My family's in the news and i didn't know it????

Follow this link -april and austin in the news.

http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=462&sid=2158910

Bunkbeds

So here is what the girls bedroom looked like before (whitney's bedmaking on display) :
And here is it now with bunkbeds- more spacious wouldn't ya say?

Pictures

Its been a while since i posted pictures so here are some fun ones from the last few weeks.

Lately Brooke has been sticking her tongue out alot-recently she has been exploring the corners of her mouth- as this picture shows..so funny.

Brooke reminds me of Arica in this picture with the duck-she looks similar to Violet.

This is what happenss when you leave your five year old alone with your 2 month old!!! Her first teaparty --here she is sporting a classic tiara and pink tutu .

How we spent our Weekend

I had Stake women's conference yesterday, which was wonderful. It was about trusting in the Lord and giving our lives to him, that he will comfort us and give us strength when it is needed. I took Brooke with me and she was very good-she was awake through most of it and didn't even whimper once. When I got home-the missionaries came over and helped Joe put the girls bunkbed together-there is so much more room there and the girls love it. Later we went to a baptism and that evening I went out shopping to find dresses for Amber-she's all but grown out of the ones she has. I was lucky and found three very cute ones each under $12-Fred Meyer had a sale 60% of clearance prices...awesome. While out shopping I renewed an old acquaintance, a girl from my hometown. She just moved here last fall. I got her number and hopefully will be having her over for a visit very soon-She even lives in my Stake-cool huh? And then today-Joe and I spoke in Sacrament meeting about fellowshipping and friendship. Many people complimented us on our talks so I think we did a good job. I think Joe felt cheated a bit-because i took up a good portion of the time and there was a musical number in between. Amber was very naughty when it was my turn and Joe had to take her out in the hall-so it didn't all go smoothly. I guess the weekend was so busy with things and preparing that it seemed to just go by so quickly-I hope this week slows down a little-at least long enough for me to get in a cat nap.

Fussy and Messy Misses

Brooke has a cold and so with that comes less sleep (naps and at night) tougher feedings as she can't breathe as well through her nose-and that causes air gasping which causes gas-fussiness, so it hasn't been a fun day so far. She wants constant holding and I feel I haven't been able to do much in the way of housechores-at least there is clean laundry-not folded yet i might add. And because my elder two daughters are forever making messes, it makes me want to just throw every item that is misplaced in the garbage-just so i don't have to see it anymore. ANyone else ever feel that way. I am very excited that we are getting bunkbeds for the girls-there will be more room for them to play in "their" room and maybe it will help confine all of their stuff to one area of our apt.

tag game-without the tagging

A. The rules of the game are posted at the beginning.
B. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
C. At the end of the game the player tags 5 people, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read your blog.

Where were you 10 years ago:
junior in highschool-participating in jr. miss, a play for drama club, cheerleading, gymnastics and knowledge bowl. i even have time to go on a few dates.

Five things on my to-do list today:
1.Clean house.
2. Take whitney to bus and pick her up
3. figure out valentine games to play at whinteys party tomorrow.
4. make cupcakes.
5. take shower

Five snacks I enjoy:
1. apples and peanutbutter
2. hot cocoa
3. trail mix
4. veggie bars
5. orange juice
What would I do if I were suddenly a billionaire: Build a house, open a dance studio/club, travel.
Four of my bad habits:
1. Procastination
2. Speaking my mind
3. Snacking when I am not really hungry
4. getting frustrated if my house isn't clean

Five jobs that I have had:
1.secretary
2. retail clerk at gymboree
3. Raspberry, strawberry, cherry picker
4. dance instructor
5. Mom (shouldn't that be #1?)

Five things people don't know about me:
1. I am very practical
2.I cannot stand if my clothes are restricting, bulge or bunch up anywhere.
3. I love to sing
4. I hate mice and grasshoppers
5. i will stay up late at night just to get in some
"me" time
So I am a rule breaker- i am not going to tag 5 people-if you want to post this on your web site i freely invite any and all to do so-but i don't like tagging people unless it's a game involving real physical activity.

To all family members

Just a quick note that I have updated my genealogy webpage with more pictures and info-so check out my link on the bottom right hand side of this site.

