Wednesday, September 30, 2009

quick

We made a very quick trip to St. George, like less than 24 hours quick. But, we enjoyed every second! We got to see family, Great Grandma and Grandpa Higgins brought Aniston a birthday cake to celebrate her Birthday. We got to go to an amazing reception(should have snapped some pic-it was beautiful) and Chris was able to DJ it. I absolutely love the bride and all of her family. I worked with a lot of them when we lived in St. George, and they are very special people. I was able to see a lot of people I worked with, and that made my night! I miss them all, and wish I could work with the doctors- they are amazing and very kind people. I asked Chris a few times if we could just move back to St. George; we hope we can. Now I've got to talk my family into coming with! And I can't forget to mention how much fun Aniston and Ali had together. They played so cute together and just loved being around each other too. I wish I had some pictures of the two of them, but time flew to fast.

Here we are, a little sleep deprived, but still enjoying the great music, amazing and wonderful friends, the gorgeous bride and her groom, and some great treats too!
I do believe these two are my second family. Jana(on the left) taught me all I know, put up with me all day at the office and loves me anyways, is a very dear friends, and was like a mom to me while we lived in St. George! Aubrey is like the little sister I never had and also a very great friend. She is so stinkin' HOT in her AMAZING wedding dress, and she is truly the sweetest girl! I love them both to pieces!!

Friday, September 25, 2009

Report...

Just wanted to say that I LOVE my little princess! She has been amazing. I'm sold on the happy face board...it's marvelous and works! I know that whole post about Dr. Jones was long and unnecessary, but hey sometimes I ramble. Life is good.
Her first choice out of the box was these balloon things.
I found these candy lipsticks at work and decided they were a must because the girl is always asking for "lips"(lip gloss).

My "great, wonderful, great"(inside joke people) friend Lindsey now has a one year old! Wow, what the heck?! Wasn't it just last month that we moved to St. George and started college life? My heavens!
Colton and Aniston chillin'. She calls him her "buddy".
Aniston got to hit a pinata for the first time at Colton's party. I think she was a little confused, but she liked what came out of the pinata when it broke!
Us and our cute babies
Colton gave the BEST party favors...monkey EVERYTHING!! Aniston couldn't get over how cool the monkey "sticker" was because she couldn't just take it off. WOW!!

There is no doubt Aniston loves her Daddy(or Chris as she sometimes calls him). He went to Vegas this week for a bike show and we missed him. She was talking to him one night on the phone and said "my sweetheart" and about made him cry!! Isn't that to stinkin' cute?! She calls him her sweetheart a lot, and she just can't get enough Daddy time! We LOVE Saturdays, because that's our fun day with Daddy, and this past weekend we went to a block party for our apartments. Aniston got to stand in an ambulance, launch a rocket her Daddy helped her make, and eat popcorn.
Aniston and her sweetheart.
Checkin' out the ambulance.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Fishin' & Swimmin"

I got this pool for Aniston, only $8 (originally $35) and thought it was going to be huge just like the picture. Well, it was worth $8 and Aniston loved the Giraffe...can't complain.
The box
Actual size...very deceiving don't ya think?!
She likes it, so that's all that matters.


I used my fishing license for the first time this year and had a great time using it. Aniston couldn't get enough of the sand, water, worms, and T. We're in trouble with this one and the boys.
Fishing with her own pole...what a big girl!
Checking out the worms. She asked Chylie about every 2 minutes if she could see them, but wasn't about to touch them.
I have the very best friends!! Aniston loves them too, and she's got her eye on T. What is it with her and boys?

Bring on the rain!

I am only speaking for myself when I say...bring on the rain!! I love it and LOVE to be inside and listen to all the noises. I love to hear Aniston repeat "hunder" and get all excited when it booms. Chris probably likes it because it means we're getting closer to snow, which means "fresh pow bra!"(is that the right way to say it???).

We had to try out the rain gear from Papa and Grammy. Aniston approved, and wouldn't take it off.


Good old State Fair, it never lets ya down even when it's pouring rain. Megan, Aniston, and I braved the weather to make sure we got in some of the finest: corn on the cob, deep fried snickers and pb&js, and of course a ride on a pony. I love feeling like a kid again (with a friend who doesn't mind acting like one with me), and watching the princess have the time of her life!
Looking like a natural. She LOVED that horse!
After our yummy fair food. Aniston even has some on her face that she's saving for later.
Loving the bunnies!!
Checkin out the goats while we tried to stay dry, yeah right! The water was puddling on the stroller and soaking Aniston. I tried to keep her covered, but she wouldn't let me keep her from seeing all the fun.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Dr. Jones

Chris and I have been beside ourselves a bit the last little while, and last Sunday during our joint meeting we had A LOT of inspiration thanks to Dr. Jones. This man amazed me, he's so stinkin' smart! He taught us that we need to use basic principles as we raise our children. Who would have thought it was that easy...well, it's not! Being human we forget and we make mistakes, unintentionally of coarse. So, as he used these basic principles, he was sparking ideas right and left, and my pen could hardly keep up as I tried to write all these things down. He started off with the importance of not criticizing, which falls under the principle of not judging others. It's not our place to tell someone what we think of them, the ultimate judge is our Heavenly Father, so lets leave it up to him. The second was to kick contention and anger out, DON"T argue at all; it doesn't matter if you're right, you're DOING wrong. So, never argue with your spouse, I think that means to agree to disagree, and don't argue with your children either. He had a really great idea for those times that they'll come to you and want to do something you know you're not going to let them do:
Ask them why, take that list of things and tell them you are going to consider and speak to Dad/Mom about it, and then when you go to tell them why they can't go, use the following 2 words which Dr. Jones says are magic and will end any argument: NEVERTHELESS and REGARDLESS. Your reason for not letting them go is because you love them. Never say that it's because you are the Mom or use any form of criticism either. The child will be so worn out between trying to come up with reasons and possibly sounding like a broken record when you tell them why not, that they'll drop it. By doing this, your children will learn that they can't argue to get what they want. This was kind of confusing to me, but Dr. Jones said you will see a difference and not have to deal with arguing if you use this method. I figure that I'll use it on Aniston and see if it works. This statement he made really stuck out to me as he was finishing with this topic:
It's not your job to stop your kids from wandering, it's to teach them the gospel, live the gospel yourself, and to love them...unconditionally.
So the last thing he talked about was gold to me. I couldn't wait to go home and do it! It involved making something, which I love to make things, and buying stuff for Aniston, which I love to do even more! You get a box and have your kids decorate it any way they want, then you take them to the store and you pick out a whole bunch of things that they like, but don't get very often or treats you don't have regularly and you have them put all the stuff in this box they've decorated. Then you make them a "happy chart" and decorate "happy faces" and do one "sad face". Then as they go throughout the day, you reward them with happy faces for doing things they're asked to do and for being happy. If they are not happy, then you put the sad face on their board and the game is on hold until they are happy and being good again. Once they get so many happy faces on their board, they get to choose something out of the box. This is not to teach them that they get something when they are good, because you don't always give them happy faces for everything, just randomly. It will teach them gratification in doing good. So, after making this board with Aniston's help(it took a few days because we could only do it for so long and then she would get board and distracted) we've used it for 2 days and she's getting the hang of it and she really likes the happy faces! Now, where to hang it up????