How I told Jeff...

With my last two pregnancies, Jeff was right there with me to watch the test as it turned positive. I decided after my 2nd pregnancy that next time, I was going to surprise Jeff and tell him in a special way.

I found out I was pregnant the 6 days before our 1 year anniversary. Jeff was home when I took the test, and it was SOOO hard not to give away my exciting secret. He asked me several times that evening why I looked so happy and I had to bite my tongue to keep from telling him.

I started thinking up creative ways to tell him. I knew I wanted to do something with pink and blue balloons, I just wasn't sure what.

My first thought was to fill his trunk full of helium balloons and not tell him. At his job, when he leaves at night, its required that the security guard checks the trunks of everyone's cars to make sure they aren't stealing anything. My plans was that when the security guard opened the trunk billions of pink and blue balloons would fly out and Jeff would see. But then I realized that at 4am, that would probably give the poor guard a heart attack. I decided to store that idea in the back of my mind for future use.

My second idea, was to to blow up hundreds of pink and blue balloons and have them lying around in our house when we returned from our anniversary get away. That was the plan I went with.

Shelbie and Shaylah came over that week and helped me blow up literally about 200 balloons. We stored them all in the game room and stuck a big "Jeff stay out" sign on the door. We wrote "boy" and "girl" with question marks all over the balloons.

I asked my sisters to come to the house while we were gone and to pull the balloons out of the game room. I was on egg shells allllll week just dying to tell Jeff the news!!!!

It was even harder, and a bit comical, because all weekend long Jeff kept saying, "You are totally pregnant." "You've got to be pregnant!" "You need to take a test." I guess I was showing a lot of prego symptoms. ;-) I did loootttsss of peeing! I was SOOO sleepy! And I ate like a wild buffalo! Each time he said something like that, I just had to bite my tongue and keep quite...so hard!!!!

It was finally Sunday and I was very eager to head home and break the news to him. My family went above and beyond with the decorations ;-) As they were doing the balloons, my mom said, "I wish we had streamers too!" Which of course, when you don't have streamers...what's the next best option? Yea, toilet paper.

Jeff was taken back by the toilet paper and said, "Is this my surprise?" Assuming that the "surprise" was just a tp'd house as a "Welcome home" gift. I semi-nodded-semi-pointed to the balloons. He kicked a balloon that was in his way and said, "I like the balloo-" Suddenly he leaned down and picked up a balloon and realized that it said "Baby B due 2011."

It clicked with him immediately and he started cheering, "I KNEW IT!!!!!" He was very excited!!!! Later on he said that he liked that way I told him, and that it was the best surprise he's ever had.

Multiple Monday

161. Homemade Soup

162. Balloons :)

163. Helpers!!!

(Thanks Brothers for all your help this week!!)

164. Bowling with my family

165. Coming home from camping trips

166. Eating thrifty's ice cream with my brothers

167. Mexican Food

168. Flushing toilets and running water

(something I've missed this weekend while camping!!!)

169. Excitement and joy!

170. Having a pregnancy buddy!!!

Happy memories :)

Our first dinner guests :)

Happy Memories!!

Jeff and I came home from our Honeymoon to find our driveway all chalked up. Our sweet friends came over and marked up our driveway and tp'd our house. :)

pst!! Annie.....our driveway has been looking a bit sad and lonely lately. If I supply the chalk, will you come doodle on it for me?

Happy Memories :)

Our first "real" date. (Real meaning: our first date alone!)

This picture was taken after our wedding. When we left the church, we decided to go out to dinner. We were excited and giggling as we realized that our first "real" date was our wedding date!

During our meal, we asked the waiter to take a picture of us, explaining that we had just left our wedding reception. He frowned and acted like it was the biggest burden ever and took a picture halfheartedly.

Too bad it's blury. :( I really liked this picture.

Cute Chair!!!

I saw this chair the other day at Pier 1 (I think). I thought it was so cute!! I want it for my back patio. It looks so comfy!!! Like the perfect nap chair :)

Am I the only one?

Am I the only one who falls for stuff like this? It's only $19.99 plus shipping and handling!!!!

Kill proof plant update

I went a few days ago to get my 'kill proof' plants. I bought a long trough type pot and had plans of filling it with those ugly little succulent plants. But once I got to Home Depot and was actually looking at them, I realized, how ugly they truly are. As I was picking a few out, my mom called me and I started telling her my plans. She informed me, that getting succulents wasn't a true test for my 'keep plants alive' goal. She said I needed to get a real houseplant, that actually needs watered daily--not every 3 weeks like the succulents.


