On the Countdown to School!

I now wake up at 5am every. single. day. Kill me. But, really, ugh! It's pretty much the worst. Honestly, I love it though. Only for the fact that I don't get to waste the day away and I get to see part of the sunrise, and that's just beautiful.

Aurora is (mostly) all smiles in the morning and Dan and I have gotten into a good routine of helping each other get out the door on time.

Right now we only have one car, so this has pretty much been our schedule:

Drive 20 miles to drop Dan off at work by 6:30am.

Kill some time driving super slow and creepy-like on the streets of Parker so I don't take Aurora to the babysitter too early.

Drive back 10 miles to drop off Aurora at the babysitter (whom she is absolutely loving--basically, Esther is the best... and Desiree, who fills in when Esther can't) by 7:00am.

Then drive back 10 miles into town to do meetings at the high school for new teacher orientation by 7:30am.

THEN Dan and I are off at different times, so I leave the car with him in town, and I catch a ride with my cool new co-worker, Katie (who reminds me of my most wonderful cousin, Melissa--yeah, Melissa, I know you're probably reading this so I'll tell you all about why later!), for the 20 mile drive back out to my school for meetings there.

Later, Dan picks up Aurora on the way back home, and then we ALL work on getting my classroom ready until late and we go home for a late dinner and an early bedtime, so we can do it all again the next day!

Phew! Just typing that made me tired... Oh, wait, maybe I'm tired because I'm up past my new bedtime of 10:00pm... Yeeeaaaahhhh...

Anyway, that's been our crazy schedule for the last week and next week, we bump it up to needing to LEAVE the house by, at the latest, 5:30am, so Dan can be to work by 6:00am to drive the school bus.

Speaking of Dan, I'm going to brag on him for a minute. He hates it when I do, but I don't care! The man deserves some recognition, because he's just freaking awesome!

Dan took his final driving test to get his CDL (commercial driver's license), and he crushed it! For real! He got 100% and he's the only one the instructor has seen! So, pretty much, if you want safe kids, have them ride Dan's bus! I'm super proud of him!

He got his bus route and he'll be driving one of the three routes for my school, so that's exciting! He'll get to know my "kiddos!"

haha so I had to say "kiddos", because I've recently observed that that is the word here. I don't know if that is an Arizona thing, or a Parker thing, or I've just never noticed many people referring to our students as "kiddos", but they ALL do it here! haha So if I start calling my students, my "kiddos"... yeah, you all know where that came from...

Anyway, back to Dan... the other day, I finished with meetings at my school and I text Dan on the way back to my classroom asking if he'd be able to bring Aurora and come to the school to help me with my room. When I reached my classroom, he was already in there, and he had managed to get ALL my student desks cleaned (they had permanent marker on them)! 

Today, he helped me put up a "Blast Off To Reading!" bulletin board design in my room and it looks fantastic! I'll have to post a picture later of that so you all can see his great work! AND he wrote down the title and the author for every. single. chapter book I have in my classroom library, and that's a lot of books! (THANK YOU AGAIN FOR THE BOOKS, MOM!)

Aurora has been SO patient and flexible with my crazy, new teacher schedule!

AHHH! Her and Dan win the prize for Best Family! I mean it! You have no idea how much I love them!

You guys, school starts here on M-O-N-D-A-Y. MONDAY! That is in 4 days!! Oh. My. Heck! 

I'm so excited and nervous and overwhelmed and enthused and just a whole bunch of emotion right now! 

Seriously though, this is what I am supposed to be doing. This school year is going to be crazy and busy and a learning experience, but I think it will go so well! I already love teaching!

Wednesday Is My Day Off

Wednesdays are my day off... usually. And today, I had the day off... because it's Wednesday. SO I had big plans for my Wednesday, to have fun hanging out with my little cutie, Aurora all day since it was just going to be us.

But then we both slept in and I thought I'd have to babysit my friends' little girl after school and things just weren't working out.

So I was bummed. And Dan's out of town, helping his dad, Steve, with his courier business since he's sick from starting chemotherapy and having a bad cold on top of that. Ugh!

I was just feeling stuck in the house and down.

