TAGGED

My cute cousin Missy has Tagged me and I am sure some of my answers will have some of you wondering how you are friends with such a crazy girl...... but, here it goes.

10 years ago: I had been back from my mission for about a month. I was still asking my sisters to go everywhere with me so I would have a companion. When my friends wanted to hang out I would ask for a specific time, location, people going, what I needed to bring, and exactly what time I would be home. Very nerdy.

5 things on my to do list today: Since it is 10 at night, the only thing I have left to do is a date with my bed for some much needed sleep. Here is what was on my to do list today.

1. Went to aerobics at the church with all of my children and worked out. ( I realized it was time to put my words into action when my three year old daughter told me at church yesterday in the bathroom stall that my bum was to big for the potty. And yes, the bathroom was full of women. Love those honest comments! :))
2. Went to Walmart to do a little grocery shopping.
3. Dropped Jaden and McKay off at a Birthday party at 1:00
4. Made dinner for our dinner group ( If you have no idea about this one, you need to know. It is the best invention ever!)
5. Grandma and Grandpa came over to have FHE with the fam. This consists of McKay and Jaden wrestling, jumping, spinning, dancing, tickling, and basically being completely out of control while grandma and grandpa tell them how cute they are. Then we end with a prayer. :)

5 snacks I enjoy: Are you serious? What snack don't I enjoy?

1. Haagen Das Almond and chocolate covered vanilla ice cream bars ( there are three in each box and I can easily consume the whole thing).
2. Almond Roca
3. Cold Cereal
4. Vanilla bean ice cream
5. And of course the "Pazookie"!!

5 places I have lived:

1. Tempe, AZ
2. Mesa, Az
3. Provo, UT
4. Salt Lake City, UT
5. Queen Creek, AZ
wow!!! I am so impressed with this. :)

What would I do if I was suddenly made a Billionaire:

First, I would buy my dad a brand new, no miles on it, right off the lot, car of his choice. Then, I would by a huge beach house with 10 bed rooms right on the beach for my entire family, fly them all out and tell them that I won a weekend at a fun beach house. Then when they all arrived, and we were all together, I would tell them that we actually now owned the beach house. I get excited just thinking about the reaction. Can you stand it? Then, I would let each member of my family and Shauns family pick out whatever car they wanted and drive it off the lot. Start plans on a custom home on a huge lot of land. Make sure that I bought the other surrounding lots of land so I could live next to my sisters and give the other lots of land to my closest friends and make a perfect neighborhood. Take a trip to Europe with Shaun and stay in all the 5 star hotels. Take a trip to Disneyland with Shaun and the kids for 2 weeks and stay in the nicest room in Disney land and order room service every meal. Take a trip with my sisters, mom, sister n laws, and closest friends and family to a spa for a week and receive messages when ever we like. Go to Oprah ( better yet, be on Oprah!) Give money to friends, family, charity, church, and always have money on hand to give to those homeless guys you see on the corner. This is one of my favorite topics to talk about with my sister. It's fun to dream.

5 jobs I have had:

1. Dance teacher
2. Olan Mills
3. Sears
4. Computer company
5. Dental office

5 things you didn't know about me:

1. I will start with my favorite. My last month on my mission my companion and I were serving in Pres. Hinkleys sons ward and teaching someone in his home. His son invited us over on Christmas for Christmas dinner. It was Clark Hinkley, his wife Kathleen, and their four beautiful children, and my companion and I. All of a sudden President Hinkley, Sister Hinkley, and their body guard come walking in the front door. They joined us for dinner and my comp and I sat directly across from Pres. and Sister Hinkley. I even told a joke which President Hinkley did not get. We laughed, took pictures, and enjoyed watching him just be a grandpa. It is truly one of my most cherished memories that I will never forget.
2. I was really sick for the first four days of my honey moon. Throwing up, fever, the whole nine yards. Poor Shaun
3. Went para sailing in Nice, France with Aubrey after our missions and we were laughing so hard while flying through the air that I peed. Poor people in the boat. I have a bladder problem. :)
4. One summer Aubrey, Becky and I would sneak into Kino Junior High pool at night and go skinny dipping. That makes me laugh as I am typing this.
5. I threw out my back one time while doing a flip on the diving board, trying to show off for a boy I was visiting in Alabama. His mom insisted that a bath would make me feel better. I managed to get in with no problem, but to my complete horror, I realized that I could not get out. I laid there and wished that I could magically disappear. Then, his sister n law and mom knocked on the door and came in. I started crying and told them I couldn't get out. They then proceeded to lift me out. One had one leg and arm and the other had the other arm and leg. They got a pretty good show to say the least. hehehe

Now I get to tag 5 people...... I tag Heidi, Michelle, Melissa S., Juliette, Lorena. Good luck ladies

I'm So Glad When Daddy Comes Home!!!