After pondering her point for a while, I realized she was right. So I left home depot and went over to 99 cent store to buy some cute little pots, as I had decided I didn't want to use the ugly trough pot after all. I bought 5 cute little pots.




Then I went back over to Home Depot and started looking at their pretty house plants. I decided to jump head in and get any plant I wanted, instead of only the plants that are hearty and don't need much water.



I ended up getting 1 ficus tree,




1 little tree type thingy that none of the HD people knew what it was (I bought it so that I could eventually find out!) a little ivy bush,





a tiny rose plant,


and a hanging fern plant, which is on my kitchen shelf :-)



The lady at Home Depot said that all these plants will improve and "freshen" the oxygyn in my house. So now, when I go inside I breathe in deeply and try to imagine fresh clean air. It still smells and feels the same though. I think I got scammed.

So now I have 2 pots left. One round one and that weird long green one. I saved the round one, for the avacado pit I'm trying to grow into a tree...hopefully one day it'll be planted in that lonely little pot. As for the long green one? I think I might *maybe* eventually go get a few ugly little succulents for that one. After looking at them for a while, there are a few that are kind of neat, and I might possibly enjoy having. We'll see... If I don't end up using it for succulents, I might use it for an herb box.



Which, speaking of herb boxes....



Ready to hear my deal of the year???



I was at Home Depot yesterday and they were having a big clearance sell. On a shelf, was tons of those metal tin herb kits. (Ya know, the ones that come complete with the herbs, dirt and pot?) Usually they're about 9 bucks. Sometimes, if you're lucky, you can get them onsale for 7. Well guess how much they were on clearance for?



drum roll please....

.50 cents!!!!!!!

I'm feeling pretty proud of myself. I've had all these plants for a few days now, and they're all doing great! None of them are looking droopy or weepy. They're all green and growing! Plus, my little herb box is already sprouting!! I'll post pictures of it in a few days after all 3 herbs start to grow. :)

I need these napkins!

Haha! These napkins have my name on them! :)

It's begining to feel a lot like Christmas....(la la la la la)

I can't wait til Christmas!!!!!! I looove decorating for holidays!! Last year we had so much fun decorating!! The outside of our house looked lovely, but oh my! The inside was gorgeous! It was a genuine winter wonderland!!!! We strung hundreds of lights up on our ceiling and looped angel hair all over the walls. Unfortunately, neither of us were smart enough to take a picture of it. :(
But believe me when I say it was very pretty :)

This was the outside of our house. We ended up also adding lights around the kitchen window, but never finished the garage door--which always bugs me when I see this picture!

And this was our Christmas tree. Our angel on top is very small and pathetic, in fact, it's actually an ornament that we ended up using as a topper, since we couldn't find a real topper we liked.

This year, we want to make our own glass ornaments, which will be a lot of fun and pretty!

I can't wait til christmas!!!!!!!!!!!! :-D

Double EEEKKKK!!!

EEEEKKK!!!!

I've got a riddle for you...

Nine in Ten equals Eleven, but Ten in Eleven equals Twelve...

We can also say one plus one equals three...

Aunt or Uncle; Sister or Brother...

April showers bring May flowers

We'll be counting down the hours, waiting patiently

Two Mommies and one Mammie

Boy or Girl what will "THEY" be?

Multitude Monday

151. Yard Sales

152. Simplifying

153. Going out of town with my hubby

154. being married to my best friend for 1 year --already!!!

155. The Disney Channel!

156. Free Starbucks coffees!

157. Infomercials ;-)

158. Homemade Jam

159. Sleep overs with my siblings!

160. Secrets ;-D

The Brothers

This picture is from our 6 flags trip last week. I thought it was cool, because it wasn't an posed picture. They were all standing there (in order of age) with their different converse and same-colored denim shorts on, I think it was a lucky shot.

Kill-proof plants

I'm sad to say what I'm about to admit. I have a well known habit, of killing off any plants I try to grow--indoor and outdoor. Ashamedly, I admit, I forget to water all the time! I love having plants! I hate killing them off!!

After some thorough "research" (code for: asking the Home Depot flower lady) what plants are hard to kill and survive well indoors, I have decided to attempt a Succulent box.