Around 3:15pm, I was packing Aurora into her car seat to go pick up our little friend from school, when her mom called to say that she ended up getting off work early and I didn't need to babysit today! Woo! Not that I don't love our little friend, but I had "big plans" to do something today, remember?

So I kept Aurora in her seat and we headed out the door with $21 in hand and a plan to find toddler shoes for my walking babe. OH MY GOSH! I forgot to tell you guys! WE HAVE A WALKING GIRL ON OUR HANDS!

Anyway, I needed to stretch that small wad of cash in my wallet as far as possible because I also needed diapers... hmmm... yeah.

For you moms who buy diapers, you know that this was basically not going to happen. Diapers are freaking expensive.

Lucky for us, I remembered seeing an ad on Facebook about a diaper sale happening at a store here in St. George called Traders Discount Markets, so before we left the house, I called them to see if they had some in stock... They did!

Oh! And I also called the Iron County School District to have them activate my application for some open elementary teaching positions! Eeek!

But then, we were on our way!

You guys.

Traders had diapers on sale for pretty much HALF OFF the regular price for the EXACT brand we buy!
I wanted to jump up and down for joy! I didn't.
And I wanted to buy all the diapers on the rack! I didn't do that either... only $21, remember?
So I left there spending only $15 for 138 diapers! That is a steal!

People, that was step 1 to turning my day around.

Step 2 happened after searching Walmart and Target for semi-cheap toddler shoes, to no avail, and ending up at the D.I. (All Target brought us was a fun little jam session with the Beats by Dre headphones haha)

I tried a few pairs of shoes on Aurora at the D.I., had her walk around in them (that was adorable), we chose two pairs, and then we paid for them! Guess how much?

$6!

I spent EXACTLY what I left the house with. Oh, success, you make me happy.

Then we drove around for a bit, enjoying the beautiful scenery of St. George and the summer-like weather before stopping by Albertson's on the way home.

Just one question for ya, Cedar City... Why the heck did you get rid of our Albertson's?! That store has everything! haha I love it!

I left with comfort food (guacamole, chips, a mango, fruit leather, and mini ice cream cartons) and pictures of my cute shopping buddy, so that went well.

When we got home, I watched a small portion of Lilo & Stitch with Aurora before putting her to bed. I am so lucky to be her mom! She is the sweetest thing!

Oh! And I got to talk to one of my best friends, Natalie Wade, tonight on the phone and she let me know that she will be coming to visit St. George in two weeks! I was so happy! I miss her!

AND THEN right after that, I checked Instagram to see that I had WON A CONTEST!!! It wasn't anything huge, but I never win! Never! I was so excited! You all have no idea!

I won a cute little stuffed bunny for Aurora from Apple Park Kids!

And then my cute hubby text me to say he missed me. And my dad called. And my sister-in-law, Kaela, posted a picture for me on Facebook saying they missed me being there.

So even though I'm alone tonight, I don't feel lonely. And even though my day seemed doomed, it turned out pretty good.

Sunday, Monday, Yada, Yada

These last two days have been kind of great.
To the outside world, they may not look like anything spectacular or out of the ordinary... but for our little family, they've been awesome!

Yesterday, Sunday, Dan got home from work at 8:00am. Aurora and I were already up and getting ready for church. Aurora was looking beautiful in the new dress she got from her Great Grandma Rigby and her cute flower hair clip she got from her Barclay aunts and grandma. Dan came in cheerful, despite a hectic morning at work and he looked so handsome in his church attire. And I was feeling pretty! I mean, all you girls out there can probably attest that that little fact right there can be all it takes for the makings of a good day, right?

We headed to church together and made it just in time for the sacrament meeting to start. The meeting was wonderful and the speakers spoke straight to my heart. It was as if they knew what was going on in our lives at this exact time and said what we needed to hear; the talks were on finding hope through your struggles.

Now as I say that I felt those talks on that particular topic were quite touching to me, many of you might be wondering what struggles we're enduring. Honestly, not too many, but some of the people closest to us are indeed struggling and in need of hope.

As many of you who follow me on Facebook might know, Dan's dad, Steve, is battling Melanoma (skin cancer). I'll share what his mom posted on the Facebook group page we've created to clue you in on his story:

I think that his parents and the whole rest of our family are in definite need of hope while going through this scary time.

