Christmas and Disneyland.

Well, we had a great time at my parent's house visiting with everyone. It was so nice to see my Grandparents and Aunt and Uncle. Also it was great to finally put a face to my brother's new girlfriend Rhiannon. She is a doll and was so patient with the kiddo's.
We opened presents on Saturday (dec. 2) and I had 2 itty bitty presents that I told the kids were their "big gift". One was a miniature snowglobe of Minnie Mouse for Kaitlyn and a pressed coin book for Aidan with a picture of Disneyland on it. At first they opened it and just kind of looked at me like "These are our big gifts????" It was really funny, but then I broke down and told Kaitlyn to read what it said on Aidan's coin book, and said "We are going there on Monday!". Her face really lit up then, she was so excited! And I don't think she slept very much for 2 nights. It was such a fun way to tell them. Although Aidan didn't know what to think since he had never been there.
On Monday when we got there we took the tram over and Aidan kept saying "This is fun!". And we hadn't even gotten inside the park yet.
The park closed at 6:00 that night and so it wasn't croweded at all. Who want's to spend all that money for the park to close early? We just about walked on all the rides. It took us longer to buy lunch than to get on any of the rides.
The first two rides we went on were Pirates and the haunted house. Aidan looked like this for all of pirates and the beginning of the Haunted house. After that he enjoyed everything and most rides he said "I want to do that again!"

Kaitlyn had a great time getting some signatures for her autograph book that my cousin got for her when she was at Disneyland Paris. Her main concern was meeting Minnie Mouse. And luckily
we did run into her in toon town! Kaitlyn was very happy for that! All in all it was a wonderful day. And we are all looking forward to going back another day. Next time we would like to do a few days so that we can go to California Disney as well. The kids were exhausted by the time 6:00 rolled around and I don't think we could have done anything more they were so tired. Although they have both asked me when we are going back.

Thankful.

Lot's of busy things going on lately and no time to blog. We are in official finish Christmas shopping mode in the Wamp house. We leave a week from Friday for our trip to Calli. I am so excited and the kids are too. They still don't know about Disneyland and I can't wait for their reaction. My Mom and Dad are coming with us too, so I am excited for that too.
Other things going on around here...The new shifts came out. I received Friday, Saturday and Sunday's off. I will be so happy to get back into the routine of going to church with my family, but I did have to trade of doing Girl Scouts. There just wasn't a shift that had Saturday, Sunday and Tuesdays off. That is OK though. I have felt that God is telling me to give that up for awhile anyways. Kaitlyn will still attend I just won't be able to. I start my new shift in January.
We are headed to Aaron's parents house for a later celebrated Thanksgiving on Friday. Aunt Janet has a room that she calls "The Girls Room" and Kaitlyn will spend the night with her on Friday. Kaitlyn is excited to go play doll's with Aunt Janet and to spend the night with her. Aidan told her "But if you go to Aunt Janet's then there won't be any girls there" (there being Grandma's and Poppa's). Too cute.
Ok, Off to go get some more Christmas stuff done. I was hoping to have it all done and shipped by yesterday but Aaron was sick on Monday night and I slept on the couch so I was too tired to get it finished yesterday. Hopefully I can have it all done and shipped off on Friday.
Love to all! We are Thankful for all of you, you have each blessed our lives in some way and want you to know that we are grateful for it!

Breathing a sigh of relief.

I have never been so happy to have Halloween over. This year was one of the hardest years for me to stick to our beliefs. I have never been one to have a too hard of time for living what I believe. But with the birth of our children, and Kaitlyn going to public school I have been having a hard time sticking with what I believe.
We have chosen not to celebrate halloween due to the origins of it. So, we don't go "Trick or Treating" (I hate even the name of that.) And for years we have done nothing as far as dressing up. Well, the last few years they have had a fall festival at our church on a day other than halloween. That is fine. We go and participate the kids have fun. It is a fun time and an outreach into our community.
That part that has become hard the last few years is the actual day of halloween at school. They do a parade and have a big party. So, I feel bad when Kaitlyn isn't dressed up (she didn't for kindergarten) and misses out on the fun activities. The last 2 years I have let her dress up for the school parade, but then I feel guilty to not sticking with what I believe in. I mean if I am letting her dress up for school, but not go "trick or treating" or carve pumpkins or any of the other halloween stuff am I being a hypocrite?
It is just so hard to balance your convictions to wanting the best for your children. Not hurting their feelings or making an outcast out of them for their beliefs. I think some major prayer is in order before next years halloween.
I am so glad the day is over and that we can move on to celebrating things that are important to us...being thankful and Christ's birth!

