Growing up...

So it has been forever since I did a "real" post so many things have been going on that I seem to get overwhelmed and think, "I can't post until I get caught up". Well I am going to post anyway. The kids continue to grow and it makes me sad to look at the pictures from last year to now and see how much they have changed. Riley's last day of school was on Thursday. He had grown and changed so much this last year. He reads so well and we were so lucky to have him in such a good school. I am so excited to get to have all my little ones home with me for the summer. The house just feels better when everyone is home. Another big development is Elle and her growing interest with the potty. Last Friday I ran to target and they had the cutest potty chair. It was only $12 and I figured we would give it a go. She had tried sitting on the toilet but always hopped off as fast as she sat down. I brought it home and figured it would just be a toy for a while as I didn't really think she was ready to start potty training. Well she dragged it into the bathroom and started stripping down. Sure enough she peed in it. I couldn't stop laughing, here is my 22 month old baby using a potty chair.



I thought it might be a fluke thing but she consistently uses is 2-4 times a day. I am not really pushing the full potty training yet, I am letting her set the pace. She is dry in the morning when she wakes up so we take her then and she is like "Speedy Gonzalez". Such a funny girl and just shows me how fast she is growing up. Brooke is her same cute self and just a busy body.



We are looking forward to a fun summer spent in the pool working on our tans. Work for me has finally slowed down and I will finally have a set in stone schedule that will start in July. I will work Wed and Thurs nights and that is it!!! It really hasn't been that bad as of lately but the days have been flip flopping around a lot which makes it hard to plan stuff on the weekends. But we have been blessed to only need a babysitter for about 5 hours once a week as it is so that makes it easier. In fact this morning my kids were devastated to wake up and see me here instead of the babysitter as they think she is more fun. (Some days I would have to agree). So the real true benefit of the new schedule will be that I will only need a babysitter for 1 morning and then I will have 5 days off and no weekends. Yipee!! Well I will try and write more often and keep up on this beast of a blog. I need to blog about all of our fun little vacations and Tom's graduation. Maybe tomorrow. Adios...

9

9. Nine moves....literally.
8. Eight Semesters of School.
7. Seven Sleepless years.
6. Six different cars (Mazda, Altima, Dodge Pickup, Blazer, Chevy Truck, and Minivan)
5. Five awesome Vacations (Orlando, NY, Hawaii, California, Yellowstone)
4. Four different jobs.
3. Three Beautiful Babies.
2. "Too" many kisses to count.
1. One very lucky girl.

Happy Anniversary Babe. I love you more than anything this world can offer.

Yummy....

So I have been fighting a nasty cold for a week now. Last night I finally decided to go to the Dr. and see what the deal was. It turns out I have "Walking Pneumonia".....yummy huh? I was able to get some antibiotics and some awesome narcotic cough syrup (what's not to love about that?. Needless to say, My house is a mess, my kids are a mess, and I am a mess. Once again I give praise to whomever invented Redbox, as "Bolt" has been a lifesaver over the past week. I'm off to order some pizza for dinner, and get in a hot bath, I don't think Tom has ever found me more attractive than I am now in my hacking, runny nose, pajama wearing hotness. Oh the joy!!!

Silly babies....

So today is another day spent in our pj's we watched "Over the hedge" and had a delicious lunch of peanut butter sandwiches. I was looking over some pictures that are overflowing on our SD cards and came across this video. I had to laugh out loud. This was last Sunday night while I was at work. I guess Tom decided to have a band with the kids. I like to think Brookie got her awesome air guitar skills from me. Tom is better at remembering to just "play" with the babies than I am. What a good daddy Tom is, I'm one lucky girl...

Momma snow day!