I don't really like succulents, I think they're kind of weird looking. But kind of like how parents give their child a goldfish and say: "If in 6 months you are still taking good care of 'Lucky' the fish, we'll buy you a dog," well that's what I'm doing with these ugly little plants. They'll be my little 'Lucky.' If in 6 months, my little succulents are still alive and thriving, I'll go out and buy a nicer prettier plant.

Succulents are also known as Cactuses (Cacti is a stupid word). But I plan on getting the ones without spikes and pokey things. These are the types I want to get:

They are all green, with random other colors mixed in and they all have super thick 'chunky' leaves. (I'm not even sure you can call them leaves.) I chose succulents out of the few options the HD lady gave me, because succulents absorb all the water you give them and retain them--thus an explanation for their chunky leaves. So I'll know, that when my succulents are looking thin, they need watered. The lady told me that I'll only have to water them every few days--which shouldn't be a problem for me. :)

Jeff said that Maycie is going to eat them, so I'm saying now: that if in 6 months, my "Luckies" aren't so "Lucky" because of Maycie, that doesn't count as points off in my quest towards a pretty houseplant.

I'm hoping J will take me tomorrow to pick out a few little plants. I'm excited to give my first real-hearted attempt at keeping some plants alive.

6 months...I can do that...right?

What does it feel like to be married?

(I found this post off of a blog that I dearly love! It was written by Melissa Jordan, and it seemed so fitting for today's date.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
'What does it feel like to be married?'

it feels the same as when you first fell in love.

except you have more opportunities to catch him flexing in the bathroom mirror

and he tells you you’re beautiful when you have on his too big sweat pants.

and also,

when you get into a stupid fight about how he keeps drinking out of the carton in the fridge when you’ve begged him not to a million times.

he’ll huff and puff and go sleep on the couch.

and an hour will pass.

you’ll toss and turn and then you’ll go out there

and say, “I can’t sleep without you”

and he’ll say “come here”

and you’ll curl up on your little couch together and forget why you were mad in the first place.

and in the morning he’ll finish your bowl of coco puffs.

so now you know.

M
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This post made me giggle and smile. Different relationships all have different quarks and different stories similar to this one, but all have the same loving and happy ending.

And I couldn't be happier.

Awesome diaper ad ;-)

Tomorrow is our 1 year!!!

Tomorrow is our 1 year anniversary!!! It's amazing how fast time flies!!!

We're going to go to Monterrey tomorrow! Woot Woot!! We're super excited, we haven't gotten away overnight since our honeymoon, so this will be a nice treat!

My postings will be a bit scant this next week, Maycie is in heat this week (ugh!) so we've been staying home at night. We don't have Internet so I have no way of blogging. Sorrrrry...

I keep telling Jeff I need Internet on my phone.... ;-)

Ta ta for now!! I shall tell the ocean hello for you all.

What is love?

Tomorrow is our 1 year anniversary. It's crazy to think that already it's been one year. Already!!!

Time flies sooooo fast!

And so much changes in such a short time!!

Jeff and I have been talking over the past few days about what we've learned during our 1st year of marriage. We shared what we've struggled with and what we've grown in and how we've helped/affected each other during this first year.

I had always imagined that marriage would be so easy. But marriage isn't always easy. There are so many times that we have to die to ourselves and put the other person first...and that is never easy!

We laugh when we talk about the stupid things we argue.

It's pathetic to admit...but our biggest argument (and a common one at that!) always takes place when we're driving...and its always about Jeff's driving. So for Jeff, one thing he's learned this year is: Drive carefully! (Lol) He's learned more important things too, of course ;-)

We've both been learning--and still have so much more learning to do! That communication is so important! All of our other petty little arguments, we realize afterwards would have been prevented had we both had communicated properly. Simple little communication deficiencies cause the dumbest arguments always!! And once you start talking the argument through, we both come to realize 'Oh. That was both of our faults...we need to communicate better.' And then we feel pretty silly.

Though we have a lot of silly little petty quarrels (not even deemed worthy enough to be "arguments" we are satisfied with the fact that we always immediately talk it over and patch things up. Though our communication skills aren't perfect, we are very good at always talking things through as soon as it happens and apologizing.