SNOW!

Yep it snowed last night! I was working and was on the phone with a lady from the New York area. She was asking me about UT and how we must have better weather than where she is but we probably don't get all the changes of seasons. I told her that it was snowing at the time we were talking and she said..."I guess I'll stay put then". LOL! I thought she was really cute. (But I do believe that UT does have better weather than NY any day!)

Cookie got a hair cut.

Poor thing doesn't even look like the same dog! We tried to do it ourselves, but our trimmer wasn't working properly so I called all around and made her an appointment for Wednesday.
She had an appoinment yesterday for the vet to get her rabies vaccination and they do grooming there too and just happened to have an opening. We quickly jumped on it since she was so matted up. Well they took all of her hair away. Last night she even looked pink because of having so little hair left. Having no hair has turned her into a little lap dog because she is so cold. We'll have to get her a sweater soon.

She is already spoiled rotten. She loves to go for car rides and goes with us to take Kaitlyn to school. Since we car pool it is pretty funny to see 4 kids, me and cookie all pull up for school in my little Saturn. But it is a very short distance so I don't mind.
Other news besides Cookie. My brother in law's automotive shop just opened. He and his family have put in alot of hard hours to get it off the ground and we are so proud of you guys! We wish you all the best on your new adventure!

Pictures of our new doggie.

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Cookie has arrived! Yep, her name is cookie. The dog is supposed to be mostly for Aidan, all little boys need a dog. Cookie is a one year old Shih Tzu. She is really sweet, the first time we saw her must have been the first day in the shelter because she was really scared and didn't really know what to think of us. Today Aidan and I went to see her in her kennel before they called us back to the interview room, when we got their she was full of life and gave us both kisses on the fingers. We knew then and their that she was meant to be ours. So, we the interview was really more informational about what shots she has had and what was expected of us.
We brought her out to the car and she jumped right in the backseat with Aidan. And on the ride home she would go from me, to the passenger seat, to the back seat, to Aidan and back again. Aidan really giggled when she jumped in his lap.
As you can see she is in desperate need of some grooming. Her undercoat is pretty matted up and she needs to put on a little bit of weight. We were planning to take her to the groomers, but decided to do it ourselves since winter is coming and then would probably shave it all off. So, Aaron and I pulled out the shears and cut off as many of the mats as we could while still leaving her fur, and gave her a bath. She was really good, we were pulling and tugging and brushing and combing her and she just stood there. I don't think we will have a problem with her nipping at Aidan at all which I am thankful for.
Oh and one more neat thing about her, she has one blue eye and one brown one. It is really cool. She is such a sweetheart and we are glad to have her in our family. (PS Kaitlyn is having a playdate today, I am sure there will be lots of pictures with her and Cookie. We didn't intentionally leave her out!)

Another Aidan Funny.

Mommy: Aidan what would you like for Christmas this year? (Trying to be good and make up a list to send to my mom)
Aidan: I already told you I want a...a...a.... "TREE MA KISS"!
(Which would be a Christmas tree). Too funny.
I love that all that he will tell me is that he wants a tree ma kiss. That is always the highlight of Christmas for me, just the 4 of us shopping for and decorating the Christmas tree. Aaron does the lights, we all put up the various ornaments and I do the beads and the other household decorations. We listen to Christmas Carols and then when we are finished we turn out the lights and enjoy the fruits of our labor.
And if you all are thinking that it is way to early to even start thinking about Christmas I totally agree except that we are celebrating with my family the FIRST weekend in December. So with loosing a few weeks it had to be made up somewhere.
I hope you all have a beautiful holiday season and a very pretty "Tree MA KISS"!

Cruising.