THE PEDICURE!!! First of all I have to say that having my husband back after three long weeks has brought my sanity back. I sure appreciate him a lot more, and I don't think the kids will ever forget how long their dad was in Nentucky ( aka Kentucky). They have not let him out of their site and are like little puppy dogs at his heels. So the first Saturday after Shaun was back I went to get a pedicure. It was much needed and much deserved if I do say so myself. When I walked in, a cute little Asian women told me to come and sit down and put my feet in the water. When she started massaging my feet I noticed that she had rubber gloves on. I thought to myself, "What a great place, they are so sanitary here!" Then I looked up at the three other ladies getting pedicures and noticed that the women giving them pedicures did not have rubber gloves on. That got me to speculating........... Was my lady the only one in this salon that wears gloves and is just a super clean person, or do they save the rubber gloves for those special clients that have less then desirable toe jam? Did they say in chinese as I walked in the door.......... "We have got a rubber glover coming in get ready!!! Either way, I am bound and determined to find out the mystery behind my pedicurest. Maybe I will pop in unexpected and catch her in the act with somebody else without her gloves on, or maybe I will take a crash course in Chinese from my dad and find out what they are saying. I will let every one know. :) hehehe

Since Shaun has come home Roxcy will only fall asleep at night if he rocks her. It is so cute and absolutley endearing.

Roxcys hair is finalling starting to grow.......... Straight up!!! It is hilarious. And to my complete excitement it has a red tint. I have always wanted a red head. What a little sweetie

I came in the kitchen the other day and found this beautiful creation on my kitchen table. Mckay created it and said it was an alien blob monster and that I had to leave it until daddy got home. So, we set the table around our little alien and had a pleasant dinner with mom, dad, Roxcy, Jaden, Mckay, and the blob monster. No one lost their appetites needless to say.

Look how proud Mckay is of his alien dude

Jaden came down with strep throat last week and was really sick. She would sleep on and off all day long and did not want to eat or do anything. It is always so hard for me to see my kids sick. I knew she was feeling better when I went in to check on her in her room and she asked me where her tiara was and that she needed to put it on because it would make her feel better. I did all I could to keep a serious expression. So Cute and so Funny!!

ON YOUR MARK, GET SET, GO!!!!! Roxcy at 9 months crawling. While Shaun was gone she started doing the army crawl but she waited for the full on crawl until he got home. She is cruising all over the place and Jaden and Mckay love putting items in front of her to crawl to.

Weekend in the Snow

We had such a fun weekend. We started in Prescott and ended the trip in Flagstaff. It was so fun to see my brother Jay and his family. My kids were in Heaven. McKay is always in Heaven when we visit Prescott because he instintly has four brothers to wrestle with for hours on end. Jaden loves it because they dote over her so much. My brother and sister n law are such amazing parents. You truly can feel so much love in their home. We all know in my family that if you visit Jay and Heather, and plan on staying for just a day, it won't happen. They can always convince anyone to stay longer. Their home is always open to anyone and it truly feels that way. Love you guys.

Jaden looks like she has had one to many rides down the hill in her sled. :) My kids had so much fun sledding. They were so crazy. McKay kept wanting to go down the hill that had all the jumps. No matter how many times my kids fell down they wanted to sled more. I of course was having a blast my self. I don't think anyone can ever be to old to enjoy sledding. I was laughing, snorting, and basically being a spaz the whole time. Almost all of my brothers, sisters, sister n laws, and neices and nephews came up to Flagstaff on Monday to sled. It was so fun!! We did miss Adam, but I have to publicly thank him for the daddy day care all weekend. What a good guy. He watched Roxcy while we sledded and took McKay and Jaden part of the day also. Thanks for the help!

My little snow Angels

Hiedi and her cute kids came to hang out with us during Christmas break. It is amazing how kids can remember each other and just jump back into playing with each other after such a long time. I have to admit that I miss having the Cossebooms close by. It was so much fun to chat and catch up.

"The Seven Year Itch"

Shaun and I just had our 7 year wedding anniversary and I can't believe how time flies. As the years go by I can truly say that I feel like the luckiest girl in the world to have found and married such an amazing guy. Here's a little shout out to my better half. (I'm not kidding about the better half. :) ) Here are just some of the reasons I love this guy.

1. Shaun puts up with my crazy habit of always planning a party at our house or planning to go to a party somewhere else and forgetting to tell him until 2 minutes before. He is so patient with me.

2. One time Shaun came home from work and I had our kitchen table and chairs in the garage painting them black, and the wall in the living room repainted with diamonds on it. He looked at me and asked what I was doing and I told him that I thought I had told him. He literally smiled, shook his head and then said, "I loved it!" Again, very patient.

3. When we first got married we got two of the same things when we opened gifts. We did not know which stores some of the gifts had come from, so I had the idea to keep those gifts in the car in case we came across the store and then we could run out to the car and return the gift. Shaun had another idea. One day he was helping some of his old roommates move into a new apartment and they commented about the awesome crock pot, blender, toaster, etc. that were in the car. Shaun (aka, Santa Claus) then took the liberty of handing out every last Wedding present to anyone and everyone who wanted or needed something. He has always been generous. I have to say that I was not jumping for joy when I found this out, but we laugh about it now.

4. Whenever Shaun sees someone in need on the side of the road, he always stops to help them. He is very charitable. I get nervous about this habit of his and I think he has stopped telling me how often he does this.

