Mataya is 18 months

Playing peek a boo. Too cute. (PS Yes, she is wearing a Bears jersey.)

Mataya turned 18 months on Dec.8th. I took her to her pediatrician last Monday for her well check. The nurse took us back after an hour of waiting. (Don't get me started.) She weighed and measured my little doll. She stood on the scale all by herself like a big kid. Then the nurse filled out the little card with her stats. Here they are:

Weight 18 pounds 4 ounces 1st percentile

Height 31 inches 29th percentile

Head 43.5 1st percentile

So let me break it down for you. She is skinny and tall with a pin head. Yep that's her. Well not really tall but not strangely short. So I was so excited because she was in the 1st percentile for her weight and head circumference. She has never even been on the charts for those things so I felt like a celebration was in order because she made the charts. So I text Kody, my sister, my mom, my mother in law, my aunts, my cousins, and friends the good news. She made the charts!!! Then the doctor came in and asked me how I was feeling about things. I told her how happy I was that we finally made the charts. Then she proceeded to tell me that they have a new computer system that doesn't go less than the first percentile. So she isn't actually on the charts but the computer doesn't go lower. What the H! Couldn't the nurse have told me that before I went texting the town? Even with that minor setback my little peanut is doing so well! She is still in a size 2 diaper but she is acting like a real person. Walking and talking(ish). She is mean as heck when she wants to be. A real SASS a FRASS. Which I kind of like but am also afraid of. Anyway, we don't see the cardiologist again for a while and I'm not sure about the geneticist. I need to call them but I've really enjoyed not going to the doctor so much. So there you have it. I need to post a few more things before Christmas! More to come...

Kimi and the temple

Kimi and I outside the temple. Kim's eyes are closed and I look pregnant. Oh well.

The rest of the clan. Our other family left before we could take a picture. I'm not in it because I am taking the picture of course.

My sister Kim went to the temple at the beginning of the month. I always knew she would. She went almost exactly 8 years to the day after I went for the first time. And she asked me to be her escort. I was honored. Truly I was. It was awesome for me because I'm the little sister. I never expected her to ask me to be the escort. One of the sweet little ladies in the temple said, "Shirley you can't be here with your daughter." And I said, "Listen lady I'm only 28 years old. (and don't call me Shirley)" Just kidding I didn't say that but I was thinking it. Anyway, I really am proud of Kimi for being so strong. What a great example she is to her kids. It takes courage to change your life like she did. She's been through a lot and it took awhile, but it was worth the wait!

Stupid blogger/html code

I would just like to say that if you read my anniversary post you will see that I said, "Click the pictures for a close up look." But you can't click the pictures because stupid blogger won't let you click on pictures that you have moved around in your post. I know some of you know this and are thinking I need to change my html code so I can click on them. But I tried that and it screwed things up so much that I had to get very angry. So you can't click on Kody's baby face in the temple pic and that makes me really mad. Therefore I have uploaded the picture so you can see AGAIN! In your face blogger writer people that make this stuff up. Seriously, we can put a man on the moon but we can't fix blogger so we can click on a picture to enlarge it if it's been moved around in a post! Thank you for listening -or reading I mean.

8 years

My friend Brittany Hoyt titled her blog "8 years" a few months ago when she celebrated her anniversary so I stole the title. Thanks Brittany! Anyway, today is our anniversary. Kody is hunting and I am spending it alone. Don't feel bad for me, it's not the first time. In order to avoid divorce papers Kody surprised me with a weekend stay in Mesquite last week. He did however forget it was Halloween so we only stayed one night. But he told me to pack my bags so we could leave as soon as I got off work. He organized a babysitter for us and everything. We left the kids at my moms and hit the road. He got off the exit in St.George and he took me shopping first. I was surprised because he didn't tell me what we were doing until we were parking the car at the mall. He was even nice while I tried everything on and told me my butt didn't look big and such. What a gentleman! So after my shopping spree we went to the Casa Blanca in Mesquite to check in. He had made reservations at Katherine's at the Casa Blanca. It's one of the only places I really like to eat at in Mesquite. Then after our stay we got up on Saturday morning because we can't sleep in anymore. You know how kids totally kill that for you? You finally get to sleep in but you can't because you're so used to waking up with the kids? Anyway, we went and got massages. It was nice and relaxing. So now you can see why I am tolerating him hunting on our anniversary... again. And he did send flowers today too. He can be a thoughtful guy when hunting doesn't get in the way. So I can't believe it's been 8 years. Once you have kids time is out of control. I have known Kody since I was 12 years old. We went on our first date when I was 16! I am now 28. That is 12 years people! Holy smokes! We have experienced so much together already. Our relationship survived his two year mission (barely). We lived in 2 different apartments before we bought our first house then sold it 4 years later. We managed not to kill each other while living with Kody's parents for NINE months while we built our first house together. We have dealt with infertility and won! We have 2 beautiful children! In our relationship we have owned 7 different vehicles and 3 different dogs. We have killed (accidentally, don't judge) about 10 goldfish and 4 crabs. Between the two of us in our marriage we have had 7 different jobs. I have survived countless hunting seasons and Kody has survived countless hours of me telling him he hunts too much. Kody has lost two wedding rings. He found one of them, then lost the diamond out of it. We have dealt with 2 major health issues. And we have survived two heart surgeries (one Kody's and one Mataya's). Whew! We've experienced a lot. Can't wait to see what the next 8 years brings.