So, we had a great time on our crusie. This is just my immediate family and my sister's boyfriend and my brother's roommate. We had a great time visiting with each other.
Aaron and I left a day early to make sure we would make it on our flight. We stayed at the Queen Mary which was really interesting. I did not realize how much history was actually involved with that ship. We took a tour and learned some neat things about it.
We had a great time visiting with everyone and getting to know Tom and Landin better.
We went to La Bufadora which is a blowhole in Ensenada Mexico. At the Blowhole there is a flea market and all the vendor's yell at you trying to get you to come to their "shop". I didn't much care for that, and once in the shop they would follow us all around. There were very few places that would just let us look around and not pester us, I told my mom that I wish that I would have found things to buy in those places as I enjoyed shopping there much more. We had lunch at a nice little restaurant which made the best fresh corn tortillas! They were so yummy! I did find some pretty good deals, and got myself a "Fucci" purse. (Fucci was our nickname for fake Gucci, my aunt bought a "Frauda" instead of Prauda).
Our only wish was that the cruise line itself would have been a little better. The food was not nearly as good as the last cruise we went on and the activities were so bunched up together that by 2:00 there wasn't much to do. Our next cruise will be on a different line for sure, but in hindsight it was actually good that there wasn't a whole lot to do because it gave us more time to sit and visit which is what this was all about for us.
We had an awesome time but it is soo good to be home to Kaitlyn and Aidan who we missed very much!

Disneyland here we come!!!

I am so excited! We are planning a trip to CA for the first week in December. I have already traded all of my days (which was so easy this time!) for work. And then I talked with a very good friend of ours who works at Disneyland. He said he would get us into the park one of the days we are there!!! Thanks Jimmy!

Aidan has never been there and it has been awhile since Kaitlyn has been there I think she was 3 the last time we went. We are going to have it be a surprise and wrap up some sort of Disney related gift to give to each of them while we are at my mom and dad's celebrating Christmas on the 3rd. It is going to be sooooo hard for me to keep it a secret because Kaitlyn has been asking me if we can go there and Aidan has seen the pictures of the last time we went and says it looks like fun and he wants to go there! I love good surprises like that!

I know I am spoiled, but I have been to Disneyland lots of times. Our graduation night was spent at Disneyland, a whole night staying up and enjoying the happiest place on earth...what better way to celebrate. Aaron and I were almost engaged at Disneyland..at least that is what I have been told, but he thought I knew so he decided to wait. (And I never knew by the way!)

Some of my happiest memories have been at Disneyland. We used to try to go once a year, and it is amazing to me how it has changed so much since when I was a kid. One of my favorite rides as a kid is no longer there. It was called the adventure through inner space, and by the time you were at the end of the ride you looked just inches tall.I think Star Tours took the place of that ride many years ago. I have seen Bear Country Jamboree go, which is really sad....And yet somehow the Tiki room is still there. I know there have been even bigger changes since my parents were children. When my mom was a child they had tickets to get on the rides.
Although Walt Disney said "The way I see it, Disneyland will never be finished. It’s something we can keep developing and adding to. A motion picture is different. Once it’s wrapped up and sent out for processing, we’re through with it. If there are things that could be improved, we can’t do anything about them anymore. I’ve always wanted to work on something alive, something that keeps growing. We’ve got that in Disneyland." And while I love that about Disney, I still long for some of the nostalgia of some of the lesser remembered attractions. But I do have to admit some of the changes have been for the better...case in point...Captain EO. It replaced "America Sings" which was entertaining and taught some sort of historical importance Captain EO was just awful. I have not seen the latest attraction that has replaced it, but I think anything has to be better that Michael Jackson!

And while most of the changes have been for the better, I believe there are 2 attractions that will always remain. Oh sure they may have some up grades and renovations, but the premise of them will always stay the same. And those are my 2 absolute favorite rides, I cannot go to Disneyland without riding on "Haunted Mansion" and "Pirates of the Carribbean". Aaron and I even took Kaitlyn on both of those when she was very little...and like us she loved them. She was a little scared in the Haunted Mansion, but for the most part she really loved it. If you could see Kaitlyn's face in this picture you would see that she is so full of glee. (Please forgive the not so great LO this one was done at the beginning stages of scrapbooking).

I am so excited to be taking both of my children to one of the places that I loved in my childhood, to give them the opportunity to find those nostalgic attractions that they can remember and tell their children about someday. After all Disney is a growing and changing entity.

Pajama Day.

