Finally Done

Shortly before Christmas I started a huge project in Andrew's room. I decided to paint a series of horizontal stripes going around his room. I saw it in a potterybarn catalogue and just couldn't resist replicating it. Needless to say, I didn't factor in the fact that I had textured walls, so every single stripe took hours of measuring and caulking to prevent the paint from leaking under the tape. I also had to take a couple of months off because of the broken toe.

I love how it turned out. The camera makes the light blue look a lot more smurf blue then it is in real life. Now I just have to get him a new bedroom set, decorate the room with random junk, teach him to sleep on his bed without the bumpers on his mattress so I can put on his quilt, and start making his bed everyday. Oh well, for now I am just going to enjoy how nicely is turned out. Yea me!

Oh, and for the record, Andrew could care less about the whole thing. He'd be happy with Thomas or Lightning McQueen everything.

Mexico Trip: The Final Installment

So here is the town where we went to see some famous potter. It gives you an idea of the level of poverty there.
This is me looking very bored and ready to go.
This is the train station where the women and children of the Mormon colonists were loaded onto trains to evacuate them to El Paso during the Mexican Revolution. That line is no longer functioning, but the station is still there.
Here are the sheep tacos that we had. One of my sister-in-laws asked if they had chicken, and was told no, only sheep. They are really small, and I got down two before I felt a little nauseous.
Here is me all loaded up and ready to come home. We made the drive in one shot, from Mexico to Colorado Springs in 15 hours. We turned the wrong way on our way to the border, and it took us about an hour to figure it out and get back to where we started. We only stopped twice, once in El Paso and once in Santa Fe, NM. I have never been so grateful to see home, even if it was at 11:30 pm. My bed felt wonderful, and we are all recovered and just about over the various colds and flus we all had.

Mexico Trip Part 2

So after many delays we finally made it to the border. We ended up crossing 3 or 4 hours after the original plan. This is a picture of Ashley post-vomit. She waited until we were 5 minutes over the border and puked 3 times. Our whole car smelled terrible.
Here's where we stopped to get burritos. It was kind of fun to experience authentic Mexican food, but personally, I prefer the Tex-Mex variety. They didn't have much flavor but were plenty spicy. It's a good thing my brother-in-law is from there and knew where was safe to stop and what to order. Otherwise we never would have braved it.
This is Mexican takeout. A guy stands on the side or middle of the road and sells you burritos out of a cooler. Not quite McDonald's.
Here is a look at the beautiful scenery. It was brush and shanties the whole way. The place we stayed was really interesting. It was an old hacienda originally designed and owned by Poncho Villa. It has been meticulously restored and still has a lot of the original architecture. Unfortunately the accommodations were a touch rustic, like no heat, no hot water and no way to cook the first night. Luckily we brought a space heater, so we were OK sleeping at night. The other families with babies had a rough time.

The one thing I walked away with was a huge appreciation of all that we have here in the US. We are so blessed with material things. I also was grateful that mine and Flay's great-grandparents stopped practising polygamy when they were ordered to. Many of the original Mormon colonists were polygamists, and Flay and I both have family that comes from there. We saw some polygamists at the border crossing. Mexico has been a safe haven for the different polygamist splinter groups over the years. I was so grateful that our families had made the choice to follow the prophet's commandment to stop all those years ago. I can't imagine being born into that lifestyle, and then to have to eke out a living down there.

Don't worry, there's still more to come for all of you interested in our adventures over the border. I will give you a teaser of sheep tacos being cooked, more sick kids, a world famous potter and a 15-hour drive.

We Survived!.......But Barely

So I wasn't sure how to adequately pay homage to the trip we took. So I decided to spread it out over a couple of posts. There were several highs....

Andrew wanting to get in the pool and having a great time swimming.

Andrew playing with his cousins and running for hours

And several lows....

Ashley vomiting everyday, always in the car where we couldn't get away from it.

No heat and a seriously sketchy shower

And several new experiences...

Sheep tacos anyone?

No joke 10 people riding in the back of a pickup, with kids sitting on the wheel wells.

So here are pictures of us starting our trip at 6:30 am on Thursday. We had a pretty quick drive, other then some Ashley vomiting, lots of crying and the fact that it was 10 1/2 hours. We had fun that night saying hi to the cousins in El Paso and swimming at the hotel pool. It made me very excited for the pool this summer. Ashley couldn't go in as she was still having massive diarrhea. Those were fun diapers on the drive. We were all asleep by 8:30pm, but Ashley was really sick at this point and was up that night for 3 hours. At this point even Flay was a little rattled and throwing out ideas like, we can always drive home tommorrow and, why don't you just catch a flight and fly home with her. So those were the highlights of Day 1. I really want to spread this out for maximum enjoyment, so I will recap Day 2 later.