The second speaker during the meeting, spoke of his dear mother who has been battling different kinds of cancer for a total of 13 years. He told that she had been given a blessing in the beginning of it all that she would live to see her youngest son serve a mission. During the years that followed, she had to go through stage IV cancer in various forms and survive the pains of having her cancer go into remission and come back multiple times. She was given "death sentences" of a few months to live each time they found the cancer had come back. Yet, through all that, she continued to have faith that she would be able to battle the cancer and she continued to have hope that she would come out stronger. Now it has been 13 years and her youngest son is putting in his papers to serve a mission. Because she continued to have hope even through her struggles, she is still here to see the fruits of the blessing she received so long ago. There were probably many times, that it would've been easy to get discouraged and lose hope, but she didn't.

My beautiful Grandmother Dorothella Smith, battled with Breast Cancer for most of my life. She was diagnosed with it around the time I was born and then it went into remission until the last couple years of her life. My mom always tells us that one thing my grandma really believed in was the power of having a hopeful and positive attitude in light of her struggles. Cancer is brutal and it isn't for the weak; my grandma knew that what you needed most to stay strong in the fight was a positive attitude, a hopeful attitude that you could survive and come out on top.

I think that one of the reasons my grandma battled so long was because of her hopeful attitude. She didn't let the depression of her diagnosis seep in and take over her body's ability to fight, she went about each day one step at a time with brightness.

As I write this, I'm not saying that just having a positive and hopeful attitude will cure cancer or solve all your problems. What I am saying is that it makes it a whole lot easier for you to see the light in the world, even when it seems at its darkest. Hope shines a light and clears your mind to help you see the good through all the bad. The talks on Sunday were a peaceful reminder for us to have hope and to not give up the fight with Steve! It was also a reminder to me that our Heavenly Father does know us each individually and he knows the desires of our hearts. What a testimony builder!

After church, Dan had to help the interior design woman finish getting the homes decorated for the Parade of Homes coming up. Because of my friend, Marissa, and her willingness to watch Aurora, I was able to help Dan. We got a lot done and it has been nice that I've been able to spend this time with him. This little side job has really been such a blessing to us. Dan was asked to help by our good friend, Shaun, and it has really helped to fill in the gaps from when Dan wasn't working. I even got to catch up a bit with Marissa when I got home. I haven't seen her in so long! We are truly blessed to have such good friends living near us.

Today brought with it 70° weather and beautiful sunshine plus two happy girls and one happy mama/babysitter. I watched Abi today and I'm happy to say that she AND Aurora are both feeling so much better after all this sickness that's been sticking around. I was lucky enough to find another high chair seat that I could use for Abi at lunch time on the St George Yard Sale page over the weekend, so we got to have both girls eat lunch at the same time, on their own. They were loving it!

We also spent some time outside today and we had a fun time following Miss Abi as she walked around the apartment complex. It only became not quite as fun when Abi decided she was too tired to walk any further and I ended up carrying both girls back to our apartment. Together they are heavy!

I also took a few pictures of the girls while we were outside; they both looked so cute! My favorite one is one I took standing on our porch looking down on them from above. I'm sad I could only get the one shot but that's about all you can do when you've got toddlers on the move!

Dan was able to work over at the parade/model home again today while I babysat and then got off early enough that we could hold Family Home Evening! We had so much fun. We got Panda Express for dinner and then couldn't help ourselves and got doughnuts from The Fractured Prune while we were over there. But, really, can you blame us? I mean, look at those things!

When we got home, we sang a hymn and said prayer before putting Aurora to bed and watching a movie. Dan fell asleep during the movie, but it's ok. After his busy weekend of working working working, he deserves an early bedtime!

Happy Monday, everyone!

Double Post?

Ok, I know what you are thinking! But I promise, this is not my second post of the day... not technically, anyway!

You see, I'm what you'd consider kind of a night owl. Especially when Dan is off working graveyard shifts. I just can't, for the life of me, go to sleep at a decent time. Tonight though, I'm going to try!