So we are having a blizzard here today and tomorrow...literally just watch the news. It is snowing so much that I was sent home from work today and told not to come in tomorrow! Yipee!!! I came home and took the kids with me to run the babysitter home, after we got back inside we were all soaking wet due to the snow and the fact that our apartments refuse to shovel the sidewalks....ever. So I made an executive decision to get back in my pj's to which all of the children followed suit. We have spent the hole day curled up on the couch in our pj's watching movie after movie and just enjoying being lazy. My kitchen is ferocious, but I really don't care. For breakfast we had homemade cinnamon rolls (it was also lunch for me) and I am making french dip sandwiches for dinner, followed with chocolate ice cream for dessert. All in all a nearly perfect day.

Riley

I had Riley's parent teacher conference on Monday night. It went great, it is so nice to go and have someone other than family tell you how awesome your baby is. Riley is doing really well in school and he is one of the best students she said she has. The teacher said he is the "sweetest boy" and "just so kind", and "so helpful" and the teachers "favorite student". Now mind you they could just be stroking my ego but I know Riley and they are all true. He is the only student in his class that has not had to “flip” a card for the whole year. It was so nice to hear that they think he is wonderful and gave me a little mommy pat on the back that though I make huge mistakes when it comes to raising him he is turning out to be an awesome little man. I was so proud of him, that I brought him home a dozen Krispy Kream donuts as a reward (for him and me). He was one happy little boy. I usually write the kids a note on the days when I am going to work, as I leave before them. Well last Thursday I didn’t have to work and this is what I woke up too, I mean honestly isn’t that the cutest thing ever? Way to go Riley, We love you!!!

TITLE: "This is not what I signed up for!!!"...or..."Somebody shoot me now!!"....

OK so it really isn't that dire but I have never remembered being quite so busy in my life. As many of you already know I got a PRN (on call) job at a local hospital. I actually really enjoy what I do and the pay is great. Now when I was hired on I wanted to be a "team player" and really help out, so they needed someone to cover on of the other girls maternity leaves. I figure OK, this could be crazy but it is only a couple days a week and the extra money will be nice. Well I have for the last month been working on average 46 a week. This has been so crazy, and stressful. As you can imagine this has left little time for housework, church callings or let alone all my girlfriends that I am missing terribly. I usually have Monday and Friday off and think OK I am going to catch up with everyone and everything but when it comes down to it, I end up spending the day cuddling with my kids and maybe doing some laundry. You should see the pile of laundry on my couch it would make blood shoot out of your eyes (Glenn Beck anyone?). Needless to say I know I have not be the best Mommy, Sister, Wife or Friend lately and I hope you can all forgive the lack of posts. Luckily I only have about 3-4 more weeks of pure terror and then things should slow down. I am looking at switching to a part time weekend position that would leave me home with the babies all week long. So that would be great. I miss them so much when I am gone at work and hate the thought that someone else is spending more time with them than I am but luckily it is only for a little longer. So sorry for the lack of posts, phone calls, emails and blog comments. I am still around and keeping track of all of you and soon enough it will all quiet down.......right? I am off to take a hot bath, cuddle with my babies, and hopefully get to bed before 11:30pm. Adios....
P.S. Angie, I am so glad you found my blog, shoot me an email @ Tom_Dani_Lillywhite@hotmail.com so we can catch up.

Hello again....