My Sicky Sick

So of course right before we are supposed to go out of town Ashley gets sick. Yesterday she just laid on me the whole day, looking miserable.
This is Andrew trying to cheer her up.
As you can see, not much worked.
Andrew wanted to take mommy's picture too. I just look lovely at the end of a long and grumpy day of sick babies and doctors. But don't worry, Flay is still determined that we are all going to Mexico as planned. Nevermind that the kids will be up all night crying like they have been for the last few days, we have 30 hours of driving to do over 5 days and we don't have a birth certificate for Ashley. Mexico here we come!

Tagged..... and Finally Responding

So my friend Tracie tagged me a while ago and then Rachel did it, so I guess its time.

1. What is your Hubby's name?
Flay, its a family name
2. How long have your been married?
9 years next month. Ouch that's a long.
3. How long did you date?
A year and a 1/2 before we got engaged, and then a five month engagement.
4. How old is he?
33, an old man
5. Who eats more?
That is a tough one. I can give him a run for his money on desserts and anything good. Otherwise, him.
6. Who said I Love you First?
Me
7. Who is taller?
Him by 4 or 5 inches, less in shoes.
8. Who sings better?
Ick, no question me. He is SO tonedeaf its painful.
9. Who is smarter? We agree to disagree. I test better and read much faster, but he gets math in a way I never did. I retook statistics like 3 times and he took the advanced version and got an A.
10. Who temper is worse? Mine, no doubt. I have a short fuse, but am easily placated. He hardly ever gets upset, but when he does he means business.
11. Who does the laundry? He does. I have way more clothes then him, so I just wait until he needs clothes and then presto, the laundry is done.
12. Who does the dishes? I do, for now. I believe that you have children to do the dishes and weed the yard.
13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?
Me
14. Who pays the bills?
Me
15. Who mows the lawn?
Him. I will only do it with a push mower because I have the kids out there and he doesn't like how that looks.
16. Who cooks dinner? Me. I put him to work at the grill. He also makes great breakfasts on the weekends.
17. Who drives when together? Him, but I drove with both the kids cross country in my car the whole way.
18. Who is more stubborn?
Probably me.
19. Who is the first to admit they are wrong?
We both will cave in the face of substantiated facts, but otherwise its a draw.
20. Who parents do we visit most?
Mine. I go spend a month there in the summer.
21. Who Proposed?
He did
22. Who has more friends? Hands down me. He thinks I do nothing but hangout with friends all day. Its true, that I'd rather have a friend with me, whatever it is that I'm doing.
23. Who has more siblings? Depends on how you count them. He does if your talking originals, but my parents are remarried, so I have a bunch of steps.
24. Who wears the pants in the family? On most things me, but there are certain things that I don't mess with, like money. No doubt he's in charge there.

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10 years ago... I was at BYU and dating Flay.

5 things on my to due list today
1. Finish painting Andrew's room. I'll post pictures when it is done. It was a huge project.
2. Go to the grocery store
3. Go to Old Navy
4. Go get some new sunglasses. My kids are constantly ruining mine.
5. Get some ribbon to make new hairbows for Ashley.

What I would do if I were suddenly a millionaire...Hard to say for sure. Travel WITHOUT children, get some hot new clothes, end up giving most of it to the budget nazi for savings. Sad but true.

Three bad Habits...
Diet Coke...I am trying to quit and have gone almost a month
Driving while talking on the cell phone. I view driving as the perfect time to call someone
Not keeping in touch....which is why I love blogs.

Six places I have lived...
Vienna, VA
Oakton, VA
Provo, Ut
Baltimore, Md (our mailing address was actually Baltimore before we bought our house)
Bel Air, Md
Colorado Springs, Co

5 jobs I have had...
The Gap...The best job to have in high school
My dad's company...I mostly messed around
nanny...ah, summer days spent at the pool and then you get to return the children and go home.
Target...too many to name
Mom..current job. Crappy pay but lots of job satisfaction...like working at a non-profit

5 things people don't know about me....

1. I HATE scarry movies. I never watch them. The Sixth Sense gave me nightmares for weeks.
2. I almost never watch TV, but love to have it on for the noise. There's always some kids DVD on at my house.
3. I never cooked and hated it until I got married. I fell in love with Martha Stewart and voila!
4. I got perfect scores on two sections of the ACT and only missed one on the third section. Math was my downfall.
5. My senior year of high school I never wore jeans to school. I loved dressing up. Now that I have kids I wear jeans everyday!

I tag Michelle, Kim and Laura.

A Day in the Life of Ashley

Ok, so a more accurate description would be 45 minutes in the morning of Ashley. She gets into everything. The babysitter last night made a comment that she just moves constantly. So here she is before her rampage starts.
She loves playing with trains, the product of having an older brother. I love seeing her in this little pose, resting on her haunches. All babies spend a ton of time in this position playing when they are little. I think it is so cute.
Ashley raiding my water bottle. She loves water bottles.
Ashley squirting the water bottle on my counter. She loves it sit on my counter and hang out. She has yet to fall off, but she did try and turn her legs and go off once.