Look At This Face!!

This is a picture I took of my cousin Julie's little boy Mitchell. It just melts my heart!! I love, love this picture and the vintage wash over it.

Sometimes It's Just Better To Lie

A common example of my life:

Greg's parents had a large farm again this year with the usual pumpkins, potatos, cabbage, etc. But this year they also grew some tomatos, jalepenos, green peppers, and raspberries...yes, I said raspberries; they were amazingly delicious. So in September we picked a crazy amount of the tomatos, jalepenos, green peppers and raspberries. My friend Amy and I spent days in the kitchen canning raspberry jam, tomato sauce and salsa. I had never canned before and Amy was kind enough to come help me. I can't believe how much work it was! Especially those tomatos!! All the steaming and peeling and cutting. My legs and feet were so sore after days of this.

Although I was ornery about the insane amount of work this all was, it was a great feeling to see the final product of my efforts. I had enough jam to last a lifetime and I had a good amount of salsa (you can never have too much of that) and tomato sauce. I froze a bunch and canned some. The tomato sauce has been great because I can just grab it from the freezer or the pantry and make spagetti, lasagna or chili just like that. The initial canning was a lot of work, but cooking meals with it afterwards is so easy it makes it all worth it!

So I made some lasagna on Wed and I went out to the freezer to get the sauce. There was none left and so I had to use my last canned jar from the pantry (so much for the food storage). I was bewilder why there was none in the freezer. I know I had filled quite a few old sherbert containers that my mom had given me with this sauce. I was confused and Greg said he had no idea, so I just shrugged and made my lasagna.

Well, on Thursday when Greg came home from work he said he needed to tell me something. He said he didn't want to lie to me and thought it best to always tell me the truth even if it made me mad. He said that the night before about 10 minutes after he told me he didn't know why the sauce was all gone he remembered that a couple of weeks ago he was cleaning out the freezer and thought those sherbert tubs were full of old homemade raspberry ice-cream he had made and it was time to throw it out. Did he look to see what it was??? NO!!!! Did he ask me?? NO!!!

I was so upset, I was almost in tears. That stuff was delicious and so much work....now all thrown away. Greg said I wasn't allowed to be mad at him because he had told the truth. Forget the truth!!! I truely believe this and told him, "Sometimes it's just better to lie!!!!!!!!!!!" Ignorance is bliss. And that my friends is a typical happening in my household. Heaven help us!

What I've been up to!

I haven't posted for awhile, so I thought I'd give you a quick glimpse as to why, via pictures.


Crazy Cook #1....She is 2 1/2 years old...need I say more? (p.s. the obsession with princesses is getting a little out of control!)

Crazy Cook #2 I think he is passing up my nephew Alex as the number one Mr. Drooly

Teaching Introduction to Business at UVU. Trying to teach this class effectively take A LOT of work!

5 straight days of jury duty!! It was awful being away from my babies ALL day for 5 days, but I must admit the adult conversation was nice! (p.s. thank you Grammy, Grandma and Amy for helping me out and babysitting for me....they say I'm off the list for the next two years....I think it should be ten years! :) )

We've been thinking about selling our house and building a new one on the lot we have up the street. We found a house plan we like, but have been changing a lot of things. We want to make as few mistakes as possible, and that causes a lot of stress!!! It is really hard to sell houses right now, so it's a long shot we'll even be able to build. But really, we'll be fine with it. We'll just finish the basement here. We are very blessed to already have a nice house.

Last week Greg "accidentally" bought a car from the auction. He wanted a new car because he thinks our Corolla is too small, so he put in a low ball bid to the auction thinking there was no way we'd get the car (he was sick and really busy at work, so he didn't really want to get the car and I was just happy to keep what we had). Well, our auction guy called all excited he got the car and we had to act like we were excited too. So now we have 3 cars and are in desperate need to sell the Corolla. Anyone need a new car??? ;)