Wow, how fast time flies by with all the holidays and other busyness. We had a great Thanksgiving here in Colorado. It was so nice to be on our own time schedule with the meal and all but it was also soooooo quiet. We were able to go home the next weekend for Josh and Steffany's wedding and it was so nice to have everyone together. It was the 1st time in several years that all 8 of the siblings were together and it was a super fast trip but filled up my soul for at least a couple of weeks. Tom and I decided that he would take off the day after new years and we would head out to Utah for the New Year. Christmas was memorable. We had Papa Murphys for dinner on Christmas Eve and had a great Christmas day. We took the kids to see "The Tale Of Despereaux." Its a cute movie and movie popcorn and Christmas just go together. It was a fun day though we missed our families horribly. Luckily we knew we were going "home" in less than a week and that gave us something to look forward too. We left Wednesday night for Utah and Elle as usual got diarrhea about 1 1/2 into the drive. In Aspen Colorado we pulled over for the second time to change her and Tom ran into a grocery store to get some "bum cream". I started changing her not realizing what exactly I was getting into. Brooke started dry heaving.....literally, and I got poo all over myself. My hands and all of my left thigh were covered in a horrible stinky mess. Elle was also covered and at this point screaming at me. Tom came back around this time and after a change of clothes for both Elle and I. We made it to Frank and Amy's house in Payson around 1:30am. Tom and I shared a new years kiss in the car though it was less than romantic considering he was chowing down on some dill pickle sunflower seeds....blech! Frank and Amy were sweet enough to let us camp out at their house and we were able to spend sometime with them the next day. In fact Brooke and Ava got their picture taken at kiddie kandids for free and were soooo excited.
Brooke is still talking about "her" Ava. That evening we went to my parents house for a "New Years" party and got our "karaoke" on.Wow, Tom was never so excited to be married to me for all eternity...but it was fun and I think we all had a good laugh. The next day (Friday) we all just kind of hung out and played some games, then we went on a couples date to Tepanyaki and I had my first sushi. I ate part of a cucumber roll, it had eel, and had fish eggs in it. All night I just kept envisioning baby fish in my tummy. Riley almost died when I told him about it. After dinner we all went to watch Valkyrie. I actually really liked it though as a mom it made me worry about what my kids might see and have to experience in their lives. The next day was Saturday and we went sledding and then had dinner at Jed and Suzanne's. It was so fun to see everyone but as usual went by much to fast. I had wanted to see Krystal and her cute little baby girl, but we just ran out of time. Luckily we did run into Chris and Luke (he is getting sooo big) sledding so that was nice. Any how we are back and you all can expect posts on a nearly daily basis.

Happy Birthday Riley.....

Ok, so we are back, kind of. We still haven't gotten our internet set back up and so that explains the lapse of almost 2 months without a post. We should be getting the internet in the next week or so so things should move along then. Lots of things have happened in the past 2 months. I ended up going home with Tom to pick up the truck and had a nice visit. We were also able to go up to Laketown for Tom's mom's surprise birthday party. It was so nice to see everyone. Well today Riley turned 7. That seems so "big" to me. Tom and I were reminessing last night about the past 7 years and how things have turned out. They are quite different than what we thought it would be but still soooo good. Riley has lost his 2 front teeth this week and looks like a late jack-o-lantern. I am so glad Riley is in our family he is the best big brother and always so helpful. One day he will make a very good husband for someone. We love him so much! We are having a little party tonight with our neighbors and then on Saturday we are going to do something fun. Until next time....

Goodbye old friend....

So life has been crazy as usual but I am learning that will probably never change so we are just rolling with it, or trying too. As many of you know we had tried to sell the Blazer several years ago to no avail. We had it listed on KSL for months and barely even a call. We since we have moved out here Chris has been "babysitting" our truck and trying to sell it. No bites...suprise, suprise...who wouldn't want a 3/4 ton gas guzzler in this economy. Well after several discussions we decided that we would keep the truck, and sell the blazer. That way Tom gets his manly vehicle that can haul stuff and we can downsize to 2 vehicles...what a concept. We decided we should probably list it soon so that we could hopefully have it sold by the time we went home for the holidays. Tom spent all Saturday morning getting it ready and then on the way to see Brookies movie (Igor...stupid, but were we really expecting anything more?) we dropped it off. We dropped it off about 1:00pm and didn't really think much more about it. Well that night I took Brookie with me on a long Walmart trip to pick out a toy with her birthday money. I took Tom's phone with me but conviently left it in the car...nice but typical right? Well after 1 1/2 hours we pulled up home and Tom called me. I told him I was outside and to come and help me get the groceries. Well the problem was Tom wasn't home, he had to take the kids over to our friends, and luckily neighbors, house and go meet someone about the blazer. OOPS!! Luckily the kids were good, and Tom sold the blazer. The problem now is that we are down to one vehicle so Tom is going to make a trip "Home" sometime in the next 2 weeks to pick up the truck. So we had to say goodbye to our little blazer, we got it when Riley was a baby and it had a good run minus the transmission issue while on vacation in California. It will be missed, Riley was actually kind of sad that we were selling it. Oh, and Brookie wanted me to tell Jennie, and Cassie, and Erik that she used her birthday money to get the Mommy and Baby doggy with the carrier from Costco...she loves it and it has red hair like her daddy. Thanks again.