So the weather has been cold and rainy all week. This morning I had to work for 2 hours, when that happens I usually let the kids watch a movie. It works well for us. Well today after I got off of work the kids were still in their jammies, and we decided to watch another movie. It was a nice time to just sit and not have to think about anything. I really ejoyed it.
Tonight I have training for work. They are changing the program we use to book reservations, actually they have been changing everything from the website our customers use to our intranet. I am at the point that I wish they would stop changing things, it feels like I just learned where everything is and now they are changing it again on me!
Ok, it is 2:30 I suppose I need to go get out of my jammies and into some clothes for work. Nothing better than Pajama Day :0)

Love is

I heard this song today and loved the lyrics. I wish I knew who sings it so I can get myself a copy of it. Anyways here are the lyrics:

Theres nothing to hide nothing to fear everything is crystal clear.
No phony disguise no faces to wear there is nothing we can not share.
Cause I am at ease when I am with you. I know love is gonna see us through.

CHORUS:
Love is higher than the mountains
Love is deeper than the oceans
Love is wider than the miles between you and me.
Love is stronger than a freight train.
Love is faster than a jet plane.
Love is bigger than the troubles that we'll ever see.


We're Never apart We're never alone. Love is Closer than the telephone.
No wall is to high no distance to great that love would ever hesitate
Cause we are the stage and love is the play.
And the scene is just another day.
Chorus


Long is the day and dark is the night I know love is going to be our light.
Valley is low the desert is dry....love will never die.
chorus

To those who are far away from us... We miss you and love you. (Mom, Dad, Janay, Sean, Jami, Brian, Hannah, Seth...and too many family members and friends that I dont' have time to mention.) We love you and you are always on our minds.

A fun day and flowers.

On Labor day I was lucky enough to get the entire day off. So, we decided to head up to Ogden to the Treehouse children's museum. It was really cool and the kids had a great time! The museum is set up like you are going through different parts of the world or different stories. This picture was from the china exhibit. There were also Africa, Japan, Germany, England, and a few others I can't think of right off the top of my head.
On the day we went it was Pirate day and the kids got to go to pirate school which they thought was really funny. The main pirate did a great job. They also did a treasure hunt where the families went all through the museum looking for X's with little words written on them. Then we were to unscramble the sentence to figure out where the treasure was. The treasure was hershey's chocolates, and who doesn't love that!

Although I have to admit I think my favorite part was meeting the president in his oval office. Did you know that they moved it to UT? LOL! Aaron and I did have fun pretending in it though, who says adults can't have fun too? Although I think that these 2 little ones are just about the cutest president's I have ever seen.
And now for the flowers. We have this bush that in the winter looks like sticks poking out of the ground but in the spring it has leaves and then in the late summer it produces the prettiest pink flowers. When we moved here the previous owners had it planted right next to the driveway and I just thought it was way to big to be there. So we transplanted it to right outside my kitchen window. Last year it didn't bloom and we thought maybe it had died, but it has taken off and I love looking at it when I'm in the kitchen, but the only problem is I have no idea what kind of plant it is. The buds start out just like a hibiscus, but they don't come out looking like that. So, if you know what they are I would love to know the name of it. I love flowers and so far this year the ones we bought are doing really well. There are so many beautiful ones that I just love to go out and putter around in the yard.
Aaron on the other had loves to grow veggies, and he is doing a phenominal job with it! We have had tomatos, peppers, pumpkins, cucumbers, sugar snap peas, onions, broccoli, carrots, corn, lettuce and watermelon. I have missed really good fresh tomatos ever since we moved here and to be able to just go out and pick them is so refreshing! Not to mention the amount of money we have been saving by not buying all of our veggies at the grocery store. We have been thinking that it might be beneficial to build a green house so that we can have fresh veggies all year. YUM!

So proud of Kaitlyn.

Today, I recieved a phone call from Kaitlyn's best friends mom. She told me that Kaitlyn's friend had told her Kaitlyn has said somethings that really hurt her feelings and that she didn't think Kaitlyn didn't want to be her friend anymore.
So, I chatted with Kaitlyn about it after school today. Kaitlyn doesn't remeber saying those things to her, but instantly wanted to call and apologize. She felt really bad that her friend's feelings were hurt. I told her that she needs to watch the words she is using. She doesn't deliberatly try to hurt people's feelings, but sometimes words just come out wrong.
Well, she called her friend and now all is right in the world. Kaitlyn said she was really sorry, her friend instantly forgave her. Now they are trying to plan playdates :0)
It makes me feel pretty good knowing that Aaron and I have raised our daughter to apologize when she has wronged somebody, and that she chooses good friends that will forgive instead of holding grudges....
Now if in Jr. High it will work like this, well that's a whole nother story I guess :0)

Not much going on here.