Which is exactly why it is going to look like I'm posting twice in one day, but really, I posted once last night (around 2am) and once right now (at 10:30pm) and I live by the phrase that "It's not the next day until I go to sleep!" haha

And besides, I'm trying REALLY hard to keep up on the whole blogging front because I know how much you all hate love having to read my catch-up posts. So I gotta post! I gotta!

Today was a semi-lazy Saturday. I say 'semi-lazy' because while I did get a few things accomplished, I still didn't do all I probably should have.

Highlights included:

♥ Day #2 of my Jamberry Nails trial.
I'll admit... I wasn't that impressed on day #1, but they are much better the second day... kind of like soup! And now that I can see my regular nail polish start to chip while the Jams are holding strong... Love 'em!!

♥ Waking up to my hubby getting home from work and a text from my sister, Becca, announcing the arrival of their new little man, Lucas Knight Riddle!
Don't feel bad if you didn't even know she was in labor... neither did her own family! haha I was a little sad that I had no idea until the little guy made his appearance, but I'm glad mom and baby are doing ok and that my brother-in-law, Alex is taking good care of them. That's about all the information I have to share other than his stats: He came a week before due date (even though Steph and I teased she'd be a week late, like us) and weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs. 9 oz.! Welcome to the world, little Lucas! Isn't he beautiful?

♥ My sister-in-law, Laura, was awesome and came to sit with Aurora while she napped, so that I could go with Dan to work for the interior design lady again.
If you missed the last post, he helps her move furniture and decor for model homes in St. George. Today was a short day, but I got to look at one of the homes he helped with and OH. MY. HECK. I want to move in like yesterday! I told Dan that one day, one day, I'll decorate the inside of our home like that. It was beautiful. Both homes we had to run by were in spectacular areas of town; Entrada and The Ledges of St. George. And the sun setting on the cloudy skies was the cherry on top of a wonderful time with Dan. I mean, look at those clouds!

Oh, and p.s. Laura and Cody are pregnant!! They will have their baby sometime in August! It is the year of the new nieces and nephews, apparently!

♥ Seeing Aurora's face light up at seeing her dad and then watching her try to eat the peel off the orange was great too. I just really love my daughter, ok!? Could she get any cuter??

Sick of Sharing

Remember a while back, like a month ago, I told you all that Dan had quit his job and was on the look out for a new one? And I'd mentioned I'd started babysitting? 

Well, If not, there ya go. You've officially been reminded. And just stay tuned, because I'm going to give you all the dirty details of our lives, as follows. Just keep those above reminders... in mind.

So far, we are going on weekend #2 of Dan's new job, PLUS the end of week #1 for Aurora and me being sick. Luckily, I'm starting to recover and so is she... only after a very scary visit to the ER in the middle of the night. More on that later.

And we're back to Dan's new job... Dan got hired on at Eagle Ranch Academy! Yay! 

It's a youth home that he's on staff to monitor at nights. 

Like all night. 

On the weekends. 

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. 

All night. 

8:00pm to 8:00am. 

Am I a fan of the schedule? No. 

Am I proud of him for getting the job? Yes! 

Am I grateful for all his hard work and that he has the job? You better believe it!

But on nights like tonight, where I haven't seen him all day because of opposite sleep schedules and combined work schedules, we go back to me not being a fan of the hours. 

Everyone always posts those articles that go on and on telling you how much better you sleep alone, and well, all I really have to say to about those articles is, "What a load of bull hockey!" I'll take nights sleeping with my bed-mate over nights alone, anytime!

On the bright side, with Dan gone, that meant that Aurora and I got to have a little mother-daughter date night. Granted, my date did fall asleep in the car on the way to get ice cream, but we had a killer time eating it (after I woke her up) and snuggling to Tangled (Aurora's current go-to film) for the 30th time today. 

And although she thoroughly hated having her picture taken for date night, I'm just over the moon that she's feeling better! Sunday night was, literally, the worst night.

I contracted whatever it was that our little cutie gal I babysit had last week and was sick with low-grade fevers, headaches, cough, and runny nose for the greater part of the week. So on Saturday, when Aurora started to get sick, I just assumed she had the same thing and tried to work with it accordingly. 