Greg's Grandma Scott (his mom's mom) passed away last month. It was a long month seeing her get so sick. It was really really hard on Greg's mom, and the whole family really struggled. She was 93 though and so badly missed her husband, so it was good for her to go. One day we went over to visit and Grandma was so weak she could hardly talk. She had just barely started to again be able to drink and at that it was only tiny sips. In good old Grandma fashion she was sipping on a Coke (her favorite thing in the world!). So I started to talk to Grandma about how sometimes a good Coke or Pepsi can really cheer you up and just make the world seem good again. Tonia (Greg's mom) was in the room and I told her she needed to just try it. She said no and that she thought Coke was nasty. Then just like the grandma we've always known, Grandma Scott said "Tonia, you really need to expand your horizons!" I almost fell off my chair laughing. Sweet Grandma was so sick and weak, and yet she was still cracking us all up. This is a picture of her (Bertha Scott) as a baby.

I have also done some great photo shoots lately.

Viola - She was sealed to her parents last week!!!

Mitchell - My cousin's sweet baby boy in his blessing outfit.

Jill - My great friend and her kids.

Samantha & Alex - My crazy niece and nephew.

Our Little Man's Blessing

Greg blessed Caleb on Sunday, August 2, 2009. It was a great blessing and I was so happy to be with all of my extended family, my husband and my two great children. I am very very blessed (and I will continue to remind myself of that as I wake up twice every night with one child or the other, which causes total exhaustion the next morning and makes for a slightly ornery mommy and very ornery college teacher on T and TH).

Caleb's Blessing Pictures

I had a great time taking these pictures of my sweet boy. Isn't he adorable?
(I am confused as to why when I post pictures on Blogger they are very grainy when they look great on my computer and when printed. Does someone know what I am doing wrong?)

New Nursery & Big Girl Room

We had quite the project going on earlier this year. Since Caleb was on his way we needed to convert the computer room (oh how I miss my office) to his nursery and change Nicole's nursery to a big girl room. Our friend Dale was so wonderful to help Greg will the beadboard, shelf and molding. Kami was wonderful to paint for me. My friend Emily sewed Nicole's bedspread, pillow and curtain. Greg's mom and I quilted the bedspread together and I made the wall hangings in each of the rooms. I think both rooms turned out darling and I'm so happy with them! Nicole LOVES her big girl bed and big girl room. She has insisted that every child on our street come and see it. She is so proud :) Again, thank you everyone that helped. Now...on to the basement!!!!!!!!

Nicole's Big Girl Room

Caleb's Nursery

Caleb's A Stud!

Here are Caleb's newborn pictures I took when he was about 10 days old. I have done much better for friends, but when it's your own I guess the motivation to prove yourself isn't there as much. I hated seeing him cry because he was naked and uncomfortable, so I only took a few shots.

This is why Caleb is a stud.....

Greg taught Nicole to say “Daddy’s a stud!” So if you ask Nicole “what is daddy?” she’ll respond “Daddy’s a tud!” Yes, she has a hard time saying her “s”. She usually leaves it out of the word if the word starts with an s. Speaking of studs…I have to tell this story about Caleb’s name. I have wanted the name for years (about 5 years…compared to Greg wanting the name Nicole for 13 yrs before he got it) and Greg always seemed okay with it. Then towards the end of my pregnancy he told me he didn’t really like the name and thought it was feminine sounding. That was shocking to me because he never said anything bad about it before. I knew Caleb was a Bible name, so one Saturday afternoon we read about Caleb in the Book of Joshua. Of all the Hebrews that were part of the exodus from Egypt, only Joshua and Caleb were allowed to enter the Promised Land after their 40 years of wandering. This is because of their faith and obedience (and their truthful report of the status of Canaan 38 years before their entrance). Once Israel destroyed the inhabitants of Canaan they began to divide up the land according to tribes. Caleb was over 80 years old at this time and requested the land of Hebron. At the time Hebron was populated by a race of giants. Caleb stated that through the power of the Lord he would be able to wipe out the giants and occupy the land. At this Greg exclaimed “Dang…he was 80 and still wanted to take on the giants…Caleb was a STUD!!!” So now after that story Greg really likes the name Caleb. Isn’t that hilarious?? My oh my the little things that can change Greg’s mind. So now Greg hopes his Caleb will be stud like the bible Caleb. He he…Greg can be such a dork!