My War Buddy

This is my war buddy. My mom. What is a war buddy? Tyson and I had this discussion last night about how a war buddy is someone you have a special connection with because they went through a hard time with or along side you. He spoke of several mission companions that were his war buddies because they had to go through several challenges together.

I thought and thought about if I even had any war buddies. I finally realized that even though my mom and I never went through the same challenges at the same time, there is a special bond between us because during some times when I felt particularly faced with challenges in my life
she was the person I could talk to and feel like she really understood me.

My mom and I were able to spend a little bit of time together today. She came down to Provo just to spend some time with me and run a few other little errands with me. I was really excited to see her because it had seem so long since we have been able to really do something together, just the two of us. We may not have done anything special, but being with her was special.

So, this goes out to my mom (who often reads my blog) . I love you and appreicate all that you have done for me over the years. Thank you for being so wonderful.

25 Random Things...

I got this tag on Facebook but decided to do it because I really enjoyed learning about some of the people who wrote on it. It really helped me get to know a few people better. So, hope you guys enjoy learning a bit more about me.

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

1. I lack common sense and a good vocabulary.
2. I am in love with ice cream...except when I was pregnant I couldn't stand it.
3. I have been to several colleges: SUU, LDSBC, BYU-I, UVU (and concurrent enrollment classes at SLCC).
4. I have applied and been accepted to several colleges (but didn't attend): BYU, USU, CEU, and U of U.
5. I have never owned a credit card before...and never been in debt before.
6. I don't consider myself very good at anything...nor do I feel like I have a diverse amount of things I can do even remotely well.
7. I am better at basketball than my husband.
8. I don't like to read, but when I do read they are self-improvement type books.
9. My elbows are double jointed.
10. I have 5 different sets of stitches. One on my left arm, my right arm, my chin, below my eyebrow, and across my belly.
11. In kindergarten I told kids that my dad worked in the sewer and to run out of the drains to escape from alligators and snakes below.
12. Many people view me in different ways depending on when they met me. Sometimes I'm shy, sometimes I'm outgoing, sometimes I'm awkward, sometimes I'm humorous, etc.
13. I can sing Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes in 3 different languages.
14. I think my husband is afraid of me writing things about him on my blog and facebook for fear of what I might say about him.
15. In college I wrote a list of 35 (or so) things I wanted in a husband and Tyson fit them all! ("things" included "Doesn't feel the need for speed", "Went on a mission because he wanted to", "Has seen me at my ugliest and still thinks I'm beautiful", and "Really loves his job or passion for what he wants to do in life.")
16. Spiders and snakes I can handle, but I am deathly afraid of ants.
17. When Eden was about 2 weeks I started praying often that she would sleep well and almost every night since she has slept at least 6-8 hours a night...I'm convinced that is the reason she's such a good sleeper.
18. When I was 5 I cried at the dinner table because I didn't know who I was going to marry.
19. I didn't cry when I broke my arm because I didn't want my brother to make fun of me.
20. I always think about trying to dress trendy but never do it.
21. I had surgery on my intestines when I was 6 months old.
22. Later I found the scar on my belly and was convinced that my brother cut my stomach open with a kitchen knife...so of course I told everyone.
23. I have a hard time saying "no" to people.
24. I'm a firm believer that if you tried your hardest to get somewhere on time but are still running late, then you should keep the speed limit and you'll be blessed either by getting there on time (surprisingly) or else there wasn't a need to be on time anyway. (Although, I don't always practice what I preach.)
25. I like being short and having small feet even though it is often need to shorten the length of my pants or can't find shoes in a small enough size (5 1/2).

The Fruit Binky

Eden has a passion for food. Not hard to tell, she's a little chubby, but I still love her. :)

Eden has gotten into the Fruit Binky (I think it's technically called a mesh feeder). I don't know how many of you know what that is. Basically it looks like a large binky made out of mesh and plastic. You fill it with fruit and the baby sucks the life out of it to get the juice out. This way you don't have to worry about them choking on little pieces of fruit by accident.

My sister swears by this thing and I'm not so sure I give the same recommendation. Eden gets all sticky from the juice (as well as anything she or the binky touches) and when she sucks it seems like she's swallowing more air than juice. But on the other hand, Eden likes it and it does keep her from choking on large pieces of fruit.

Anyhow, here's a video of Eden glaring at me, LOUDLY sucking the life out of her fruit binky, and gripping it so tight as if to say, "touch and you die." I think it's funny and cute, even if she is glaring...

St. George

This past weekend Tyson, Eden, and I went to St. George with Tyson's sister, Macie, KJ, and baby Eva. It was tons of fun. We were able to just relax, go visit the temple, swim, and get Bubble Teas. Below are pictures of our fabulous trip!

For those of you thinking, "What is the world is Bubble Tea?!?" ...Bubble Teas are kind of like smoothies with large tapioca balls inside of them. Below is a diagram that I just found online that I think is funny (it came from a place called like "Things Yellow People Like"...Bubble Teas are an Asian thing.) Tyson and I are absolutely in love with them (our favorite place to get them is in St. George at a place called Orange Peel...my mom introduced it to us and now we are all addicted).

Recommended Readings

Alright, there are a few things in life that I really enjoy. Reading ISN'T one of them. But there is one type of book that I love reading, the kind that make me want to improve my life. I'm not sure if there's a specific "genre" for that (shows how much I know about books.)

But I know there are many people who are always looking for some good books to read...and if you're like me and always want to improve my life, then here are my recommendations (Tyson also loves these books if you don't trust my judgement.)

-If you are looking for self-improvement and improvement in any kind of relationship (business, marriage, friend, etc.) then I suggest The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Steven R. Covey.

