The County Fair, 2008

On August 16, we went to our local County Fair. We thought the kids might enjoy themselves, but we were all pretty disappointed by it. There were very few animals to see and there were no activities that small children might enjoy, but there was one thing there that was worth the free admission to see. We all were very impressed with the Lego display that was there. I took a lot of pictures so that Ethan could look at it again and again, so I'm sharing quite a few.

The trains were obviously Ethan's favorite part.

This is how amazed he was by the whole thing.

We all got to sit on a big tractor. Ethan didn't like it so much, but Spencer thought it was pretty cool.

That was pretty much it. Yes, we looked at some livestock, but the kids didn't really care too much about it. At least we got to spend time together; that's what really counts.

Here We Go

I got my computer with all my pictures on it back, so I will be playing catch up on the next few posts. I decided this time I should post as I would have instead of cramming all of the info into one post. I don't know how long it will take for me to do this, but at least now you know you have something to look forward to. ;)

Darn You, #81!

Well, it happened. I jinxed myself. Now I do remember the last time I threw up. Last Friday afternoon I started feeling dizzy and was later diagnosed with Vertigo. That stuff is not fun! (I still have a weird headache and feel like I'm constantly on the verge of extreme dizziness.) About half an hour into my dizziness I stood up from the couch to take some headache medicine and could not walk straight and felt very nauseous. I took some Aleve and about 5 seconds later it came back up. Oh, well. At least now I know that I can survive throwing up.
There are a lot of other things I've been wanting to blog about, but all of the pictures that I took to remind me of those stories are on our other computer. (That's a long story I won't bore you with.) Hopefully soon I will be able to blog as much as I'd like to.

100th Post-100 Things About Emily

I decided to list 100 things about me for my 100th post. It wasn't easy to think of 100 things. Some things you all probably already know and some things I may regret sharing later :). Here's to another 100 posts!

1. I love Celine Dion, and I have tickets for her concert this November. I'm so excited!

2. I love the T.V. show Friends. I own the series on DVD.

3. Three of my very favorite movies (in no particular order) are Grease, Dirty Dancing, and The Shawshank Redemption.

4. I secretly wish I were a good dancer and I really want to take ballroom dance lessons.

5. I am a very curious person and this sometimes leads to my being nosy.

6. I am addicted to ice cream, but unlike most ice cream addicts, I don't like many different flavors. I prefer the classics.

7. I am extremely shy. I sweat profusely and can feel myself turning red any time I initiate any kind of conversation with a stranger. I hate being the center of attention.

8. I am the fifth of six children.

9. I lived in seven different houses from birth to age 18.

10. I have always been a good speller. I used to do very well in spelling bees, and that was sometimes embarrassing. (See #7)

11. I have a pretty good long-term memory, but my short-term memory really stinks. Maybe I'll remember to put Shaun's clothes in the dryer in 10 years!

12. I love reality T.V. I think it feeds my curiosity nicely. (See #5)

13. My biggest dream growing up was to become a mommy, and I feel so blessed to have been able to do that.

14. I love the internet. I'm not sure how we ever lived without it, although I do wish it didn't consume so much of my time.

15. I'm a planner. I'm not very spontaneous.

16. I don't believe in love at first sight, but I definitely started falling in love with Shaun the first time I met him.

17. I have owned 6 cars (and now 1 scooter) since I was 18, and I drove 5 cars owned by my parents while in high school. I inherited the habit of trading in cars from my dad.

18. I have always been a very paranoid person and my paranoia has increased since becoming a mother.

19. I love my family. Family is very important to me.

20. I want to be a contestant on Wheel Of Fortune. I think I could win :).

21. I rarely get enough sleep, and it's all my fault.

22. I have a weird thing against odd numbers. I don’t particularly like them. I got this from my mom. I wonder if she inherited it from one of her parents.

23. I have moved eight times (lived in 9 places) since I got married 4 1/2 years ago. Too many times!

24. I have never been issued a traffic ticket.

25. I get carsick pretty easily, and there are only a few people whose driving doesn't make me very nervous.

26. I get very angry when I see children improperly (or not at all) restrained in a car, especially when their parents are wearing seat belts. (Why is your safety more important than your child's?!)