Back to Work and $Dollar Deals

Joe gets to go back to work tomorrow. He is anxious and also a little intimidated by the amount of work that has piled up since he's been gone. But knowing my husband as well as I do, I know he likes a challenge-so I will most likely hear about how much progress he will have made on his jobs by weeks end. Whitney keeps praying for his back to get better by "tomorrow" every day and I wonder if the faith of one so small can actually produce such a miracle. Maybe it's my faith wavering in even questioning that.
On another note, it's getting closer to Valentines Day and we searched high and low for Whitneys Tinkerbell Valentines and only two stores had them..on sale from about $4-5 I couldn't believe it. Then Finally I saw them at the Dollar store for yeah, $1, so i grabbed them up. She was so excited about them because they were the same ones we bought last year. I don't know about you but I love dollar stores. We've gotten accessories for Halloween costumes there and stickers and my favorite-coloring books/activity books. I can't even count the hair stuff I've gotten there for the girls. One year I even bought the girls their Easter dresses at Family Dollar for like $8 and they were darling and modest too-you can't beat that price. Party supplies and helium balloons are a huge bargain there.

Bathroom dilemas...with your children

Yeah it's friday and I was able to get a nap in-since Brooke has been sleeping alot today. And ofcourse eating when she's not, I think she is going through a growth spurt. Amber has been very good with the potty training, I go out frequently-and when she has to go she tells me she's stinky. The first time she said this, I was afraid she had already had an accident until we got to the restroom to find she hadn't gone yet. So her keywords for needing to go are "Potty chair?" yes it's a question, and "I'm stinky mama". And thus far no accidents and she's gone about 6 times while we've been out. So I read a funny story about a rushing to the bathroom incident on a friends website the other day telling how she followed her lightning fast daughter into the restroom with her other two small children in tow, to find out they had mistakenly gone into the mens bathroom ...it made me laugh. I just wanted to know what funny bathroom stories/experiences you have to share as I always enjoy being entertained by how crazy life gets when you become a parent. Here is mine-not really funny but it's the only one I have of this nature...
So whitney had been constipated for like two weeks-i know painful..we went to the dr. twice and the emergency room and they all swore she only had a virus until one clinic actually took xrays and found out what the problem was. She told me to go get some childrens laxative and give it to her and it would work in about a day or two. Lets just say that it decided to work while we were at our wards 24th of July celebration that was at someone's house in our ward. We were in the bathroom for about 10 minutes cleaning out her system..(you can only imagine the smell after two weeks of holding it in) She had gone a little in her underwear-so those had to come off. She had worn a dress and was so afraid that people would laugh at her because she didn't have on any panties-as if she would be displaying for everyone to know I quickly gathered up amber and we headed home on that note.

Which one is which??

My three daughters each at 2 months old, can you tell who is who????????

A whole year of apt. living

So I redid my layout and had a lot of fun with it. So much so that I am thinking about changing it every month. How do you like this months? I really like the paisley. (design papers created by shabbyprincess.com) Things are starting to settle down and Joe gets to go back to work next week. We have decided to bless Brooke March 30th (our Fast sunday for April) because Joe cannot pick up Brooke yet and we are hoping by then he'll have the Dr's okay. Our lease is up at the end of the month so we will be signing on for another six months in our apt. because they won't do month to month and if we moved to another apt. we would have to sign a six-seven month lease anyway. So it looks like until august we are stuck where we are at. On the downside-i won't have a backyard for my kids to play during the summer or a place for a garden, but the upside is that there won't be any yard work or a huge water bill every month.

Walker celebrates in "the House that Walker" built.

Last night Walker Construction (who Joe works for) celebrated their 25th anniversary as a company in the newly restored Fox Theatre in downtown Spokane. We were able to tour the inside and enjoy refreshments. Afterwards the company owners thanked all of the employees and recognized special employees, including the very first person Walker hired, who still works for the company to this day. They hired a Jazz band to entertain us with swingin songs for the remainder of the event. We ofcourse didn't stay for all of it. We invited our friends the Johnsons along for the evening and even with Joe's back trauma we had fun. Here are a few pictures of us and the theatre. click on the 2nd picture to see the chandelier detailing-it's pretty neat.