So now I have a bunch of pictures for your viewing pleasure of our wedding. I LOVE to see other peoples' anniversary posts with wedding pictures. So if you don't love it, stop reading this post. (PS I love you, Kod. Happy anniversary and congrats on your stupid-ahem -amazing deer. PSS I am just kidding I really am happy for you, for shooting a big deer.)

Walking on the temple lawn. I love this pic.

Here we are looking in love. OHHHH! This is when I came out of the temple for the first time. I scanned these pics so you can't see what a baby Kody was. No wonder he gets ID'd at the movies! Please click then zoom in for the full effect. PS That's my friend Natalie and my brother. He looks like a baby too. Then the bottom pic is Kody's family.This is our wedding luncheon at Rusty's. We were late because I couldn't find the right thing to wear. Everyone thought we were doing something else that caused us to be late.- Excuse me! I am a lady and would never do such a thing!- The bottom pic is the head table. Check out how big my hair is. It's funny how fast the styles change.The top pic is my dad and I dancing. He is crying of course. If you know my dad, you know this is not an uncommon thing. He cries at every birthday, holiday, social gathering, sappy commercial, etc. The bottom pic is Kody after I smashed cake in his face. He wasn't very happy and insisted I LET him get me back. I forgot to mention the pics are black and white because those were the days when we didn't have digital cameras so I bought black and white film and asked my best friend Nicole to take some pics. I love these pics because they are of my brother dancing. First he is doing the limbo, then he is cutting a rug with the chicks. He was a bachelor in those days and cracked everyone up with his moves. He's a good dancer but he is so large that you can't help but laugh.

Halloween 2010

Halloween was fun this year. It was freezing but that was OK because McKoy didn't want to go door to door all night which was fine by me. McKoy was Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean. He LOVES pirates and has for about the last two years. He has already been a pirate before but he wanted to be one again. And my little peanut was a skunk. It was a darling costume and very appropriate for her. She is such a little poop. Anyway, here is how our Halloween went. Kody surprised me with a weekend stay in Mesquite for our anniversary. He forgot it was Halloween because our anniversary isn't until Nov. 9th. However, he was leaving for a 10 day hunt and would miss our anniversary so he planned our getaway early. But because it was Halloween we only went for one night. My mom took our kids to the carnival at my school on Friday and Kody and I went south. So Saturday when we got back we took the kids trunk or treating at our church. Then we went to Kody's moms and visited. Then we went up to my Aunt JoAnna's and trick or treated her neighborhood because my cousin Talia and my sister were up there working that neighborhood. My other Aunt Jeanette also lives a block away so we visited her too. Then we drove to see my sister in law Steph. After that we went to my grandparents house and my great aunts. Then we drove to Brad's because my other cousin was working and wanted to see the kids dressed up. Then I went to my mom's house and finally took the kids home. Needless to say I was exhausted. Kody only lasted half way through. He said someone needed to pass out candy at our house so he went home early. (He's kind of a wimp.) And that was it. Another lovely Halloween night!

These kids are pretty darn cute.I think I smell a skunk. (It's probably just Kody)

McKoy really wanted to scare people in his costume.

We all pretended we were scared of course.