5. He is the most forgiving, non judgemental person I know. Always giving others the benefit of the doubt even if someone has wronged him.

6. Very goal oriented. Loves learning and is always trying to better himself.

7. Loves to make me and the kids laugh. Shaun has such a witty sense of humor and loves to make others smile. He is not afraid to be silly or make a fool of himself. What I mean by that is, he puts up with my crazy collection of costumes and wigs and is always game to play a joke or dress up crazy with me.

8. He spends so much quality time with the kids. The kids hide every day when Shaun gets home from work and he pretends he can't find them. Then, when they finally come out they all wrestle and laugh so hard. The kids adore they're daddy. He never complains if he comes home from work and I say, "you get the kids tonight, I am going to run away for a while." He just smiles and says, " We will miss you, but run away for as long as you need."

9. Loves the gospel. When Shaun and I were dating, Juliette and my mom were snooping in Shauns truck (why you ask, I have no idea except that that is what families do. We have got to watch out for each other.) Anyway, Juliette came in and told me that he had two book of mormons to hand out and his goals for the year posted on his dash. She was the hardest person to impress when I was dating someone. She gave her full approval after that.

10. I have to throw in this story just to keep my husband humble. I don't want his head to get to big by saying all these nice things. We met on a blind date. On this blind date we went swimming!!!!!!! I know, isn't that the worst. Anyway, he later admitted, after we had gotten married, that before I saw him in his swimming suit that he went around the corner and did a bunch of push ups so his arms and chest would look bigger. I laughed so hard and still do at the sight of that.

I love you Shaun, Happy Anniversary!!!

FAMILY

It has been a year in March since my Nephew was diagnosed with a very fast growing cancer and had to have a brain tumor removed. He is still coming down from Prescott every week to get radiation. I got to see Jonathan a couple days after Christmas. It is always amazing to see him. Look at his countenance and smile. It really puts life into perspective to think of this 14 year old boy going through what he has been through, so much pain that no one on Earth could understand,countless hours of radiation and Chemotherapy, and still have the cutest sense of humor and love for life. He is truly an inspiration not just to me but to many, many, people. I love you Jonathan, you are a Hero! Roxcy(7 months) and Jonathan (14)

Cousins at the Dinosaur museum. Carson, Jaden, Malloy, and McKay. We have been to this place more than I would like to admit, and more than I would ever like to go. My kids seriously love it here and act like it is the first time they have been here every time we go.

This Christmas was one family party after another. Juliette was down for a week and we went to movies, had spend the nights, and went out to eat almost every day. Here is me, Juliette, Cherisse, and Amber (Our adopted sister) at Oregano's our favorite place on Earth. I feel so blessed to have such amazing, talented, loving sisters. We can laugh so hard that we pee, and cry so hard until there are no more tears. We know every shortcoming and weakness about each other and still love each other anyway. Thank goodness for my sisters.

MUD MANIA, THE GOOD DEEDER, AND THE DANCING DIVA


We have started giving Jaden and McKay chores to do. One of them is to water the plants out front. Never in my wildest dreams did I think that they would take this job so seriously that they would water the flowers not once a day, but every time they went out side to the point that we had a literal swamp in the flower bed. We finally had to take the hose out of the front because they were obsessed with watering. My friend once told me that she did not think she had ever picked up her son at my house without him being soaking wet or muddy. Here are some of the neighborhood kids with McKay and Jaden having their mud bath for the day.

So this kid has put a bug in his sisters nose, put markers all over his sisters face, taken his goldfish out of the fish tank with his bare hands and put it in a cup of ice, then put it back in the fish tank where we all thought it was dead, but were informed an hour later that a miracle had happened and that his goldfish had been resurrected. But, McKay is also the most sensitive and in tune kids I know. Tonight after dinner he told me he wanted to go take treats to his friends in the neighborhood. I asked him what treats he was going to give them and he said his Halloween candy. Since it is January 2nd I thought that candy from October would not be the most desirable treat to give out, but he was insistent. I thought he was going to knock on the door of two or three friends homes and give them a sucker or something. Instead, he got on his bike and put his Halloween bucket on his handle bars and rode down the street 7:30 at night stopping at each house throwing candy in the driveway. He was beaming and thought he was being such a good little friend. I followed him up one side of the street and down the other. He turned and said, "Mom my friends are going to be so excited when they wake up tomorrow and find my candy!" I didn't have the heart to tell him that it probably would be covered in ants and be thrown away by all the moms and dads. I just agreed and kept following him down the street on Jan. 2 with his Halloween bucket. Aren't kids the best.

This was Jadens first day at dance class and she loved every minute of it. The teacher told me that she did great and said that she kept trying to help her as they did some dance moves across the floor and Jaden just kept looking up at her saying, "I already know this, I can do it by myself." She's not independent in the slightest. I think it is an exciting moment for a parent when their child seems to be taking an interest and loving something that you have loved your whole life.

"WWF"

My kids looked so adorable for church all dressed in their Christmas attire that I thought it would be so nice to snap some photos before we left. McKay and Jaden apparently interpreted me taking pictures of them in their Sunday best as let's have a "WWF" tournament and see who can rip their clothes to shreds the fastest.