Sunday, she had a fever of 101-102 F the whole day with medicine, and Sunday night when she hit 103.5 F and rising, I quickly took her into the emergency room. Dan was in Cedar City for the Superbowl, so I called him and he rushed back to be with us at the hospital, and I was so relieved! I was so scared, as I sat in the ER cradling my lethargic baby and they clocked her in at just above 104 F. Her breathing was rapid and she was SO hot.

I kept praying that they'd figure out what the problem was and they'd get her temperature back down quickly and that Dan would get there soon. And all those prayers were answered as the hospital staff went straight to work and the doctor saw us quickly and my Dan got there in record time.

Thankfully, they located the problem and figured that what may have started as whatever I had, escalated to deep chest congestion and a double ear infection. They started her on antibiotics and ibuprofen and her temperature slowly creeped back down.

So after being out sick and doing no babysitting for a week, we started back up today because we're both feeling better. And the new favorite toy for the day was the laundry basket. We had a good time!

But, oh, the downside of babysitting. 

The sick sharing. And yes, we're sick of sharing. haha 

New Adventures

Two months. TOO long!

In that time... 

♥ Dan got offered a new job as the general manager of The Port of Subs in St. George and he accepted! 

♥ He started training for the job in St. George in the middle of July and over the few weeks that followed, he did more training in Las Vegas and Reno, Nevada, as well. 

♥ By August 11th, Dan was done training and we had officially moved our little family to a new apartment in St. George, Utah! 

Since then, we have been loving life as St. Georgians... and for a girl who has never lived anywhere but Cedar City, that is a BIG deal! 

In other news, Dan and I bought life insurance AND Dan started selling life insurance for Primerica on the side of being the GM at the Port of Subs. We loved that the company was all about helping families get where they wanted to be financially. It's helped us, so far, and we've been able to meet lots of other couples through that.

Also, I'm working now, too... two days a week at Port of Subs! haha It's been fun and I get to work with my cute hubby... as my boss! I was nervous about starting work because of finding a sitter for Aurora in a new town, but we have had such luck with finding AWESOME friends here. 

Our great friends, Shaun and Kara Cox live in St. George, and they recently gained a cute little six year old foster daughter. Kara works two days a week also, so we worked out a babysitting swap thing for the days either of us work. That has been a life saver! 

Our other friends, Mike and Bobbi Nessen (who we met through Shaun and Kara) have been life savers on the babysitting front, as well as in many other instances... always willing to help us out when we need it; no matter what it is! We are blessed to have met them. 

And my friends from Cedar, Aimee Sanders and Marissa Wade live in St. George, also, and have been willing to take Aurora if needed. 

Plus, Dan's Grandma and Grandpa Rigby live practically down the street from us and are always so good to us in any way we may need them.

We have truly been blessed and felt the love of friends who have become like family and grandparents who we have grown closer to as we have lived here. 

Also, our ward is basically awesome! We have loved going to church and felt extremely welcomed! 

(Sorry, I think I have rambled a bit... haha)

BUT the last bit of news is BY FAR the most exciting!

WE NOW HAVE A CRAWLING BABY ON OUR HANDS WHO WILL PULL HERSELF UP ONTO ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING!! 

Look out, world! We love it! ♥♥♥

I'd Never Do That...

Tonight is one of those nights where I eat my words as I, once again, realize that something I said I'd never do as a parent when I was a non-parent, I now do as an actual parent.

You know... we all know those people who aren't parents who say things like "Oh, I'm never going to do that when I have kids!" Well, yup... that was me.

So here I sit, tonight at 11pm not going to do something because Aurora is asleep. 11pm is her bedtime.

Before I had kids and our friends with kids would say that they couldn't come to something because their kids had to be in bed, I'd say to Dan, "I'm never going to do that. I'm never going to say we can't come to something just because our kids 'have to be in bed'. Kids can sleep anywhere! We'll just bring them and they can sleep at our friends' houses or whatever."

Well, Dan gently reminded me of this comment when I said, as an actual parent, "Ya know, we're going to have to start limiting our late night hang outs with friends because Aurora is starting to get on a sleep schedule and needs to be in bed by 11pm." haha

I've since learned that kids do better when they have routines; sleep schedules (aka 'bedtime') included. AND I continue to learn new things as a parent every day.

So the question you may have then is: Are you sad that you can't have your late night hang outs anymore??

