Halloween fun and more ...

We've been so busy lately, that I've not had a moment to take a breath, let alone try to find time to post anything!

Saturday we were invited to a Halloween party thrown by my sister in law, Kim. Of course, we were late due to Chris' work schedule, so we missed out on some really fun stuff. But, non the less we had fun, and Leah looked so damn cute in her little ladybug costume!
I'm so glad that that's what we finally decided to have her be.
I still cannot get over how beautiful she looked. I tried to get her and her cousins to get a picture together, but it just wasn't going to happen that way. So this was the best that I could do.


Leah with her cousin Ry




Kim, Branden, and Alaina

And on Tuesday I went to my very first Young Women's activity as a YW advisor. We did a craft and it was so much fun! It's a cute earring holder. The glue didn't dry properly and I got a really horrible brush to paint with, and on top of that, one of the girls that was sitting next to me is kind of a special needs girl and decided to pour black paint on my frame, so I have to touch it up a bit, but other than that I like the way it turned out.

I painted it to match the colors in my bedroom.

I love the other ladies that are advisers and leaders. One of the ladies there I actually grew up with and love her to pieces!. The only sad part about the whole thing is that we don't have very many girls that are active. When I was in YW we had tons of girls and it really made such a difference in the atmosphere and especially at girls camp.

Regardless of how many girls we have, I'm still so excited about getting to know them better and hopefully form a bond, and help them in the ways that my YW leaders helped me. In fact, they made all the difference in my life. Though some have moved away, the lessens they taught me, the time the devoted to their calling, the love and acceptance that poured from every fiber of their being, and the very best memories that they helped me make, saved me. I truly believe that their calling came from God. And that helped make me who am I today.

If I can be even the smallest fraction of the wonderful example that those sisters were to me... I could sleep a little easier knowing that those girls knew their true worth in a world where society is often telling young girls otherwise. I hope I can be the person they need.

A few new pictures of Leah

Here are some newer pics of my little girl. They really do grow up so fast! It's really surreal to me. One minute your giving birth to an amazing little gift, and the next moment that little gift is pouring milk from her sippy cup all over your newly cleaned floors and splashing it around and laughing over it. *Sigh*. I really do love the little toddler she's become. She is all I could have ever wanted.


She was really tired and and when I asked her if she wanted to go to bed, she ran to her crib and started to cry!



And then preceeded to try to climb in it.

What we've been up to lately...

We've been so busy lately that I haven't had time to post much, and now I'm starting to actually forget details.Chris caught a nasty cold last week and now I feel as if I'm starting to come down with something as well. Tis the season I suppose. Yay.

Last Monday I was having a particularly bad day so my dear Chis decided to take me and Leah out to dinner. He took us to this little Mexican restaurant that has the best Chile Verde! Leah is so funny, we would give her some of the tortilla chips, but she wanted to have the spicy salsa on her chips like mommy and daddy, and so we gave her a tiny bit and she loved it!!! She loves spicy foods.

My dad is always giving her spicy food and when I could finally hold food down when I was pregnant with her, all I wanted was incredibly spicy food.

Then on Tuesday we took some dinner over to my sister and brother in laws. And we had a good time just hanging out together and watching the kiddos play around.

She spent alot of time with her cousins and grandma Rose last week and I was able to take some really cute pictures.

Leah is such a monkey now and loves to climb on everything.

And for some reason this ugly, ancient (sorry mom & dad) chair at my parents is
her all time favorite thing to climb on.She gets upset when there is stuff on the chair or when Abby is sitting it.


She kept making this face every time I tried to take her picture.
So cute!



Her cousin Abby wants in on the chair action too! And of course Leah didn't care for that.

I have some more pics I'll have to post later on.

There Are 11 Of Me!!!

Ashley ********
(I still go by my maiden name sometimes) I deleted some of our info because I don't like the idea that just any one can see them. the results are still here though

*There are 484,038 people in the U.S. with the first name Ashley.
*Statistically the 114th most popular first name.
*95.58 percent of people with the first name Ashley are female.
*There are 6,749 people in the U.S. with the last name *****.
*Statistically the 5354th most popular last name.