Nothing much going on here in our household this week. I had a shift change, so I now work 3:30-9:30pm. And I am still adjusting. It is ok, but it just seems LONG. Even though it is the same amount of hours it just feels long. On the other hand it is good for Aidan because he is only in his room for about 30 minutes before Aaron and Kaitlyn get home. It is weird too because at about 9:00 the calls just quit coming in and there are a few minutes between calls. You would think that I would have all this time to spend on my scrapping, but I am so tired by that time that I just sit there with my eyes closed. Hopefully I will get used to the change soon. And on another good note I get Friday and Saturdays off! I am so glad I don't have to work Friday's!
And I know you are all sitting on pins and needles waiting to find out what happened with my points. Well, I didn't actually end up with any! YEAH! I'm happy about that. I have a new supervisor with this shift and she answered all of my questions. But I was surprised that they don't discipline you for working extra time that you are not supposed to. I guess I probably worked it for free though.
Other than that not much else is going on. Kaitlyn will have her first break from school next week, and she is looking forward to spending some quality time with me. I'll have to plan something fun to do with her...Any ideas ladies?
Oh and at the end of the month we are headed for our cruise! I can't wait! The kids are staying here with grammie and poppa while Aaron and I are gone. We will meet up with a lot of my family and celebrate my Mom and Aunt's big 5 0. We are going on a 3 day cruise to Ensenada. Aaron and I did a four day cruise there for our anniversary one year and had a blast, but I always wanted to go with a lot of people.

We've made a decision.

I've decided not to interview for the flight attendant job. The main reason is that they could have me stationed anywhere basically. Meaning for at least the first year I could be living somewhere other than with my family. I just don't think I can do that. We lived without Aaron for awhile when he was working out of town all the time and it was hard. I don't think I should put my kids through that again. It is really scary thinking that I could be stationed somewhere like Chicago. I would have to get to whatever job I was working in 1 and a half hours which means I would have to live there while my family stays in SLC and not really knowing if it would be a year or more until I could get my prefered domicile (headquarters). So after several long discussions with Aaron and him bringing it up to Kaitlyn and her tears I decided not to go for it.
Now I am just watching and praying that something will open up where I won't be bearing the brunt of the customer's nastiness.

On another note we had a really wonderful day on Saturday. Aaron and I took the kids bowling...they had a great time! It was so funny to watch Aidan throw the ball and it barely grazing the pins. The bowling alley we went to had automatic bumpers, so the kids could use them and Aaron and I didn't have too (although I think we could have used them some ourselves). Then after bowling we went to the dollar theater to see Over the hedge...a cute movie, but not one that I need to see again. I'm glad we saw it in the dollar theater.

Well, I'm off to get somethings done before I have to work today! I hope all you readers have a wonderful day!

Lots of thinking and prayers going on around here lately.