More cuteness. Kody having the time of his life at his mom's house. This pic is cute of my kids with their grandma and papa. That skeleton really had it out for McKoy. Here is what happened... Kody is holding the Skeleton and McKoy is sword fighting it. Kody is swinging it around and the foot of the skeleton hit McKoy in the head. It made that HUGE goose egg. It hit right on the vein that McKoy inherited from his mother. (Poor guy) And when McKoy cries, Mataya cries. She didn't want to be left out. PS her hair is wet because her awesome mother didn't realize she was sweating to death in her costume. When I took off the head thing she was drenched. I felt so bad:(

More EBAY blunder

McKoy loves Scooby Doo so in the summer I started looking for the Scooby Doo Mystery Mansion on line for Christmas. I found it several places but it was really expensive. So I looked it up on ebay and it was the cheapest I have seen. So in an attempt to redeem myself from last months ebay mishap, I called my dad. I asked him to order me the mystery mansion because he is the ebay king and I don't have an account with them. He and I searched ebay together while on the phone and we found the best deal. My dad ordered it for $67.00 and hung up. About one minute later I found the dang mansion at Toys R Us for $39.00 with free shipping! So I called my dad back. I told him we had to cancel the order. So he checked and told me that the seller on ebay doesn't accept returns! Seriously, I didn't want to pay $28.00 more than I had to for a toy. So my dad called and emailed them explaining that we didn't want the mansion and had purchased it by mistake. The next morning they contacted him and refunded his money. I learned 2 valuable lessons. #1 Make SURE that you have searched everywhere before making a purchase online. And #2 once you have bought something, stop looking for it. Mostly I didn't figure these lessons out on my own. My dad said if I wanted his ebay help, I had to learn them:)

Do not keep silence.

Since Kimi is tending for me now she decided she wanted her baby monitor back. I don't own my own monitor since #1 I'm cheap, and #2 Kim owns one so why should I, when I can borrow hers? I never used one with McKoy since we lived in a small house in scenic Enoch when he was a baby, and didn't need one. In our new house the master bedroom is on one side of the house, and the kids' bedrooms are on the other. Anyway needless to say I need a monitor and Kim took hers back. So I decided after going to my cousin's baby shower (Ashley Jackson) and watching her open one of those cool monitors with the camera that you can see the baby on, that I needed that one. I would like to have another baby so if I'm going to buy one, I should get a cool one right? So I went to Target and bought one that cost $160.00. While I was at Target my dad called (the ebay king) and told me to just buy one on ebay and save some money. So I bought the expensive one just in case ebay didn't have what I wanted, and went over to my dad's house to look up monitors with him. We searched all night and I finally decided on a brand new one from ChinaCosto. In the description it was very clear that if you are unhappy with your new monitor you should contact them immediately. "Do not keep silence!" We were laughing because the person who wrote the add had a Chinese accent if you will. Anyway, I don't have an ebay account so my dad bought it and brought it to me when it came. The packaging was from China and the labels were all in Chinese. Kody was in Vegas so I opened it myself to try and put it together. I got it all set up but noticed that there were scratches on the blue part, near the buttons on the monitor. It was supposed to be brand new. I did open everything from what appeared to be original packaging. I started to get a little mad, so I pulled up the add on ebay and it did say brand new, never been opened. Anyway, I am thinking that it would be difficult to return because the senders address was written in Chinese. So I figured I would keep it even if it was scratched. At least it worked, or so I thought. So I get it all set up and it is so amazing! I soon forgot that it was scratched and McKoy and I took turns going into Mataya's room and waving at the camera while the other one watched on the monitor. It even works in the dark. Don't ask me how. Something about night vision infrared something or other. So the next day my friend Kim Almond comes over and I'm showing her the amazing monitor. I go in Mataya's room to wave at her and she tells me that she can't see me on the monitor. The screen is frozen and all we can see is an empty room. So I'm feeling a little nervous thinking what did I buy? Anyway, she leaves and Kody comes home from Vegas and I'm still totally excited to show him. But the screen is still frozen. So Kody messes with it and seems to fix it. It starts working again and we go to sleep. The next morning McKoy comes in our room and says Mataya is crying in her bed. I grab the monitor and I see her sleeping in the picture. The screen froze with her sleeping and she was in her room screaming! I was so mad at that dang monitor. So I call my dad and tell him I need him to email ChinaCosto to get our money back. After all they said "Do not keep silence." So he forwards me the email he sent and what they sent back. In his email he told them it wasn't working and that he didn't want to leave negative feedback on their ebay account so to please give us our money back. He also explained that it was scratched on the blue area near the buttons. He was very nice and professional. Their email said: Dear Friend, Do not try to intimidate us with negative feedback. We receive many many feedback. We do not care of it. Don't worry we will help you best fix problem. I will explain some detail for you. The blue area is not real thing. It is to protect your monitor. You can take off film, like you bought a mobile phone, you can take off film. Please check antenna for monitor. That is important for monitor. Then it went on to list other trouble shooting tips. I emailed my dad to let him know the blue area DOES NOT come off. I already tried that. There is clear plastic over the screen but I already took that off. And the camera didn't come with an antenna. I looked for one because I saw one in the picture but it didn't come with one. So he emails ChinaCosto back again telling them they are wrong and we want our money back. Then they email back again with more tips. This whole time I'm at work so I told my dad I would try the tips when I got home. So I get home from work and grab the monitor to see if I can fix it. I look at the scratched area around the buttons really close. I use my nail to kind of scratch it myself and it kind of crinkles up. So I scratch a little more and it really gets all crinkled and what do you know? It WAS blue film and it DID peel right off! So I grab the box it came in to look through the plastic stuff it came wrapped in and what do you know? It DID come with an antenna! Right there wrapped up in plastic was the never been opened antenna. %$#@! ChinaCosto was right the whole time! Boy do I feel like a horse's putoot. So I had to call my dad and tell him I'm a jack @$$ (in case he didn't already know) and I'm sorry for ruining his ebay reputation. And what do you know? My monitor works great. That ChinaCosto really knows how to make a quality product.