Now it's my hubby's turn!
Chris ***** (That's his step dads last name)

*There are 337,453 people in the U.S. with the first name Chris.
*Statistically the 178th most popular first name.
*89.14 percent of people with the first name Chris are male.
*There are fewer than 336 people in the U.S. with the last name ******.
The estimate for this name is not absolute. There may be fewer people with this name.
*There are 1 or fewer people in the U.S. named Chris ******
I'm so lucky to have snatched up the only one! Love you babe

Now my baby Leah


*There are 109,944 people in the U.S. with the first name Leah.
*Statistically the 495th most popular first name.
*More than 99.9 percent of people with the first name Leah are female.
*There are fewer than 336 people in the U.S. with the last name *****.
*There are 1 or fewer people in the U.S. named Leah ******!
Always knew she was a one of a kind!

Thanks Jackie!

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 11 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

I've been slacking...

Sorry I've been slacking off lately, it's been so busy 'round here lately. My sister in law kindly invited to her house for dinner tonight, and we gladly accepted (and of course I forgot my camera). It's been a while since we were over there. Chris' other sister and younger brother live with Kim and Brandon, so it was really nice to have all of us spending time together. I invited them over for dinner this week, so I hope they accept my invite.

On friday we went with Kim and Brandon to Clark Planetarium and saw the U2 laser show. And can I just say that we had fun! It was a lot better than I thought it was going to be. We talked about seeing another laser show but all they have is Pink Floyed, and I don't think that any of us really like them that much, so we'll just have to wait and see...

We then headed over to Maggie Moos for some ice cream and sat in the car and talked forever! It was so much fun. I really am glad that we were able to spend some time with them. We really should hang out more often. We always have a good time.

Date Night, Woo Hoo!

Tonight Chris took me out on a much needed date. He took me to Spaghetti Mama's, and boy did we pack ourselves like a can of sardines! We had a gift card for $25.00 so we did the works. Appetizer, $12 to $13 entree (yeah I know we are super cheap!hehe). It was wonderful. I love the atmosphere, they don't have bright, bad lighting. I got this yummy fettuccine artichoke entree with tomatoes and mushrooms and Chris got the Parmesan chicken, of course :). We never do anything just the two of us because we love to be with Leah as much as we can. So as a rule, we said we can talk about Leah and Chris' work on the way to the restaurant and maybe a little when we first get there but that's it. It was so hard at first! But we did it. We spent the rest of the time being lovey dovey. Yeah, I know, we're sick and disturbing. That's how we roll. Then off to Target to exchange a shirt we got Leah for a different size, and to walk off the delicious meal. And of course, we walked out with the shirt and a new dress for Leah for winter lol!

Then after being stuffed and happy, we headed back to home and watched the debate (way to go Obama!) with my family while the girls played together. Leah gets so happy when her cousins come over, I love it! Leah really likes the fact that Abby has started to walk now, so she thinks that Abby's gonna chase her every time she gets up,and Leah runs away laughing. It was a really fun day. And I was actually glad that Chris and I got to get out and spend some time together. We both agreed that, as much as we love spending time with Leah, we need to do that more often.

Daddy's day off and debate time!!!

Today was Chris' day off. We usually go out and do something fun, but we had a bad night last night so we were stuck in a bad mood, and we ended up doing, well, not really anything. I felt so sick yesterday I could barely drive home from my sisters house. Today I ended up going to the store to get a few things. While I was doing that, Chris took Leah to the DI and got Leah a really cute but way too big outfit. Like, 4T too big! She still wears 12 month size clothing.

But it was still an incredibly cute gesture. It's actually really quite cute. I'll post a picture of it a little later, since it's in Leah's room and she is sound asleep. He also got her a cute purple Care Bear, a plush snake? a strange sword/wand like thingy that blows air out of the tip? an inflatable ball, understandable, and a police car toy? Yeah I don't know why either, hence the question marks.You would think we had had a boy instead of a little girl. I just laughed.

I was able to buy Leah a new pair of pants and shirt, a much needed pair of tights, some hair accessories, and ribbon to make bows for her hair. I was able to get all of those things for super cheap. I usually get a lot of her clothing at places like Kid to Kid and I don't mind the the Di and Salvation Army all that much either. I can always find stuff that's never even been used with the original tags still on them. The Salvation Army gets all of Targets clothing that they want to get rid of, so I can walk away with some pretty good stuff. This time I found some cute stuff at Wally world.

We were able to watch the Biden-Palin debate. I have so much respect for Biden. I am very interested in politics and was in debate so I love a good debate! The only place I try to keep my views out of is the work place and church (especially because I'm gonna vote democratic and I live in Utah) I was so proud of how Biden handled himself with such class and respect. I didn't have anything against Palin at first, but when she compared McCain's being in a POW camp with any other tragedy that Barack Obama and Joe Biden have faced in their lives... I got livid. Joe Biden lost his wife and infant daughter in a horrible car accident and left his two sons critically injured, not knowing if they would survive or not.