And to that, my answer is: Not really.

INSTEAD of going out, I've had the lovely opportunity tonight of rocking my sweet, beautiful baby girl to sleep. I got to put on a movie favorite of mine, What About Bob?, and enjoy eating an avocado with a spoon, straight from the shell. I've had time to blog and blogging is completely relaxing to me. AND I get to have a bit of "me time" where I just get to sit and do nothing but relax in my pjs while Aurora is sleeping and before Dan gets home. "Me time" is nice... AND, sometimes, needed.

Parenting is definitely rewarding! We love our wonderful, little babe!

And, besides, we had a full day today.

Dan had a doctor's appointment this morning. And had blood work done. Hopefully they can figure out what's wrong with his body. It's time for him to start feeling good again! What a blessing it would be for him to be rid of his aches, pains, and ailments!

After the doctor's appointment, I dropped Dan off at work and Aurora and I headed over to the horseshoe pits to watch Dad and Erin compete in the doubles tournament with their partners for the Utah Summer Games. We braved the high temps with Mom and Cole and had a good time. PLUS, Erin and her partner won the bronze medal for their bracket! I love that horseshoes is something we can all do as a family. We've loved attending league on Thursdays and Dan loves pitching! We're looking forward to other tournaments this summer that Dan can participate in, too.

Aurora and I continued the afternoon with Artic Circle burgers at my family's house and then going over to visit her daddy at work. I love how excited Dan is all the time to show off our daughter and carry her around. He's such a wonderful father to Aurora! I sure love him!

When we finished there, we drove over to our Aunt Amy and Uncle Trav's house for a little birthday cake and ice cream for Grandma Rigby's birthday. She ended up leaving early with Grandpa because she wasn't feeling well but it was sure fun to spend a small part of her special day with her! The longer I know her, the more I grow to love her. She is one amazing lady! AND spending some time with the cousins and Dan's mom and dad and Caleb was lots of fun! Yummy cake, delicious ice cream, juicy blueberries, and lots of laughs!

Activities

Today was day #2 of my spur of the moment decision to join one of my instagram buds in a 30 Day Get Fit Challenge. 

It. Has. Been. Rough.

haha Buuuut, I guess "getting fit" shouldn't be easy, right?

I will say, though, that trying to "get fit" when you have a fussy 4 month old who got shots today and you babysit your VERY active niece and nephew for a few hours is not the best plan. I basically felt like every move I made was going to make my legs fall off my body! Squats and lunges make your legs BURN the next day! Which, in turn, makes it hard to chase kids around and standing-bounce your sad little baby after her doctor's appointment. 

I'm hoping it gets better. haha

For my own record, I'm going to list out each day's challenge activities. If you'd like to join in, feel free!

Day #1:

30 jumping jacks

30 crunches

10 sit ups

1 minute wall sit

10 lunges, each leg

47 squats

10 push-ups

25 knee highs

30 butt kicks

Day #2: (BY FAR an easier workout than day one... go figure)

10 jumping jacks

10 deep lunges, each leg

45 squats

20 sit ups

15 crunches

2 mile speed walk (*I substituted with a 30 minute walk around my neighborhood pushing Aurora in the stroller)

In addition to getting my body fit, I've decided to do a little work on strengthening my testimony and knowledge of the gospel. I take 20 minutes a day to myself (usually when Aurora is napping and Dan is working) to study The Book of Mormon and utilize the Preach My Gospel manual and then I read a little bit about the teachings of the prophet, Joseph Smith, in the Teachings of Presidents of the Church book. How awesome it has been to be reminded of the principles of the restoration of the gospel on this earth and to learn things and see things that I may have overlooked in the past. I'm glad we have prophets on the earth today to lead us and guide us in what the Lord would have us do. It's definitely uplifting to be reminded of the basic things of the gospel.

In other news, my sweet Dan did a little clean up on the fallen trees outside our house today. He cut down two huge trees and then trimmed up a few others AND cleared the rest of the ones that fell in the way of the driveway (ours and the neighbor's). Luckily, Jeremy was off work to help him because at one point they had to attach a rope to the car and to the tree so that they could use the car to make sure the huge tree fell the way they wanted. Yeah. I usually just watch and keep my fingers crossed that Dan doesn't have anything horrid happen to him. He loves running the chainsaw, though! Boys! haha

While they did that, Kaela and I took the kids on a walk around the neighborhood. It was crazy to see how many trees were down. The city is in need of a major spring cleaning! 