27. I'm somewhat of a hoarder. It's hard for me to get rid of anything that reminds me of anything or that I think I might use some day.

28. I like breakfast for dinner now that I'm the one making dinner, but growing up I got sick of it.

29. I think my dad is a great cook. He can always make things just the way I like them, and that's not an easy task.

30. I love my parents, and I admire their relationship.

31. I love my siblings, and my sisters are the best friends in the world (not just to me).

32. I am grateful that I know the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

33. I used to absolutely love horror movies, but now they scare me way too much.

34. I hate funerals.

35. I'm kind of a crybaby. (Hence #34)

36. I HATE cartoons made for adults (The Simpson’s, King of the Hill, etc.). Seriously, what's the point?

37. I still like the movie Cars, even though I've seen it (or at least parts of it) probably over 100 times. (Yes, I'm serious. I've seen it way more times than I've seen any of my favorite movies.)

38. I wish I knew a deaf person (or at least someone who I could sign with all of the time) so that I could become fluent in ASL through experience.

39. I am 5’ 7.5” tall.

40. I'd like to be more musical. I used to be very inspired by music, but I don't even listen to it much anymore.

41. I have obsessive-compulsive tendencies that I've passed on to Ethan, but I'm definitely NOT a clean freak.

42. I would like to be a better housekeeper, but I'd like to have a maid even more.

43. I am probably the pickiest eater you will ever know.

44. I really love my kids' laughter.

45. Surprisingly, I love talking, just not to strangers.

46. I've realized that I love baking, but I'd do more if I didn't have to clean up afterwards. (See #42)

47. I still have all of the letters and tapes that Shaun sent to me while on his mission. (See #27)

48. I'd love to go to Italy someday.

49. I am so happy that my husband makes such great family videos.

50. I have an intense fear of falling. The third rung on a ladder is enough to make me sweat. Some have accused me of being afraid of heights, but as long as I don’t think I might fall, any height is fine with me.

51. I’d like to go to Australia.

52. I’d like to travel to Hawaii.

53. Someday, I’d like to go back to Georgia and Canada with Shaun.

54. I am very proud of my kids.

55. I would like to have a girl one day.

56. I wish there were more hours in a day.

57. I love my nieces and nephews and I’m proud of them, too.

58. My favorite color is blue.

59. One of my biggest pet peeves is when people say “never mind”. I can’t stand not knowing what they were going to say or why they decided not to say it.

60. When I was young, I had a crush on the same boy for over 10 years, even though I didn’t live near him for most of that time.

61. I strongly dislike laundry.

62. I wonder why boys (like mine) always get the great eyelashes.

63. I like going to furniture stores, just to look and dream.

64. I have learned that my body doesn’t handle stress well.

65. I really appreciate a good sense of humor.

66. My favorite animal is the elephant.

67. I have dry skin.

68. I have poop-colored hair, and I have proof. (Ethan pointed to my hair the other day and said, “Kinda like poopy.”)

69. I REALLY want Lasik surgery. I miss my contacts, but I’m also glad that I don’t have to worry about them. It would be a lot easier if I could just see clearly when I woke up every morning.

70. I haven’t clearly seen the true size of anything since mid-May. (My glasses make everything look smaller.)

71. I tend to be somewhat of a hypochondriac.

72. I am sensitive to some metals and have worn the same earrings almost everyday since high school because they are white gold and don’t irritate my ears.