I have been so blessed to not know what that would be like. And I pray that I never will. My mother has lost two children. I don't know of anyone who having lost a child, let alone two at the same time, who wouldn't give anything to have their child alive and in their arms again. I'm almost certain that if given the opportunity to spend five years in a POW camp would mean having their loved ones alive and well, most people who have felt loss would spend 50 years.

I'm not trying to take away the horror that John spent in a POW camp, but simply say that most parents would endure that and much more to have the ones they've lost back, even if just for a moment.
And what she said was callus, ignorant, and plain idiotic.And the more I found out about her and her policies, the more my dislike for her grew. During the debate she seemed very cold.

She just ignored Biden when he talked very briefly about how he knows how it feels to be a single parent because the loss of his wife. She dodged a few imprtant questions and she seemed to have memorized her answers. You typically don't memorize everything in a debate. She seemed way too casual in her grammer and got a lot of facts wrong. Out of all the filler she memorized, I thought the facts should have been on the top of the list.

I get that she's a 'hockey mom'. I have respect for moms who work hard to maintain the balance of career and home. I'm not saying she's an awful parent but she has a precious special needs child and a teenage daughter who is pregnant. Maybe she should spend a little more time with her family who seems like they really need her.

I like Obama because he has always had the peoples best interests in mind from way before he decided to run for the presidency and he's been known to always, always put his family first. Same with Biden. When Biden's family was in that horrible crash, he had just gotten elected to the senate, he refused to take his position so he could be with his two boys who had survived. It wasn't until he was practically begged to reconsider and was sworn in at the hospital, that he finally took his position in the senate, and still put his career on hold til his children were better. He has his priorities straight.

That is what they stand for. I have a lot of respect for some of the things McCain has done in his career. But I'm not about to vote someone in office who will pretty much pick up where Bush left off. I'm sorry but my daughter's future is at risk here. I'm not usually a biased person when it comes to politics. I've weighed the pros and cons. If you dissect the plans of the candidates, you'll be able to really see who has our best interest in mind here. And since my husband and I don't make $250k a year, I'm gonna go with Obama-Biden. Think what you want. It's the plain and simple fact that I can vote for whom I want and that anyone can think what they want about my vote, is why I love this country and why I'm voting for who I am voting for.

Nieces,cousins and daddy's girl...Gotta love 'em!

On Sunday my niece Isabella was baptized and naturally, we were invited to go. My sisters church starts at ten thirty but she said she wasn't sure when her pastor ( such a nice guy!) was going to get to the baptism part, but it would probably be somewhere near the end of the service. Well the night before I couldn't sleep at all, so I decided to take something to help me sleep. I never take anything like that to help me sleep but I was so desperate.
To make a long story a bit shorter: I woke up late, was extremely groggy, got to the church at eleven, and missed Bells baptism because the pastor decided to do the baptism first thing. Go figure.
I felt like the worst aunt alive!!!

Yesterday I watched my niece Alaina (my sister in law's 18 month old) while she accompanied her 4yr old, Ry, on a field trip to a fire station. Whilst I was babysitting, my sister dropped by with her two youngest and things went pretty good for the most part.

Laina did well, except when she rammed Leah with a Winnie the Poo rider, punched Leah twice in the stomach and Abby once in the eye. What are you gonna do? But other than that I really enjoyed having all those babies around, and being able to watch Laina. They all did so good. I loved seeing them all together in the same house. I love the fact that my baby girl has so many wonderful cousins in her life, and another one on the way. Lucky girl.













I think my flu shot made me sick. I've had a slight fever and nausea all day. It got really bad this afternoon while dropping lunch off to my sis. I felt like I was going to pass out. My hubby came home a little bit early to help me, but by that time I already had given Leah her bath, got her dressed in her jammies, smothered lotion on her and blow dried and combed her hair, did the few dishes that we had, and last but not least, put laundry in the wash and then in the dryer. What can I say? I'm too impatient at times.

I just wanted it done so I didn't have to worry about it. He did offer to help when he got home and he did take the garbage out for me. Geeze, I love that man! He's so dang cute. I'm just happy that he got to spend some time with Leah when he got home. They miss each other so much when he's at work. In fact she misses him so badly, that when he took the trash out, she broke down in tears and started screaming 'Dada' when he went outside :( She's such a daddy's girl.