Brookie turns 4!!!

Today is my first born daughters birthday. I still remember the day we found out we were having a girl and how excited we were. I had no idea what a little girl could do to a daddys heart. Tom is putty in Brookies hands and you add another girl in the mix and it is all over. We are so glad our beautiful little Brookie Cookie is in our family. Today we are going to build a bear and then out to dinner...Brooke is shooting for Mcdonalds but we will see. Our computer finally crashed so that is the reason we haven't had a chance to update. Hopefully we will be able to post pictures soon.

My twins?

So I have been joking that Tom and I need to have twin boys next so that we can be done and fill the need for some more testosterine in our house. Well this got me thinking about Brooke and Elle after Suzannes comment I thought about how much they look like each other so here our my twins now.
Brookie at 14 months:

This is Brookie at 15 months:

Elle at 14 months:

Elle at 14 months:

This is my girls today...notice the cheeto lips?

I just noticed how dark Elles eyebrows are compared to Brookes at the same age. She also has less hair than Brookie did. I didn't even think that was possible I guess it all went to her eyebrows huh? Needless to say they are so fun and I am so glad they are close in age, hopefully they will survive teenagehood and still be close.

Homesick...

So I have been pretty homesick this week. I think it's the natural let down from having visitors and just talking to everyone from home and wishing we were there. Tom and I have both been extra homesick this week because Tom's parents are both having a few health issues and we wish we were close enough to run up to Bear Lake on the weekends to help out. I guess that is the hardest part is feeling like we are just far enough away that we can't run home whenever the desire or need hits. We are liking our ward and our area and I have to say the ward is very close knit I think in part to the fact that there are so many people away from there families. I swear 1/3 of our ward is from Utah and moved here for work just like Tom and I so that is comforting in a way. I helped start a babysitting swap group that has been fun and a good way to get to know other couples. I don't think I posted about our new callings. Tom got called to be the Home Teaching Coordinator, and also is the Sunday school teacher to the 12/13 year olds. About 4 weeks ago the whole primary presidency was reorganized and I was called to be the 2nd counselor. I was a little shocked considering at that point I didn't know anyone in the ward. I am really starting to enjoy it and really like the girls that I am in the presidency with. I love being in primary and often feel like it is so easy to feel the spirit in there. The only problem I am now facing is the fact that Brooke as a Sunbeam wants to talk to me and "help" me whenever I am conducting so that should be interesting but I do love being in there with them.

Anyways that's about it not much else very exciting has happened this week just the usual school stuff.

I have been sooooooooooo tired and can only figure that is the, going to bed too late and the waking up too early that is killing me. Also I wanted to give a shout out to Josh and Steffany, they are getting married Dec. 7th and we are so excited and happy for them. Josh is lucky to get a girl like Steffany and I am very excited to add her to my list of awesome sister-in-laws. I thought I would put up some pictures of the babies as they are growing up so fast.

Riley is loving school, but he always has and has adjusted good to the school thing. I am actually loving the early start early out schedule because he is home by 2:45 so we still have a lot of time together. OK, enough of the ramblings...and this was going to be a "short" post. Until I post again.....

