the wind,
and out went the lights,
And five little pumpkins rolled out of sight!

We decided to have Bridget be a witch this year for Halloween after my original idea fell through. I found this adorable costume at K-Mart on sale and it looked so cute on her! She has really gotten into the spirit of Halloween and gets so excited when she sees pumpkins. She also tells me how everything is so spooky (it comes out sounding like "mookey", it's so cute!)

James and I are pretty excited to take her trick-or-treating this year and we've been practicing with with her about what to say when she knocks on the door. We can't wait for Saturday night, I just hope the weather isn't too cold!

Happy Halloween!

What are the colors of fall?

October gave a party;
The leaves by hundreds came -
The Chestnuts, Oaks, and Maples,
And leaves of every name.
The Sunshine spread a carpet,
And everything was grand,
Miss Weather led the dancing,
Professor Wind the band.
George Cooper
October's Party.

We took a trip up Little Cottonwood Canyon this weekend to check out the leaves and to get some branches for a Halloween decorating project I have in the works. The day was perfect and we had a great time spending time together as a family. Bridget had so much fun climbing on the rocks and the Temple Quarry Trail Head and picking up leaves. She is such a cutie and we had a great day!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Yesterday I celebrated my 34th birthday. Sometimes I can't believe that I'm really that old! Not that 34 is old, but the fact that I'm a wife and mother, work as a journalist and am living such an adult life that amazes me! I am lucky to be surrounded by good friends and family who help me feel and act young (you know who you are that make me act younger than I am trouble makers!)

This blog is filled to the gills with cute pictures of Bridget and although she's way cuter than I am, here are a few of me over the years.

Bridget's first haircut

Since the day Bridget was born, she had beautiful hair. As it's gotten longer, it's gotten so curly and formed the most perfect ringlets that I would kill for! After two years of letting it grow, we quickly realized she was developing a wicked mullet, which I simply couldn't have! So I took her with me when I got my hair done and had my wonderful friend Emily give her a trim.

Bridget goes with me a lot to see Emily so she knows her (and loves her!) and she had a great time being the center of attention instead of watching me get beautiful. She is such a good girl and I am proud of her.

Making cookies

My baby has developed a serious love of sweet things and she loves cookies. We've never made cookies when she has helped and so we decided that today was the day to do it. We made some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies with sprinkles. Bridget had so much fun mixing, throwing the dough on the cookie sheets and then peppering them with sprinkles that I couldn't resist capturing it! Some of these are blurry, but its hard to catch her standing still sometimes.

Carefully adding the water

Mixing the dough

Oh, better taste it to make sure its good


Time to bake? Let me help you put it on the cookie sheet mom (as she's throwing clumps of it on there!)


Next we add the sprinkles - Bridget made sure that each cookie was properly covered in rainbow sprinkles. She's very thorough.

The cookies are now ready for the oven!

Before and....

After!

I couldn't resist this picture! I urged Bridget to crawl across the counter to get the cookies, quite artistic I think!

Finally, the pay off, chowing down on the yummy cookies!


Have to wash the yumminess down with milk, right?
The smile of a satisfied girl, which makes the huge mess she made absolutely worth it!

Labor Day 2009

Our usual Labor Day tradition is to spend time in Midway with the Fisher's. The girls go to Swiss Days while the boys babysit, it's a perfect arrangement! We missed Tom and Alyse's this weekend, but we had a great time! The kids had a great time playing together and I had fun with Jen and Cindy at Swiss Days.

Sunday we went to Wasatch State Park and spent hours playing on the playground, feeding the ducks and just goofing around. I took tons of pictures there of the kids and even convinced everyone to take off their shoes and sit in the stream so I could take their pictures! It was so fun! The water was cold, but not too bad once you got in.

Mommy doing the heavy lifting so Bridget can dip her toes in! She hated me holding her and just wanted to get in the water like the big kids!

Our cute family

Jim and Cindy

Jen, Marcos, Mark and Makensie

Jen and her Dad, so cute together!

Bridget


Mark

Makensie

This one is my favorite picture on the train and one of my favorites all day. Makensie is so expressive and loves having her picture taken, so I was glad to catch her day dreaming and not posing.

These pictures were taken on Friday night at the cabin. We were all really tired from a long, hot day at Swiss Days so it was nice to just relax, have a yummy cookout and spend time together.





Swiss Days was crowded but really fun. This was Bridget's second year being there and she had a lot of fun grabbing candy and watching the floats go by. She didn't like Smokey the Bear but everything else she really liked!

I love this picture of Bridget and Mark. They love each other so much and it was so
cute to see Bridget hugging him and Mark just lets her, because he loves her.
Such a cute relationship they have.