73. I love cheek and head kisses from Ethan.

74. I love ANY kisses from my kids.

75. I hate wet kisses (unless they’re from my kids).

76. I hope I will climb the Red Mountain (in Ivins) someday.

77. I don’t really like change.

78. I love to laugh.

79. I don’t like rainy days.

80. Thunder and lightning scare me.

81. I don’t remember the last time I threw up. (And I hope this doesn’t jinx me.)

82. I like photography.

83. I sometimes think I’d like to learn enough about photography to do it professionally.

84. I don’t iron. A spray bottle full of water is good enough for me.

85. I feel (and have felt) like an outcast a lot.

86. I think paper towels are one of the greatest inventions ever.

87. I have never had a broken bone. But I almost broke my nose once.

88. I work at Wal-Mart.

89. I love maple bars, especially from Albertson’s.

90. My favorite number is 8.

91. I was born in 1983.

92. Spring is my favorite season (and we totally didn’t have spring here this year!).

93. I once stabbed myself in the hand with a pocketknife and had to get stitches.

94. Now part of my thumb is permanently numb.

95. I used to play the flute. I’d like to pick one up again sometime.

96. I want to own a piano. (This is my official dibs on Mom & Dad’s.)

97. I would love to see a Broadway Play someday.

98. Fashion is very interesting to me.

99. I love that I have found friends from my past through blogging, but sometimes I feel like a major stalker.

100. I love nap time.

Dumpster Diving, Trains, and More

I feel like I've gotten way behind on blogging, so this will be a long post of many stories.

While everyone was here for the Family Reunion, we decided to take some family pictures. We took them with my brothers camera (which is nice) and Shaun and I played photographers. I just thought I'd share the silly photo we did, because I thought it turned out pretty cute. It also happens to be the only picture taken that Spencer looked at the camera. Stinker!

Our family.


Okay, now the stories start.

After unpacking the van from our camping trip with Shaun's family Shaun couldn't find the plastic bag that he had put his and Ethan's clothes in. Nobody, including Shaun, could remember carrying it into the house. They could, however, remember throwing bags of trash into the dumpster. So it was determined that Shaun's bag of clothes had been mistaken for a bag of trash. Shaun went to check the dumpster, and there it was. But, he couldn't reach it.


So he enlisted his niece, Journey, to assist him in his dumpster dive.


And the rescue was a success.


And, speaking of dumpsters, we had two dumpsters in our complex set on fire at two different times early this morning. I'm sure the fire department was happy about that.

The other day, Spencer taught himself a new trick. He got up on that chair all by himself.


He looked so big sitting and reading books with Ethan.


I was very proud of him at first, then he learned the even better trick of climbing from the chair onto the table. That's not so great. He also gets very frustrated now when he can't climb onto an adult sized chair. Oh, well. At least we're learning from all of this.

This is a train that Ethan built. He is extremely obsessed with trains lately and was very proud of this train that he made with a bunch of toys. I love that he included his doll's broken leg.


I think it's time for a haircut. What do you think?



Ethan has also been very good at playing Daddy the past few days. He has been putting Spencer in time out and scolding him by using his first and last name. He has also been playing with his bear a lot lately and showing it how to do things and singing songs with it. The bear has been in time out also. My favorite thing he has been doing with the bear was first an idea from Daddy. He feeds his bear because he wants to make it "poop" the food out.

Sound Effects

I have come to the conclusion that little boys are born with the ability to make sound effects with their mouths. What I don't know is why. I don't really understand what it is about being a boy that gives you the need to sound like a car, but apparently it does. Spencer has already come close to being a master at the car sound and is also pretty good at playing a train. I remember thinking that Ethan was too young to know how when he started doing sound effects, and now I'm surprised at how Spencer seems to innately understand that you can't push a locomotive around without mimicking it's sound. Ethan, after years of practice, is now so good at mimicking trains, cars, airplanes, helicopters, and more that I sometimes wonder if I'm at the airport or train station. While this is a great talent, I am slightly concerned that Ethan knows and can make the sounds of almost everything that has an engine or wheels, but still can't tell me what any animal sounds like. I remember, as a child, being praised for saying "oink" when asked what a pig says, but I don't recall getting any recognition for knowing how to imitate a helicopter. I guess, at least, I should be grateful that my boys came wired for this skill and that I didn't have to teach them. That surely would have made them the laughing stock of their peers.

Wordless Wednesday- Just Chillin'

Nice Legs

Spencer got on the printer again yesterday. This time Shaun and I thought to hit copy while he was up there. This is what came out. Pretty cute, I think.