Grass is better than dirt.

I have been waiting to post pictures of my yard because I wanted my flowers to be perfect and my lawn to be cut nice in diagonals. But after two months of Cedar wind blowing my flowers over and trying to convince Kody that diagonal cut lawns make bloggers happy, I realized it's never going to happen so I should just post the dang picture. So here it is! TA DA! Kody and I sold our first home 2 years ago after having it on the market for only 3 weeks! We were unprepared for it to sell so quickly and were homeless. Kody's parents took pity on us and let us move into their gorgeous home until we decided what to do. They gave us their downstairs which is bigger than the house we had sold. Plus they have a pool! It was way fun but we were overstaying our welcome so we bought some land and built our home. We moved in Dec.19, 2008. We have been living with dirt for the last year and a half so this summer we finally put in our yard. We love grass much better than dirt. Mostly I love anything better than dirt. Don't be fooled because we still have a lot of dirt in the backyard but hopefully next summer we will have replaced it with some grass too. Look carefully and you can see my wagon with flowers in it. I won that thing at the Mule Deer Banquet. I won it in the auction and have never been so proud. My neighbors didn't know how cute it was going to be in my yard. Tyler Albrecht even dared make fun of it. But I showed him. Check out how cute it is. (Don't be jeal) Also check out my weeping cherry tree. They have those at the White House you know. (PS I know jack about trees but I did read that on the Internet.)

This pic is of our side cement. Please ooooooh and aaaaaah and act as if you've never seen cement before. Thanks bye.

Random stuff

So this post is just kind of random stuff that I didn't share before. I am sad that summer is over and I want to share some last minute summer fun pics. But before we get to that I have some news...(Drum roll)... Taya is 16 pounds! Yes, you read it right! She is gaining weight like never before! And there is more. How can there be more you ask? There just is. She is walking! She started walking on Labor Day in the evening. She just took off walking all over our upstairs. I don't know why she wouldn't walk downstairs but I think she liked the carpet or something. Anyway, Kody was watching the football game and yelled to me to come up. So I went up there and she was tottering around like no body's business. It is so cute. Then on Thursday I took her to the geneticist in the morning and she weighed in at 16 pounds 1 ounce! Then in the afternoon I took her in for her 15 month well check at her pediatrician and she weighed 15 pounds 13 ounces. She did poop twice between the appointments so I am going with 16 pounds even. Her dietitian gave us a menu and some things to do to bulk up her food, and it is working. We add sugar to sweet things and butter to anything we can, and give her carnation instant breakfast in her whole milk. Plus we shove down anything else she'll take. Her head size and weight are still not on the charts but she is in the 30th percentile for height! Yay! She is a skinny girl with a pin head, but she is long! We see the cardiologist again at the end of the month so I'll let you know about that when it rolls around. McKoy started preschool again. I will post pics soom. We decided not to send him to Kindergarten yet. His bday is the end of July and we think it is best to wait one more year. He loves his new preschool and is going with his best friend/cousin Taylor (Kim's guy). My friend Natalie Person's little guy Hadley is going there too. They are all three playing soccer together as well. Kim tends all of them when they get out of school along with Mataya and Hadley's brother Madden. That's what she gets when she quits her job to be a stay at home mom. She is now my employee again. I love being her boss. Anyway, Kody of course is hunting like crazy. He is bow hunting because that's his baby but he also just got back from a bear hunt in Arizona. Then he is doing the muzzle loader and the rifle of course. All this hunting talk is making me tired. I am so lucky to be married to a man that's favorite color is camo. (That's me being sarcastic) I really do like my husband. He has really come a long way. I just like to tease him because I know he reads this blog occasionally. And as for me, I am spending my days teaching 26 first graders how to politely pass gas in a social setting and what to do if they have a booger that must come out. You think I am joking but I am 100% serious. I teach them other stuff too but everyone knows social skills are important. Well that's all for now. Bye. Mataya just being gorgeous. Click on the pic to see her lashes. They are so black! (And to see her food stuck all over her face.)

