Fun Pictures

We took our family picture today for our Christmas cards. The girls love to get all dressed up.

Katelund took this picture of Cloey. Seriously, Cloey loves to make this face. She does it all the time for pictures.
She was so proud of herself for putting on my lipstick all by herself.

Visiting Daddy at Work

Man, he is SO HOT!!!
Apparently this is Cory's motivational quote, "Live every week like it's Shark Week". He LOVES it when Shark Week is on the Discovery Channel!!! He gets all giddy and everything. :)
The girls love to go through all of his drawers. He is so patient with them. He loves when we stop by to visit.

My Weekend Alone...

On Thursday night, Cory drove the girls to Fayetteville, to visit Grandma and Grandpa. Cory went hunting with his Dad and spent time with his brother, Logan, who was visiting for the weekend also. Unfortunately, I was not able to go because I had committed months ago to be a running buddy for a Winter Wonderland Girls on the Run 5k. It is a club that you can join here in Western North Carolina while you are in Elementary and Middle School. They meet once a week after school for 16 weeks. For the first 30 minutes they teach the girls about eating healthy, exercising, and having a good attitude about their body image. The last 30 minutes they spend running in order to prepare for the big 5k race at the end of the semester. Each of the girls had to choose a running buddy to run with at the race. I am such a HUGE supporter of this program!!! I had so much fun with it!! I couldn't believe it when I got there because there was over 600 girls, their families to cheer them, and all of the running buddies. It was a really big deal! Olivia, the girl that I ran with, did such an incredible job!!! The course was not easy, but she stuck it out and we ended up finishing in about 45 minutes. I was SO PROUD of her!! I am wearing a tiara in this picture because each of the running buddies had to decorate one and wear it during the race. I wrote "Go Olivia" on mine. It was SOOO cold, it was 38 degrees, windy, and drizzling rain, but it was SO FUN!!

I have really enjoyed my time alone. I have spent a lot of time in my robe, eating chocolate, reading the last book in the Twilight series (SOOOO... GOOD), and making some Christmas presents for my nieces and nephews. I have totally boycotted cooking simply because I don't have to! :) I have lived off of cereal, fruit, and chocolate. I also went to two Christmas parties. I went to one on Friday night and as everybody left, the hostess gave us all the cutest little gifts (look at the picture above). All wrapped up cutely in a bag was a real mistletoe, candy cane flavored kisses, and a little note thanking me for coming and wishing our family a Christmas filled with lots of kisses. How cute is that??!!?? I LOVED IT!! It's been a great weekend, but I am done living the single life, I'm ready for my family to come back home!!

Experimenting with my camera...

Birthday Gifts

So a couple of posts back (on my birthday), I put the picture of my wrapped gifts and Rebecca asked to see what was in them. I couldn't just post a picture of that gift, so I decided to let you see all the wonderful gifts that I got for my birthday. So here I go...


This is the most incredible stamp set ever from the best sisters in the world, Andrea and Katie. I love you both!! Thanks SO MUCH!!!
My friend Kim made these cute letter blocks for me.
My friend Carrie got me this BEAUTIFUL vase.
This is the awesome present from my mom that was wrapped up in that picture I took. THANKS MOM!!

Cute candle set from my friend Laura.
I love this! It is a misc. scrapbook supply carrying case from my mother-in-law. I really needed one of these.
Roses from my friend Marie and poinsettias from my friend Kristin.
An incredibly soft robe from my Grandma Black and she also sent me one of my Grandpa's shirts that he got from a half-marathon he ran. I REALLY wanted one of his racing t-shirts and Grandma thought I should have it since I have ran a half-marathon as well. I was SO EXCITED to get it!!!
Cory got me a beautiful new pot and pan set. I LOVE them!! I can't wait to get him a vacuum for Christmas! J/K :)

I got some wonderful gifts, but I think the greatest gift of all was from my visiting teacher. She gave me a card and on the inside she wrote, "Consider this a coupon for free babysitting every quarter all year for you and Cory to go to the temple." I had told her that all I really wanted for my birthday was to go to the temple with Cory. We don't get to go as often as I'd like since the closest temple is in South Carolina and when we go we have to find a babysitter for 7 hours!! It is kinda hard to find someone, especially when we live so far from family. Anyways, I had a wonderful birthday! Thank you all for your gift of friendship!! I love each of you!!