Oh! Guess what?? Guess what?? The doctor said that my baby is ready to add RICE CEREAL to her diet! And then in a few weeks we can add orange veggies!! I was excited but at the same time I'm over here thinking, "Where did the time go? My baby is getting so big!" I'm glad Dan was off work today because we both got a chance to try feeding the cereal to her. She seemed to like it, but at first her face was hilarious! It was like, "What is this stuff?" haha We'll keep trying.

Tonight we watched The Walking Dead and I snapped a few pictures of my unsuspecting hubby. Isn't he good looking? Yup. I kinda like him. Oh, and my beautiful napper! I like her, too! ♥♥♥

Cabin Clean Up & Tornado Snow Storms

This weekend, my Grandma Barclay wanted us all to come up for a little cabin spring cleaning in Midway. She had a whole list of stuff to be done and my whole family was going up to join the rest of the Barclay crew in cleaning and fixing stuff up. Well, Dan had to work on Friday and Saturday nights and couldn't get it off, so he suggested that I take Aurora and go up on Friday and come home Saturday (actually, he first suggested that I leave Aurora here with him and I said, "Woah, no! If I go up there without her, I'll never hear the end of it! Too many people need to see her!" haha)

So, on Friday morning, I got my stuff together and before leaving, my mom and I went to say goodbye to my dear friend, Laura and her cute little boy, Kaden. They moved on Saturday to her parents' house in Layton and we are SO sad they had to go! We will miss those two immensely! Guess, we'll have to plan trips to visit and just keep in touch.

After the visit, Erin and I came home to get packed up in the car to go and the ants were at it again! ALL over my kitchen! ALL over my dishes! GAHHHHH!! So after quickly washing all the dishes and spraying the kitchen down with ant killer, we were finally on the road.

It was so fun to have Erin ride up there with me. We jammed out to the radio and to Disney songs on CD all while Aurora slept in the backseat AND we made funny faces at mom and dad as we passed each other back and forth on the freeway. haha Then we stopped to visit the Henrie's in Spanish Fork.

That was going great untilllllll.... Aurora barfed all over my Aunt Lisa! haha That poor lady took it like only a seasoned mother and loving aunt could.

But then it was back to good and all smiles as we chatted and my cousins, Nick and Alex, sang pirate songs to Aurora. We will be so sad to have them move to Elko! We have loved our spur of the moment visitings to Spanish Fork but will try to head that direction whenever possible!

We then left Spanish and headed up the Provo Canyon to meet up with Steph, Becca, and Alex and Mom, Dad, and Collette for a little pizza and movies at the cabin before the early wake up call for the cleaning to begin.

Poor Aurora continued her barfing at the cabin for most of the night and I was worried we'd have to head home in the morning because she just didn't feel good. Luckily, I had MY mom there to take care of THIS stressed and frustrated mom, and my dad there to tell me that it'd all be ok, because we made it through the night and even were able to stay for the clean up!

Aurora got to meet a few of my cousins and we got a lot done while having a good time catching up. It even got a little adventurous when my cousin, Courtney, lost her wedding ring down the sewer pipe while ripping up linoleum in the bathroom... but don't worry! She got it out! haha I can't wait to stay at the cabin this summer with Dan!

I left on Saturday night and I got home just before the most horrible snow storm hit! This morning it was a beast outside! About 10 inches of heavy, wet snow and TONS of mutilated trees. The poor things just couldn't handle the weight of their new leaves and the snow. Cedar looks like a tornado ran through it! We even made the news!

Oh! And P.S. I almost forgot! Dan found a dog in the car when he went to come home after work on Saturday night! I'm guessing it jumped in the window when it started to get rainy and snowy.

We put it in the kitchen with the baby gate up and gave it food and water. It was the best dog! No barking at all AND it even laid down on this little bed we made it on the floor to sleep! We were going to keep it and try to find it's owners through Facebook but it ran away when Dan let it out to go potty. Oh, well. Hopefully it made it home!