Happy Birthday Rob!

This morning our family woke up bright and early to go to a baptism with Rob's family. We had our breakfast, got all dolled up, loaded up the kids, drove for twenty minutes and met up with everyone. Upon arrival, Rob's niece, Rylee, screams out, "Happy Birthday Rob!!" (They share the same birthday) It was upon that greeting that I felt like absolute mud. ME, the birthday reminder - ME, the person with the infallible memory had totally spaced my husband's birthday. I felt a little bit better when Rob seemed confused, and then replied with, "Oh yeah!" But mostly I just felt awful. We went out last night to dinner and a movie, and I have made him three separate cakes to celebrate - but I still wanted to be the first to say "Happy Birthday." So, my dear Rob...HAPPY BIRTHDAY - you are everything to me.
Here are some little known facts about my favorite person:

Rob has night terrors. He is literally that guy on TV flopping around, sweating, kicking, and shaking. Then he wakes up and says things like, "I hate dinosaurs. And these dinosaurs were like alien-bug dinosaurs that can change into people."

Rob has decided that the business world is not for him. If given the opportunity to do anything at all - he'd be a forest ranger. {This is obviously after we are ridiculously rich from life in the business world}

He told me when we were dating that he wanted to name one of his sons Jude. I laughed at him and told him it was a horrid name - and that none of my children would ever be screwed over like that.

He's DESPERATE for a motorcycle.

He loves me anyway.

Rob, you're the best thing that's ever happened to me - thanks for putting up with me, and being an amazing father. Our kids and I love you more than you'll ever know.
Happy Birthday!!

The Celebration

Happy Birthday Jude, Rob and Derek!

She Writes!

Good Guesses

But it's obviously the family in the tub with an octopus.

Madelyn asks to play with play-doh on a daily basis. I can only handle it two-three times per week for two reasons: the awful mess that is left behind, and the fact that we always end up making the same thing. Any guesses?

2010 or Bust

So far 2009 has not been my favorite year. On Christmas Eve I did something really dumb and threw out my lower back. It really really really hurt. I spent the next two weeks living on Tylenol and trying to maintain my normal routine. Then one morning (feeling fairly recovered) I got out of the shower to find Rob on his elbows and knees in our hallway playing a video game on his phone. He casually said, "I hurt my lower back and I can't move." I helped him up, and got him in bed...where he stayed for the next three days. Once the back injury began to heal, he started noticing his cough more (this started the day of the injury). Meanwhile stupid me RE-injured my back trying to pull up Maddie's tights. I spent two days hobbling around the house. The day I started feeling normal Rob came home early with a terrible cough, a headache and a fever of 101. By the next morning his fever was 103, and by the next night, I had a fever of 103 as well.

High fever day was yesterday, and today Rob and I are both back in the 99-101 range. We're feeling a bit perkier, but not 100%. The part that stinks THE MOST is that I've been desperate to go on a date with Rob, and my sweet sister-in-law Callie had offered to watch our kids this evening. Date cancelled.

I have decided to make a list of things that I'm looking forward to in 2009 just to lift my spirits.


1. Going to Chicago for my little brother's wedding

2. Lexi's baptism

3. New niece or nephew from Derek and Jessica

4. Scarlet

5. New niece from Brett and Stacey

6. Blessing Ella

7. Getting new couches (please, Rob?)

8. Jude getting out of diapers

9. Family trip to MEXICO!!

10. New niece or nephew from Marci and Aaron (wait, what?)

2009, here we come.

Yesterday while working on sewing project #2, I asked Madelyn what she wanted to do while I was busy. She said that she wanted to watch the Teletubbies on the computer. I went to youtube to give her a quick video, and since they were all 2-3 minutes long, I threw a bunch on a play list for her and went on about my business. I was cutting material when I realized that there was rap playing somewhere in my house. This is what I found:

(You can pause the music at the bottom of the page)

Apparently not all Teletubbies videos on youtube are what I thought they'd be.

Happy Birthday Derek!

Today completes my year of family-birthday-blogging. I started last February with my brother Dan, and will finish today with my oldest brother Derek. From here on out - every one is on their own with birthday reminders. And in response to yesterday's text, GREG...no, yesterday was NOT Derek's birthday, but today is - so please call him.

Ahhhh, Derek. I have to say that when it comes to sibling friendships, Derek was the first family member to really befriend me. I hit my punk-rocker phase when I was about thirteen, and Derek loved it. Unlike most older siblings, Derek always let me know where all the cool local bands were playing, and even let me tag along with his friends. I remember him driving me and two friends (Olivia and Lindsay) to a battle of the bands when Lindsay started whispering in Olivia's ear. Derek asks, "What are the two of you whispering about back there?" And Oliva says, "Oh, Lindsay just mentioned that you were really hot. Now she's melting in the back seat." Lindsay was mortified, and I think Derek could tell. His response? "That's fine, just clean up the seat when you're done."

