I have an announcement!

No I'm not pregnant. Why does everyone always think an announcement means you're pregnant? I am........... GOING TO CHELSEA HANDLER IN VEGAS!!! My husband surprised me with tickets. One for me and a friend of my choice. So let the butt kissing begin. Ok I already invited my sister but I will still accept butt kissing. You never know, she might get put on bed rest or something. So sometimes when Kody hunts too much he will surprise me with something so I don't leave him. JK But I can get pretty witchy with a capital B when I have had enough. Well I had had enough! So he surprised me with tickets to see Chelsea Handler's show in Vegas. She will also have her peeps Heather McDonald, Josh Wolf, and Brad Wollack at the show. I am way excited and so is Kim. She is pretty pregnant and will be even bigger in May when we are going. But she claims she won't be on bed rest or anything so she still wants to come. Kody will tend the kids of course and have the house sparkling clean when I get home. (right Kod?) It will be the time of our lives I tell you. That was me quoting Junie B. Jones. I know Junie B. and Chelsea shouldn't go together in the same post, but who cares? Anyway, I can't wait and am so excited! Thanks husband, I sure love ya!

Facebook

So this week was SEP week. At our house that means watch out for mom! She is a little grouchy during this time of year. Monday and Tuesday were my long days so we went to dinner at Chilis on Monday and Tuesday Kody cooked. I visited with all of my parents except 1. That parent will likely do a phone interview on Monday. Anyway, despite this busy week I decided to join Facebook. I am constantly out of the loop because people assume I know what is going on in their lives because they put it on Facebook. Also my Aunt's dog has a Facebook account and I didn't want Chuck the dog being cooler than me. So after Kody joined I wanted to spy on people through his account but he wouldn't let me. He says it's not spying if people put it on the internet for others to read. And he "claims" he just wants to find people from his mission but I am certain he likes spying too. But he wouldn't share with me so I joined myself. And guess what?... I don't actually think it's that cool and I don't really get it. I thought I would be addicted to it and want to be on it all the time. But because I don't really get it, I am kind of mad at it. Kody made fun of me when I asked him for help and said I was like Jeanette. So I refuse to include him in my facebook exploring. I thought it would be like a blog I guess, and it's not. So there. I joined and probably won't put anything on it because I don't know how and probably won't read any messages left there, because I don't know how. Bye.

Kenzie Lately

Koy played junior Jazz basketball. He was super cute and even scored a basket a few times. He is really a sweet little guy and isn't aggressive at all. He has never scored in soccer, didn't like wrestling, sometimes liked T-ball, sometimes didn't. So after his first basketball experience he told me he thinks basketball is his sport. He is so cute and I love his guts. This pic is of Koy at his last game. The coach is my cousin Breylin Blackner. He is a junior and plays for Cedar.

More pics with Coach B Finally enough hair for pigtails. Yay Taya Ju!

And when the pigtails come out we have quite the crazy hair. Kim turned 30. Sucka! PS Kim found out she is having a girl! PSS Sorry about making fun of Kim's thirtiness. Tal's probably mad because she is 30 too. I'm just thirteen going on thiry so I can make fun for a few more years. In Your Face SUCKAS!

Kody and I on Valentine's weekend. It was a total blast going to dinner with our friends and then playing games until late at night or early morning I guess I should say. PS I've been staying up so late lately. And no I don't mean 9:30. I mean I think on our Valentine's date night we went to bed at like 2:30 am. Kody had to be in Vegas on Valentine's day. One of his clients put him in a suite at the Venetian. I really really really wanted to go with him but I teach first grade, and Valentine's day is huge in first grade. Plus it was my student teachers' last day and I couldn't take it off. So he had to go alone and text me pics all night of his room with stairs and 3 flat screen TV's. AAAAHHHHHGGGGG! I am still mad I couldn't go.

So things are kind of boring around here. I swear it's the weather. We can't really do anything when it is so cold. I have some sort of body temperature malfunction that keeps me freezing most of the time. I wear slipper socks with my shoes which can get pretty squishy. My sister Kim hates it and thinks it's gross but I don't care. I have to be warm. So anyway, without being able to do anything outside it's been kind of boring lately. More TV and Nintendo than usual. Yes I said Nintendo. I have a tiny addiction to the old school Mario on the Wii. I haven't mentioned it earlier for fear of judgement from my friends. Kody downloaded the old games onto our Wii for me and it's been a bit out of control ever since. For the record I totally ROCK at Super Mario Brothers and have since I was 7. Kim is pretty good but still not as good as me. I play Mario 1, 2, and 3 and if you think you can beat me I say BRING IT! I am SERIOUSLY good and it's really hard to share with McKoy because if you are as good as me it is torture to watch other less experienced people try to play. Which is basically everyone. So anyway, that's about all I have been doing lately.