"The Potty Sign"

I swear that my life these days revolves around wet sheets, wet panties, wet pants, extra clothes, and bathroom trips everywhere that we go. I know where every bathroom is in every store that we go to. In fact, we even have our favorite bathroom at the mall that we have to go in because it has a "tiny potty". Katelund was doing so good until Cloey started having accidents (now that I am finally brave enough to take Cloey out in panties). It is ridiculous! I have gone to the park twice this week. The first time I came home because Cloey had pooped in her pants (she REFUSED to use the porta-potty). The second time (today) we left because both girls peed in their pants. In fact, I think they planned it together just to drive me crazy!! Anyways, on the way home tonight from dropping a friend off, I pulled over in a parking lot to break up a fight between the two of them over a baby doll, and Katelund said, "Oh mommy we can go potty now." I told her that we were almost home and that she needed to hold it because it was a church not a store. She then said, "But mommy look at the potty sign in front of us, it means that we can go potty here." I looked in front of us and it was a handicapped parking sign. I started laughing SO HARD!!! It actually really does look like a potty sign. The handicap sign will just never be the same to me. :)

GIRLS NIGHT!!

Krista and Laura rocking it out on the Dance Revolution.
Laura playing some air hockey.
Back Row: Carrie, Laura, Krista, Me, Julie, Heather Front Row: Laura, Kim, Martha, Katie
Carrie and Julie rocking it out on the Dance Revolution and I am standing behind cheering them on. They also got some video of me doing the robot for all to see and laugh at, but I will not be posting that on here, sorry. :)

Since I spent my birthday cleaning up Cloey's throw-up and canceling the surprise party that Cory was going to throw for me, I decided to have a girls night out/birthday party last night. I invited a whole bunch of friends from my ward and my neighbor. It was so much fun!!! We met at 8:30 at Panera Bread for some hot chocolate. Then we went over to the movie theater to see the 9:20 showing of Enchanted (the cutest movie ever). The show had been changed to 10 so we went to the arcade upstairs and played air hockey and dance revolution (my favorite game ever). We had so much fun! I'm sure that other people were wondering what was going on when they watched 10 moms playing like kids, dancing, and laughing like crazy. We all LOVED the show and as we got out of the movie we couldn't believe that it was already after midnight. We were all way past our curfews. :) We all decided that we need to have girls nights at least once a month from here on out.

Some Cute Pics from the Weekend

Cory went on an overnight hunting trip with some of his boys. Much to their dismay, they came home empty handed. It was the last day of hunting season....maybe next year!?! He did look pretty cute and manly (those words really don't go together) all decked out in his camo.
How cute is this picture? Yes Austyn, it's my favorite hat ever because I think of you whenever I wear it.

Three of My Favorite Things

So you know how Oprah does her "Favorite Things" show? I thought it would be fun to find out everyone else's favorite things from 2007. So I am going to start it off with three of my favorite things...

The first one is the new Josh Groban...Noel Christmas CD. I actually just got this for my birthday from one of my friends, but it is already at the top of my list. I LOVE it!! If you don't have it, you must get it (unless you don't like Josh Groban...but seriously who doesn't like him?) Every song is absolutely AMAZING, but some of my favorites are Silent Night, The First Noel (a duet with Faith Hill), Thankful, and Oh Come All Ye Faithful (sung with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir). I listen to this CD all day long at home AND in the car! I don't know if you know this yet but....I LOVE IT!!
This is my Cocomotion (you can find it at Bed Bath and Beyond). It makes the best hot chocolate in the world!! You just add the hot chocolate powder and water or milk, turn on the on button and it will mix it together until it is the perfect temperature and consistency. Cory and I love to turn it on, fill up our mugs (his is a UT mug and mine is an adorable one that my mom gave me) and drink them out on the patio early in the morning as we cuddle up under a blanket together.


Katie got me two pairs of the sock pictured above for my birthday last year. They have become very important to me! They are Champs wicking/anti-moisture socks. They are the best running socks ever. Since I only have two pairs of them, I throw them in the wash all of the time with towels, kids clothes, or whatever else is washing that day. I HAVE to wear these particular socks anytime I run in a race or when I am doing a long distance run. I swear that I run better when I am wearing them. Seriously, they are magical. :)


So... there you have three of my favorite things from 2007. And now I would like to know all of your favorite things. I will be checking all of your blogs. :) Love you all.

"OPEN, OPEN, OPEN!!!"

That is what these presents have been saying to me for the past 4 days!! My mom sent my birthday present a little bit early and it has been KILLING me!!! I seriously have shaken it, felt it, held it up to the light, and everything else that I could think of to figure out what it was without opening it, but....to no avail!!! Anyone that knows me knows that I have a really hard time keeping in surprises, in fact most people know what I'm getting them for Christmas and/or birthdays before I ever send it out to them. I can't help it....I just get so excited. One Christmas when I was a little girl, I opened all of my presents under the tree and then re-wrapped them. A couple of years ago my mother-in-law told me that it was a matter of integrity to not open presents before your birthday or Christmas. Ever since she said that, I have NOT ONCE opened a present before the specified day, but I'm not going to lie.....IT IS ABSOLUTE TORTURE!!!! So anyways, here I am on my birthday and now FINALLY I get to OPEN, OPEN, OPEN!!! YEAH!!!!