My mom has a million "when Derek was a kid" stories, so I have a plethora to chose from. But being a mom has helped me to appreciate this story the most: My mom, dad and Derek were at dinner with one of my mom's friends, Cindy. Derek was looking at Cindy very closely when he asked, "Cindy - are you a boy or a girl?" Cindy laughed a little and said, "Derek, I'm a girl, why?" He looked at her again and said, "Well, that's what I thought, because you wear a girl's watch, but you have a moustache, so I wasn't sure."

Growing up my mom used to call him Derekuda - and obviously would sing, "Ooooooh, Derekuda" as his theme song. On the topic of nicknames, Derek has called me "kiddo" my entire life - a nickname that I still love.

One of my favorite, FAVORITE stories about Derek is from a day he had some major road rage. He was driving, and a car cut him off or something dumb - and Derek got really mad. He went to give the guy the finger - and overshot by just a bit. His hand flew into his windshield, and because it was so cold outside, the windshield immediately cracked. When he got to his destination - his wife, Jessica, asked him what happened. Not wanting to lie - but not ready to admit his error, he told her that a bird hit his windshield.

Derek is a really great dad, has mad design skills, and can always make you laugh. Happy Birthday, Derek! I love you!

A Big Day

My darling baby boy turned two today. I guess he's no longer my little guy...seeing as how he outweighs, and is almost as tall as Maddie. Boy is she going to get her comeuppance. Happy birthday my handsome, sweet, hilarious boy. I love you more than life itself! We haven't had his birthday celebration yet, but I'll make sure to post some pictures when we do.

Another big event (and you may want to sit down for this..) I completed my first sewing project. My sister-in-law, Jodi, found a bib pattern online and printed it up for me. So I sat down this afternoon and made a bib. I haven't put the closures on yet - but here it is, my very first sewing project:

Our Little Strawberry

I'm not sure that I've mentioned that this little lady is a redhead!

Um, Yeah

I have a lot of black spots on my bottom molars. I have had them for years. A year ago I went to the dentist with a black spot that was causing me some sensitivity. He looked at it, looked at my x-rays, shoved that stupid-dentist-poker-thing in and around it, and told me that it was not a cavity, it was a "phantom tooth." He even told me about an assistant in his office that had a similar "phantom tooth" that caused her pain every once in a while. Well, that phantom tooth was still bothering me when I saw a new dentist on Friday for my cleaning, so I mentioned it to the dental assistant. I actually hoped that it was a cavity so I could just get it filled and viola, "phantom tooth" fixed.
Now, I must mention that it HAS been a year since my last cleaning. Perhaps it's due the fact that Rob was gone all year from 7am-9pm, and I had no sitter. Or maybe it's because I was pregnant that I excused my way out of my six month cleaning. These are both very valid reasons, but the truth is I just plain hate the dentist's office(but I obviously used reasons one and two when talking to the assistant). So she proceeded to clean my teeth and then told me that I had done a very good job of keeping my teeth cleaned, and that there was hardly any build up on them. I was praising myself for a job well done when the dentist came in to do the final exam. I opened my mouth and he noticed the dark spots on my molars. Instead of poking them with that stupid stick, he waved a magic wand over all of them that apparently measures the tooth to see if it's decaying. Yes, phantom tooth has a cavity. Hooray. But he doesn't stop there...SEVEN cavities later, I'm unbelievably red in the face. I guess they are all very small cavities, and the dentist said that I've had them since I was 12 or 13, but because of bad technology they've gone undetected. So now I have to go back to my FAVORITE place a few more times to get those little holes fixed up. Seven. HOW EMBARRASSING. Perhaps this explains why I keep having dreams that my teeth are breaking and falling out.

Our little man went pee-pee in the potty on Saturday! Unfortunately, he has since decided that this whole concept is not for him, and has therefore retired. At least we had a good run.

2009

This year I will...
1. Learn to sew.
2. Learn to like sewing.
3. Write in my children's journals more often.
4. Forgive, forgive, forgive.
5. Do my best to be on time to 9am church.
6. Not get mad at my hair, my husband, my children, my clothes or my mirror when I'm not on time for 9am church.
7. Appreciate, appreciate, appreciate.
8. Try to be good to the planet.
9. Order less carry-out, and cook more for my family.
10. Compliment the good and ignore the bad.
11. Find more joy in the daily grind.
12. Play my guitar more often.
13. Invite guests into my home and try to reverse recent anti-social behaviors.
14. Leave more phone messages - after all, I hate when you don't leave me one.
15. Watch my language.
16. Love, love, love.