Warrior Mom

Talia and Maddox

This is my cousin Talia. When I was born I was brought home from the hospital to a house that was directly across the street from Talia's. Our mom's are sisters and best friends. We grew up together on that street. All of us cousin's playing all day long together. When I was 6 years old, Talia's brother who is my age, and I would come home from morning Kindergarten together on the bus. Then Talia's dad would watch us until our mom's came home from work. Tal is two years older than me. She is the same age as my older sister Kim. Tal, Kim and I were best friends. When my family moved to Vancouver, BC in 1988 I was devastated. We would spend our summers in Utah with Talia and her family. One summer Talia's brothers went up to Canada with my family, and Kim and I came to Cedar to stay with Talia. Even though Kim and Tal were the same age, Kim was sometimes too mature for our games. Tal and I did some seriously funny things. We had so much fun. In 1992 we moved back to Cedar City. We moved in with my grandparents because my parents were separated. We spent all day with Tal's family and went to my grandma's to sleep. She and my sister were my BEST friends. We were in Dance Magic together and our dance group was going to Hawaii to dance at the Pro Bowl. Our parents were getting divorced so Kim and I couldn't afford to go. Talia's grandpa on her dad's side said he would pay for her to go, but she chose not to because Kim and I couldn't. Sometimes when I couldn't talk to Kim about stuff, Talia was there. Talia went to high school at Cedar High but when I got there as a freshman Canyon View was built and Talia lived in their boundaries. She chose to go to CV for her junior and senior year while Kim and I went to Cedar High. Even though she was at the other school we remained best friends. We were all cheerleaders Kim, Tal, and I and when Cedar played CV we would cheer against each other during the game and then run over and hug when it was over. Talia and I worked together at Brad's Food Hut for 4 years. It was seriously some of the most fun times of my life. When Talia and Kim graduated Cedar and Canyon View went on a joint senior trip together. They went on a cruise to Mexico. During the summer of 2001 I served as maid of honor at 3 weddings. First my sister Kim's, then my friend Natalie Davis', then Talia's. When I got married Kim and Tal were both my maid of honors. I married a Smith and Talia married a Smith. (However, Kody would like me to say our husbands are not related) Talia's husband had big plans to become a master of the universe and so he took her away to live first in Sacramento, then Phoenix. She lived far away but we always kept in touch. I was the first out of the three of us to get pregnant. It was weird that I was the youngest and going to be a mom first. It wasn't that I didn't give them plenty of time. They had both been married for three years and I had been married for two. They had enough time to have a baby but they were smart and had waited. Anyway, Kim ended up having the first baby and then me. It was weird to have a baby before Tal. You know how you always picture the oldest going first. Tal is actually the oldest out of all three of us. Her bday is 3 months before Kim's. So when I was 10 months pregnant Talia found out she was going to have a baby. We all had boys! Talia gave birth to Kobe in Phoenix on Kim's birthday! Of course he was a beautiful baby. Have you seen his mother? Talia would go on to have two more kids in the next two years. First she had Maddox (a boy) when Kobe was 19 months old. Then she had Jaxyn (a girl) when Maddox was 15 months and Kobe wasn't even 3! Yes, three kids under the age of three!

But let me back track a bit.

When Kobe was almost two, Tal and her mom were watching Oprah. Jenny McCarthy was on TV talking about her son who had autism. Tal started thinking about Kobe and noticing he had some of the same tendencies that Jenny's son had displayed. For the full story click here. So after taking Kobe to the doctor Talia was forced to face the answer she was afraid of -AUTISM. At first when I found out Kobe was autistic I immediately thought how is Talia going to handle this. This is so huge and so much is still unknown about autism. And if you know Tal then you know that she isn't exactly the most organized/domestic/mature type to handle a situation like this. But Tal attacked the autism diagnosis at full speed. She was like a mom going into battle. A warrior mother willing to fight anyone or anything that got in her way of helping her son. She read everything she could get her hands on about autism. She got Kobe enrolled in therapy as soon as she could. She took him to many doctors for many opinions. She had him participate in medical studies. She fed him a special diet which included her making most to all of his meals from scratch. She collected his poop and mailed it to whoever needed it to study the effects different things had on him. She converted a room in her house into his therapy room so he could receive services always. She missed many family things because Kobe had class, or therapy, or a doctors appointment. She had to Kobe proof everything so he was kept safe in the house. She has dedicated her life to helping her son. But don't worry not only does she have Kobe. Remember she had two other kids all within 3 years. While she was living in Phoenix her husband went back to school to get his masters degree. So of course she was on her own most of the time while her husband worked and went to school. She couldn't really take the kids many places because Kobe requires one on one attention himself. It is a full time job taking care of a child with special needs. I get exhausted just watching her do it. So after being married for 9 years, living away from her family for at least 7 years, taking care of her kids mostly by herself, her husband comes home and says he wants out. By OUT I mean excused from the duties of being a real man and taking care of his family he helped create. By OUT I mean not having to honor the promises and convenants he made to be a husband. By OUT I mean becoming a total @#$% head and moving several states away and leaving his family behind. (Sorry but some people protect the ones they love by ranting about someone they don't particularly care for on the internet.) But if you're wondering how Tal is handling this new situation I'll tell you. Just like she handled Kobe's diagnosis. She is a fighter. She is fighting for all her kids now. Fighting for them to be as happy as possible while putting her needs aside. If you read her blog you would know that she isn't letting this stop her from doing what she needs to do for her family. She is going down a new road that isn't exactly what she thought her life would be. She is still managing to have fun like running into 50 cent in Vegas or getting mistaken for a Kardashian. I'm sure it sucks to be gorgeous and talented and skinny and have darling kids. But for her it's just a walk in the park. She takes it day by day but I know she will come out on top. (Hey Tal, I love your guts!)