A 2 week blitz.... *warning extremely long post*

So I am going to attempt to go over the past two weeks in one post....yes this could be long. The week before the Lutz family came and visited us Tom left for Georgia on that Sunday. I had been feeling under the weather for nearly a week already but didn't think much of it. Tom was gone to Atlanta from Sunday morning till Wednesday night. He was out there for training and from what he has told me it sounds like he had a good time. All week that Tom was gone I was busy working on getting the house ready for our visitors. I felt progressively sicker but figured I would get over it before Thursday as I had already been sick for almost 2 weeks. Tom got home Wednesday and we almost went to the doctor that night but I thought....one more day. Well Thursday came and we were crazy busy getting ready for Candi and Kelly to come. I was so happy that morning as was the whole family. Tom told me to not clean and just sleep so I could get better. I tried to just rest but that turned out to be a bad idea. Tom was suppose to get home around 6:00pm but he stayed to help with a BBQ and he didn't get home until 8:15pm. The house was a mess, and so was I. Tom came home, sent me to a insta care type clinic and got to cleaning. I went to the doctors found out I had a lovely case of bronchitis and was sent home with some meds. I actually was so happy that I had something that I could actually take medicine for. I came home and Tom and I finished the rest of the house and waited patiently or rather impatiently for the Lutz family to arrive. We had put the kids to bed like normal but promised them we would wake them up when the cousins arrived. They got here a little after midnight and we were so happy. When I saw them it felt like home. I was so glad to have familiar faces in my house. I was so happy and so were the kids. We all stayed up, visited and, watched an awesome Hawaii video Kelly made for us. We didn't go to bed until after 2:00am but it was worth it. The next day was Friday and the boys went golfing. Tom was so happy to have his golfing buddy back. Then we went to Old Chicago Pizza (Yummy) to pay homage to the pic of Candi, and then went to a nature and science museum.

Its so funny how it just felt like normal with everyone again. It felt like no time had passed at all and like this is how it should always be. That night Nate watched the kids for us and Candi, Kelly, Tom and I went downtown to The Cheesecake Factory. Tom ordered some nasty pasta dish that tasted like vomit, and Kelly ordered to weird pasta dish without the pasta. My salad and Candi's sandwich were good though I don't think I would go back to eat. The cheesecake was the redeeming factor though next time we will go straight for dessert. On Saturday we woke up packed a picnic lunch and went to a neat park near downtown. It has a stream running through it so we let the kids wade through it and it also has a train and a petting zoo. The turkey was so funny, it would let the kids pet it and just kept puffing up it's chest. It made me wonder what they had done to it to make it so docile.

Elle loved the animals. The hubbys were party poopers and wouldn't come in the petting zoo with us, but they did ride on the train with us. I guess they were too tired after there awesome basketball game. Tom was so stinking sweaty after that, he was wearing a black polo shirt, not the best idea for a hot day. It was so fun to just let the kids play and visit. After we got home we all went swimming in the pool. We had some nice diving contests and even had some chicken fights.




We had BBQ that night with some corn Candi and Kelly had brought, it made us even more homesick. On Sunday we went to Estes Park, and took a little hike in the mountains. It was beautiful. Everyone kept think Jennie and Brooke were twins with there matching outfits.




Erik managed to drop his sunglasses in the toilet and Candi, yes our germaphobic Candi, fished them out washed them and gave them back. I was so surprised and still laugh about it. The best part is Erik lost his glasses and we still haven't found them yet but we are still looking.



On Monday we woke up and the guys went golfing again, Kelly may or may not have shattered a window on a house, and then we all went to a big mall by our house. We had lunch, Candi got chewed out by a security guard for not watching the kids close enough, and Tom found his dream cell phone (a watch). It all ended much to fast and we were so said to see them leave. It's like I told Tom the pain of being away from everyone had turned into a dull ache and then when they left it ripped it wide open again. Luckily we are going to see everyone for Josh's wedding and hopefully we will have some visitors in October (Eli and Asia? Jed and Suzanne?) This week has just be the usual so far, getting back into the swing of things. I promise to update more often now that we are all feeling better (knock on wood).