This is our lovely fam. We are swimming at Kody's parents' pool. Koy is being a dork in the photo and Kody's farmers tan and shaved head has GQ for men calling. PS if you look close you can see Kody's pacemaker scar. At the July Jamboree Koy discovered he can climb to the top of the rock climbing wall and push the alarm. He is 5 years old! Of course I forced McKoy to have fun like I always do at the lake. I am such a great parent! This is McKoy knee boarding at Lake Powell. He cried at first but then he loved it! This is Kody and Mataya 4 wheeling at my mom's cabin in Pinto. Mataya looks like she could care less but she really likes it.

Sitting on the porch at Pinto. Kim didn't come but my mom had Taylor and Milee. My mom's cabin is soooo cute. I always feel like I'm on Little House on the Prairie. It's not a mountain cabin so sitting on the porch is a different experience. I love it!

Erin took us all out catching craw dads. The kids had fun but mostly Kody was having the most fun. What can I say, he likes to hunt.

McKoy's not sure about it.Porch monkeys porch sitting.

More porch sitting.

I took this pic of Milee when we were out catching craw dads. Then I spruced it up on my photoshop Kody got me for my bday last year. He just installed it for me last week and I love it.

Too cool for school...wait I guess I'm not

So another year has begun. This is my fifth year teaching first grade at Iron Springs Elementary. After this year I will get a pin from the district for five years of service and then it will all have been worth it. I hope you can hear my sarcasm. I really am excited about this new school year. Last February I started entertaining the idea of leaving the school for a stay at home teaching job. I interviewed and was offered the job. Because I was actually thinking I was going to take it, when I left the school on the last day in May I said goodbye to my classroom. I thought the next time I see this place I will be packing up my things. Because the school was built when I was hired I am the ONLY person to ever teach in my room. I have taught over a hundred kids how to read and write in that room. I know you are thinking this is getting mushy but I SERIOUSLY started to panic. I want to be at home with my kids. I want to be the one to drop McKoy off at preschool and rock Mataya to sleep. But for some reason my body decided to react to stress regarding Mataya's health and the decision to leave my secure job, for something I might hate. I freaked out basically and had to seek professional help. (Those of you reading this that might have your child in my class- breathe easy. I am totally back to normal now. Well as normal as I'll ever be.) Anyway, after MUCH debate, and when I say MUCH, I mean months of craziness, I decided to stay at the school. I looked into the stay at home thing and decided it wasn't for me. Everything I hate about teaching such as travelling for professional development, computer work, grades, graphs, charts, emails, is what the stay at home thing is all about. It's like computer management for students which is not me. And they work in the summers which is against my morals. I have a strict no summer working rule. I leave my school in May and don't return until August. I know there are teachers out there that are way dedicated in putting in extra hours but not me. (Now people will probably pull their kids out of my class.)Plus I don't know what kind of mom I would be if I was trying to work an 8 hour day and trying to give my kids attention. I love being in the classroom and getting to know my students so well, we cry when we leave each other. (Sometimes tears of joy-JK I'm being so sarcastic today) Anyway, my wonderful neighbor that does the stay at home job thing was so great to help me get the job and then I turned around, and turned it down. What a crazy I am! But I know I made the right decision for me. The reason I know is because I am able to finally sleep at night without running to the bathroom constantly with diarrhea. Sorry, too much information as usual. I think this year will be soooo great. My sister is tending my kids for me which is another story. But I couldn't be happier because my kids love her and she loves them. Mataya seems to be doing well health wise and so I must say this year will be great! You are probably thinking I must be taking some kind of medication to be this positive about life, but I'm not! It took a while, but now I know if I have to work to provide for my family, it's going to be in the classroom. Yay!