We never let the sun go down on our anger, and like my parents in the early year of their marriage, we've made two promises: a) we'll never leave in the middle of an argument and b) we'll never sleep on the couch if we're mad. Both of these have never been a issue for us, as our little spats aren't bad enough that either of us ever even thought of these possibilities!!!

We've both grown a lot this year.

A few things that I have learned this year is:

a) Jeff needs and wants a sweet loving wife. I still struggle with my deviousness and obnoxiousness, but I can also muster out some stickly-sweetness when it's needed.

and the most important thing I've learned is:

Nobody is perfect. For some reason, after we got married, I had this image in my mind that Jeff was going to be perfect in every way. I was shocked when I discovered that *gasp!!* he's not! This has been a constant struggle, with everything. I wish I put the same pressure on myself as I have silently put on Jeff. After I realized that I had put this pressure on the poor guy, I started working on kicking that mentality out. Jeff isn't perfect--he's almost perfect :) but not completely perfect. I'd be impossible to marry the perfect man! It'd be impossible to be the perfect person!

The quote I wrote above, is what has helped me the most. It reminds me that true love doesn't expect someone to be perfect. It forgets about the flaws in a person. I love that quote so much! And at times, when Jeff is less than perfect (as in the time he laughed at me for not hanging the fruit basket up right!) the Lord brings to my mind that quote and I'm able to add that flaw to the jar and forget about it, and really, my jar of "Jeff flaws" isn't actually all that big. In fact, it's rather small. I'm sure Jeff's jar for my flaws is probably a pretty big jar! I'm blessed that he doesn't remind me of my flaws and bring to my attention my weaknesses.

I'm getting better at this fault of mine. I'm having to work on it less and less in my life. But I look forward to the day, where the word "perfect husband" isn't even in my thought vocabulary. It's become faded and distorted, so I know someday soon, that spot in the dictionary will be covered up with the word: "True Love = the ability to take every fault you see in the person you love. Put it in a jar in the back of the cabinet and forget that it's there."

We've come pretty far in our journey together, yet I'm sure no marriage journey (For Jeff nor I) will ever end. Marriage is all about constantly striving for better. Striving to be a better spouse and never settling in where your relationship to your spouse is at. Always working towards a stronger relationship. Towards a better friendship. To a deeper love. Both, always striving towards the best both of us could possibly be.


♥ This has been a wonderful year, Jeffy! Thanks for making me such a happy wife! I Love you!! ♥

Kids clogs

I remember having several pair of these hideous yet amazing clogs as a kid!! They were the genuine wooden heeled ones, so every time I took a step or danced they'd 'clap clap clap' away! They made such a lovely noise! I'm sure I drove my entire family bonkers with them!

A few nights ago, I was on Walmart's website looking for a pair of rain boots, and of all things to stumble upon, I found these little girl's clogs!! Aren't they so cute? Impractical and obnoxiously loud, but cute!!

I'm ashamed to admit, when I saw these adorable giraffe printed ones, I check the size chart to see if they happened to cross over into the adult sizes as well. I have a weird fetish with giraffe prints. And lately, leopard also.

Why don't they make shoes as cool as these for us big people also??

Decorating Idea

Lately I've been struggling with coming up with an idea for decorating my naked living room wall. It's got a mirror on it right now, that just looks out of place and lonely. I don't really want to hang pictures up, because the wall isn't big enough for decent sized frames--and I don't want 40 3x5 frames on my wall. Thus, I've been stumped on ideas. Finally, the other day, an idea came to me!!

I was on ebay looking at plates. Don't ask why, I'm not sure. When suddenly, my eyes fell upon a lonely little plate that just screamed at me: "I belong on your wall! Buy me and give me home!!!!" It was this plate:


I ignored it and continued looking. Suddenly, another little plate started yelling at me: "I need a home!!!"

And then, yet another!!!

And more!!!!

I had no idea, that so many poor little orphaned plates were sitting on ebay looking for a home. A nice wall to adorn. A little piece of prettyness to doll up a lonely wall.

And that's when it hit me: my naked little mirror wall is going to become a home for all these lonesome little plates! My mirror shall have dozens of little plate siblings.

I decided not to do any special arrangement, I'm just going to slowly start collecting them and randomly adding them to my wall. My wall and myself--plus all those orphaned plates, are thrilled with this idea!

Sooo funny!!

I hope this isn't too "much" for my readers. I saw this and started Bagging. (yes, I busted a gut!)

