Friday, December 24, 2010

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Costumes, Cali, and Craziness

What a whirlwind of time these past few months have been.


We had a good friend take some family pictures. Stephanie Pilling (see sidebar for her website) is so talented and always gets great shots. Unfortunately (no fault of hers) Lilly cried almost the whole time so the pics weren't quite what I had envisioned in my mind...I'm not sure why I envision all 4 of us smiling at the camera. When, in my fantasy world, would that really happen? Funny story though- I saw the photos for the first time at about 9am. I joined Jenny Craig at 9:30. I've lost 10 lbs so far! So, even though Lilly was crying...I was able to see myself in print. And subsequently realized that it was time to say goodbye of the baby weight. And the donuts.

Jayda gave her talk (the one she gave in primary) in Sacrament meeting. This is the main hour of church when all the church members are present. She gave her 3 minute talk all by herself in front of about 150 people. She rocked! It was so sweet to see her tiny body on the pulpit talking about the miracles of Jesus. It was one of the highlights of 2010.

Halloween was great. We had our 3rd annual Trick or Treating Dinner @ our house. Pizza with friends and then some fun trick or treating. The kids had a blast. Lilly went as Tinker Bell and Jayda went as Rapunzel. Russ and I enjoyed an adult-only dinner party that was super fun...we so love and adore our friends! We went as Fred and Daphne from Scooby Doo.

We spent all of November in California. It's hard to believe that one trip could be soooooo bad. Although it's always great to see family...this trip SUCKED! The trip started out with the flight from hell. Lilly screamed the entire 9 hours (door to door). She was so bad on the flight that the flight attendant asked me to sit in the bathroom with her to "give the other passengers a rest." Bitch. Yes, I've never cussed in this blog before. This, however, deserves it. It was really, really crappy.

When the plane landed I got an email from our landlord. He's selling the house and we have to move. How am I supposed to look for a place to live while I'm in Cali for 4 weeks? Ugh. Stressful!

While in HB, both kids were seriously sick nearly the entire trip. We went to the pediatrician 9 times! That's more trips to the doctor within a 3 week span than in Lilly's entire life. It was ridiculous. Jayda ended up in the ER because her flu was so bad. Me, my mom, my dad, and both brothers also got the flu. It was gnarly. And disgusting.

Work was crazy this trip. I was in California to shoot a training video for Staff Pro. I wrote, directed, casted, and hosted the video. I literally did everything from A-Z for this entire project. It was extremely difficult, but also very gratifying to complete. I'm hopeful it will be useful for all of our branch offices to use as their primary method of training new hires.

Russ and I went shopping at about noon on black Friday. We went to the local mall near my folks house. I borrowed my dads car. Without asking. I didn't realize that the two shotguns we took shooting two days prior were still in the car. Apparently some thugs did realize they were in there and wanted them. After shopping for about thirty minutes we came out to a smashed out window and the guns missing. I can't begin to explain how sad that made me. One was my dads gun and the other was Austin's. They were sentimental guns (that sounds hilarious, but its true). It made me super, super sad. :(

It was great to see family though. I adore our families and couldn't have done it without them. We also got to visit some of our very bestest buddies (The Thompsons) so that made our trip enjoyable as well.

Overall, we're glad to be home and are looking forward to a healthy Christmas season...we hope!