Recently, I posted on how my job is hard to take time off. Even though it is an at home job. Lately, I feel like I am missing out on a lot with my family due to work. My schedule is changing on Sunday and things will be a bit better, but it is still a pain if I have to get sometime off. I feel like I am in my "Dungeon" ( that is what we call the basement) working, and getting paid hardly anything for what I endure each shift. While if I was working outside the home and had a direct boss I feel like I could talk with them and get the time off I need. And while if I had more of a career instead of an entry level job, I would feel ok about not getting the time off.
Take 6 hours of non stop talking to people and add jerks every three or four calls...cussing you out, asking you rediculous questions and just plain being rude and nasty to you. It just starts to wear you down. I have worked in Customer service related positions before and have never been treated this badly. I think being "ananomous" to the person you are talking to helps people feel like they can treat you however you want, it really shows the true attitudes of people.
So, what am I thinking and praying about. I am thinking of applying for a flight attendant job with another airline. I know that I would still be dealing with mean nasty and rude people. I know that I would still be away from my family, much more so actually. But I would be making double the pay of what I am right now. I would have other people around me who would be going through the same thing, and at the end of the day be able to commiserate with me.
I have emailed a friend of mine who is a flight attendant, and she gave me some wonderful information...Thanks Kim! I have talked with Aaron about it at length. The job which Aaron is working right now allows him the flexibility to work around a more hectic schedule for myself...which makes us feel that this may be the right time to pursue a career rather than an entry level position. Kaitlyn is now in school full time and Aidan is asking more and more everyday when he can go to school too, so I think the kids would be alright with it...but would I? I know the first few years until I had some seniority built up would be esp. hard.
And now I am praying about it. Sky West airlines is having group interviews in a week. While one side of me would like to stay with JetBlue it is just not possible for flight attending as I would not be stationed in Salt Lake city, more than likely it would be New York or Florida. At least with Sky West they do have a hub here so I *might* be able to be stationed here.
Anyways, I can use lots of prayers for the decision that we are trying to make around here. Right now we are leaning towards me applying for it, but I am not %100 sure on that.

Getting back to normal.

Well, Things are starting to get back to normal around here. The kids are feeling lots better! I am so thankful that it was just a short virus, I hate seeing them sick.
On Sunday I ended up working a shift that I *thought* I was supposed to work last Sunday. What happend was last Sunday I thought I was working a 3:30 am shift. Aaron woke me up at 5:50 am and asked me if I had gotten off early. NO, just that my alarm wasn't turned on even though I specifically remember turning it on, which means little hands must have been playing with it. So, I called in. Got my demerit points and finished working my shift. Fast Forward to Friday. I am checking to see if everything is correct for the new shift I am starting on 27th, and I see that I am starting work at 3:30 am on Sunday. ARRRGGGHHH! I checked the shift and double checked it and could have sworn that it was in there for the week before. I don't know what happened...story of my life. But I would like to hear what is happening with my demerit points since I worked an hour and a half that I wasn't supposed to, but she seems to be ignoring my emails and voice messages...she is off today so I may try to get ahold of her again tomorrow.
Anyways, so life is somewhat crazy here in our household. I am working lots trying to earn some extra money before we go on our cruise next month! I can't wait, it should be a lot of fun. We are going with a ton of family to celebrate my mom and aunt's big 5 0! And the kids are staying home with poppa and grammie, so it should be fun!
Well, if you have listened to my rambling this long I commend you! TTFN (TaTa for now!)

Sometimes I really hate my job!

The last week has been exhausting. Monday Kaitlyn came home from school with a really high fever. She was home sick for 2 days, finally felt well enough to go back to school yesterday. Aidan woke up last night with a fever. This virus gives the kids REALLY high fevers, Kaitlyn got to 104.5 at one point. Now Aidan has one that keeps creeping back up, and then he started vomiting (yes I know it is gross but it is a fact of life). So, I call in to work seeing if there is any way at all for me to get off some today. Nope, none at all. No PTO no Same day PTO.
They pride themselves on being a family friendly company, but a mom can't get 2 lousy hours off to take care of her son until his father gets home. A coworker of mine just had a baby, she took time off to have the baby and now the baby needs surgery. She is stuck trying to trade the hours she is supposed to work, they aren't helping that poor mom out at all.
Ok, I'm off to take care of my sick baby. I just needed to vent that out.

Kaitlyn's story.

Kaitlyn has been practicing her typing. This is a story that she wrote today. I thought it was cute.


At noon Lin and her Mommy went shopping. Anna went too . They bought fruit and vegetable. Dad was mad becomes Mom did not buy his favorite kind of chocolate. He was very very mad after dinner become he did not have his favorite ice cream. Mom , said its ok I will buy one. She ran to the store and bought his favorite kind of dessert. He was so much happier.

Balboa Island

We did this page at the fun scrapbook convention I went to in July. All the paper and chipboard letters and tags are from a company named "Pressed Petals". I loved this paper and couldn't wait to finish up this Layout.
The idea for the journaling on the picture came from another teacher at the convention. One of my all time favorite scrapbookers Theresa Collins! She does some amazing work.
Anyways, I hope you enjoy the Layout!
(You can click on the layout to see a larger version of it if you like>)