Mama: I though of you when I saw this!!! ;-)

Ugly or Awesome?

I can't decide: Are these ugly or awesome??

Things I love just because

Vintage Aprons

Raisin the pet rat

The other day, my aunt and two cousins came over and brought their rats with them. This week they brought Raisin and Daisy, because Carly and Sam came last week. (Yes, they brought their pet rats...you read that correctly!) Bringing pets to my family's house is a very common thing!! (in fact, their new pet bunny, Benny also came with them today!)



Shaylah has two rats also--Mickey and Minnie, whom Tarryn and Lynna's rats like to play with, which is why my cousins bring theirs. (Yes you also read that correctly: we plan and host Rat play dates.)



Anywhoo...as I stated above, today Raisin and Daisy came. Now Daisy is a really cute and pretty rat. She's a dumbo rat--so her ears are really big! But she's all white with little brown eyes.



Raisin on the other hand...well Raisin, poor dear, got slapped around a bit with the big ol' ugly stick.



Meet Raisin:



Yup, she's a hairless rat. That little rat was the ugliest thing I've ever seen!! She had little rolls of bunched up skin all over her body! Her face looked like it was 'trying' to grow some hair and her little whiskers were all curly. (By the way, something was majorly wrong with her face...it was all oddly shapen!!)



Don't make fun of Raisin though, because her mommies: Aunt Dee Dee, Tarryn and Lynna take it very personally. By the end of the afternoon, even Auntie Marni was defending poor little Raisin's looks.



At first, I refused to even admit Raisin is my cousin--I disowned her once I met her. And I refused to touch her!! But after watching Poppet let it climb all over her shoulders and my mom stroke it like a kitten and exclaim (over and over and over again) "She's so soft and smooth!!" I finally decided to give it a try.



I came to find out, that Little Raisin isn't as nasty to touch as she is to look at. In fact, Auntie Marni's description of her being "soft and smooth" was a good explanation. Raisin was very very smooth and soft. Not to mention, incredibly sweet. Which I suppose if I was as ugly as her, I'd be super sweet also...?



Anyways, long story short. I now claim little Raisin as my own cousin. And I decided: If I ever get a pet rat, I'll probably get a hairless one also.

Poppet holding Raisin and Daisy

Confession

Sometimes I ask Jeff to pull over when we're driving, so that I can pick some road side flowers for a boquet.

New Shoes @ Target!!!

Target has some new shoes in!! They're super cute and cheap!! They actually might be slippers...Idk. But I want to get a pair for every day wear!! I really love the yellow pair, I want to sew a few buttons on them to completet the look!

They come in pink, yellow, beige, black, and checkered!!

I found them!!!!

I've been on a constant hunt for the past few months for the perfect pair of cowgirl boots and Mary Jane pumps. I've looked high and low, and have yet to find a pair that looks cute and is comfey to wear.



But finally...my search is over. I have found the shoes I want....



I haven't decided yet if I want the red ones, the black ones, or both. :-}

Aren't they cute?!?

Now if only I could get Jeff to understand why I NEED these shoes...

;-D

Road Side flower boquet

This boquet of road side flowers is now gracing my mom's kitchen table, making the whole room look bright and cheery.

Shoe Addiction

I'm finally going to admit it....I have a shoe addiction.

Yes I am seeking counceling.
Yes I do want to overcome this weakness in my life.
Yes I do want help.

Right after I buy this pair of shoes:

I finally found a pair of moccasins that I kinda like. At first, when I saw them, I didn't like them. But after they were on my feet...ah! True love!! I'm not sure yet which color I'm going to get them in...brown or brown? (Different shades of brown of course!!)

Crazy game of Chinese Checkers

Last week Amanda came back over to hang out with me. We spent the evening playing Speed and Chinese Checkers. After boring ourselves out with those games (and being the only two games I really own) we decided to spice up our next game of Chinese Checkers. Instead of each of us playing with only one color, we decided to each play with two colors. And if that wasn't already confusing and challenging enough, the next game we played we each played with THREE colors. YIKES!! What a mad house!! Both of us kept forgetting which colors were ours and which color was supposed to end up where. But all in all, it was an absolute blast! I think both of our brains hurt when we were finished, and that game ended our evening of Chinese Checkers. But we'd both agree, 3 colors each was definitely a lot of fun! I think that'll become our new way of playing this game.