New Years Eve Pics

Two hot chicky babes. (Talia's shirt reminds me of a dalmation. Ruff!) Just being sexy. . .OK Dorky. Just being dorky.

Playing Left Right Center

Hanging out at the food counter

My sister in law Steph won Left Right Center and got all the $. It was so long ago that I can't even remember how much it was.

We had our annual New Year's Eve party at our house. This is the 4th year in a row that we have hosted it. We play bingo and left right center. Before the party we went to eat at Ninja. My personal favorite. When I take my first bite of their food I literally close my eyes and savor the taste. It's just dang good. ANYWAY then we had our peeps over for games. It's kind of an expensive party because Kody likes to make things interesting(aka gamble). Bingo has a $20 buy in and left right center is $3 a person. For a total of $46 if you come as a couple. (You can also come if you're a spinster.) So I didn't win any money all night. But it was fun. We laughed, we cried, we hurled. OK we didn't hurl but that line was from Wayne's World. I actually quoted Wayne's World at the party and confused Steph's dad who also happens to be named Wayne. Back to the party. Our friends left at about 1:00am. I was exhausted. I usually go to bed at 8:30-9:00ish. But all in all it was a good time had by all.

Christmas pics

So I started this post a million years ago but my computer didn't want me to upload all of these pictures. Anyway, this isn't all of our Christmas pics but it was all I was able to do. We had so much fun. We went to several parties throughout December. We ate Christmas eve dinner with Kody's family. Then we went to my family's Christmas eve party. It was at my Aunt Jeanette's house. After we came home and waited for Santa. He visited and after we opened our presents at home we headed over to the Smith's to skype with Karson. He is Kody's brother that is on a mission in Nebraska. We then hurried over to my mom's house for Christmas breakfast and present opening. After that we came home and took a long nap (3hours). Then it was back over to the Smith's for present opening and games. Kody's dad does a Christmas bingo game. We play several rounds with envelopes full of surprises for the winners. McKoy won so many times! He won $70! He is only 5 years old! Kody and I won quite a bit too. My sister in law Stephanie's parents and brother's family came for the games. It was fun. Then we came home for bed. The next day we cleaned our house and had my brother and sisters' families over. Along with my dad who lives in St. George with my step mom and my little brother and sister and grandma. We ate dinner and opened presents with them. Then played games. It was quite the weekend. Here are some of the pictures. After Santa visited. That is a huge race track McKoy received from Santa. Apparently Santa got one when he was a kid and thought it was a great idea. But Mrs. Clause is having a hard time finding a place to keep it set up. -Jeanette's Christmas Eve party- The drinking hat Brantzen won at the party. The tag said not intended for use with alcohol. I stole it but he stole it back. McKoy giving the hat a try.

A rough crowd. Seriously. There were people at this party you wouldn't want to run into down a dark alley/trailer park.

My mom and her seesters. My mom is in the red, JoAnna is in the white, and Jeanette is in the pink.

Grandpa Bud and I. He is crying as you can see. He cries at almost everything. I think this time it was because the funeral potatoes were so delicious. He is a cute guy.

My bestie/cousin Talia.

My kids on Santa's lap. Mataya loved Santa! Seriously! I thought she would cry but she just sat there. So we left her there for a while. Santa is a good babysitter. When it was time for Santa to leave McKoy wanted to follow him out to see his sleigh!

My seesters and I.

My cousins Cheyenna and Sally

More cousins Talia and Tayzha. McKoy giving the stink eye.

This is at the Smith's house for Christmas dinner. Mataya with baby Jackson.

Mataya cheesing it.

McKoy holding JJ. They are so cute.

A daddy with his princess.

Kody with his sister Bresha and her son Jackson.

Baby Jackson - look at those eyes!

Jackson and Kody playing together.

From left: Nicole Demille, Me, Julie Andersen, Crescent Marchant and our kids.

This is a pic of my friends annual Christmas gathering. When we didn't have kids it was a Christmas shopping trip. We've also just done dinner somewhere but this year we got our kids together and ate lunch and visited. We are missing our friend Lindsey Bagley, she had to work. But everyone else is here. We all have two kids each and Crescent is pregnant. I love these girls! This is the 9th Christmas since we started this! I can't believe how time flies!

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.