-If you are looking for financial improvement and advice (how to get out of debt and manage your money) then I suggest The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey (who also has a talk radio show about finance).

-If you feel like your life is overwhelming, stressful, and you need to learn how to organize your life, make and keep goals, and feel productive then I suggest The Power of Less by Leo Babauta.

The Most Wonderful Husband Award

One of the best things I've done in a while is sit down a write a list of great memories with Tyson. We've known each other for two years and it just put the biggest grin on my face to go back and remember why my husband is the best husband in the world...at least the best for me.

Here are a few memories that made me smile:

1. The first time we met, in a hot tub (and thinking "He's way too immature.")
2. The second time we met outside of the hot tub, not remembering who he was I re-introduced myself and then realizing my mistake saying, "Oh! I didn't recognize you with your clothes on!" in front of a large group of friends.
3. Finding out he drove a nicer looking car and thinking "oh no, is he a car person?" to later find out that he got the car at an amazing deal but almost didn't take it thinking "then people might think I'm into cars." (Funny thing, it's only a silver, VW Jetta. Not real fancy.)
4. On my birthday while we were dating he gave me the book, "How to Make Friends and Influence People"...what is THAT supposed to mean? He did it with good intentions though.
5. Visiting Vegas with my family and getting stopped by management while walking through a casino to check if we were under-age...and I forgot my ID so they got mad at us and threw us out.
6. Valentine's day last year he surprised me by calling my work and getting the day off beforehand and then hanging out with me all day just relaxing, watching movies, and having fun.
7. I called him one morning while dating and said, "Let's get married." He said, "Woah, no rush. Just take your time." Since he didn't believe me, I called my best friend Rachel and my mom and told them I was getting married. We went ring shopping the next day and he proposed that night.
8. Tyson being asked (almost assumingly) by SEVERAL people, "So...did you serve your mission in Japan?" and him saying, "No...Ohio."
9. Finding out he wanted to start a family right away...and then finding out we make BEAUTIFUL babies!
10. The day we got married. Blue skies, gorgeous flowers, beautiful temple ceremony, and getting the most wonderful husband in the world! (...how romantic....or cheesy, you pick.)

Little Burdens...

Have you seen this person?
She was found guilty of grabbing mom's laptop and pulling off the ctrl, shift, and A keys making them hard to push.

Eden got a hold of my laptop the other day and pulled off a few buttons. I officially have a hard time pushing control, shift, and A keys. I mean, if you are going to pull off buttons, why couldn't she do like F12, +, and Q? You never realize how needed those keys are until you can't use them anymore. Ugh, and I'm such a perfectionist when it comes to these things. It would drive me crazy to not capitalize the beginning of a sentence or have things misspelled because my A key doesn't work. Oh well, I still love Eden, even when she's trouble.

Unfashionable

There are a several things in my life that make me think, "Man, I'm an embarrassment." Especially when it comes to fashion and beauty. My family could tell you many, many stories about my fashion failures over the years (of course it was always to impress the boys, starting when I was 4 years old and madly in love with Bill Murray). I've even shown Tyson my pictures of high school and he said, "If I had met you then, I probably wouldn't have dated you." MY OWN HUSBAND SAID THAT! Good grief! And according to his sister Macie, "Tyson became trendy after he got married."

Well, the point to this is that I'm still trying to work on improving the way I look. Tyson has helped a lot, I admit it. I have a much better understanding of how browns and blacks can look good together as well as how to pluck my eyebrows. For the past while I've been trying to figure out how to do my make up better and I've experiemented a little more on my hair (which generally my hair doesn't change that much no matter what I do to it).

So, I got my hair cut yesterday. (Speaking of being an embarrassment...I feel sheepish taking a picture of myself just to put on my blog...I mean, do you smile at yourself in the picture when obviously no one else is around while I take my own personal photo shoot to get a decent picture that I'm not TOTALLY ashamed to put on the internet.) Anyhow, here's the picture of my new hair cut.

It's pretty plain and not exactly what I planned on. I like it, but don't love it. Unfortunately I think it looks better in the picture than when I look in the mirror. Anyhow, if anyone has makeup "know how", I'm more than willing to take the advice. I mostly need help with trying to get rid of darker circles under my eyes, tricks to make my eyes look better in general, etc.. (Wow, I almost feel like I'm writing an advertisement or asking Dear Abby.)

Eden's Hair Dilemma: Part 2

I realized that I never gave an update on what I decided to do with Eden's hair. Originally I was going to post a picture of Eden with a wicked, spiked mohawk that I did once while she was sleeping and took a picture of, then say that we decided to go with that look. Unfortunately I can't find that picture anywhere, so I must have deleted it. :(

I kept insisting that I was going to cut at least the little strands of hair here and there that were SUPER long and Tyson kept saying "no" because he was afraid of her looking like a boy after it was finished. After a while I finally just went ahead and cut it anyway against Tyson's wishes.

BEFORE and AFTER


What do you think? Doesn't look like a boy, right? I sure hope not at least. I also haven't been putting as much stuff in her hair. I used to always put a little bow in it but lately I've just been lazier I think...not to mention that she pulls it off within seconds of me putting it in her hair.

This is me cutting her hair. I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to do it...so I just sat her on the bathroom floor, let her play with some stuff, and I tried to grab chunks and just chop it fast without a mess. It ended up horribly uneven, but then again I figured that the more even it was the more it would look like a boy haircut that was PURPOSEFULLY meant to be cut. And that is a VERY nice picture of her little balding area in the back of her head. haha.
I think she looks cute with the hair cut. Actually, I did this a while back and I'm starting to think that she could use another hair cut in not too long.
That's a bunch of the hair that I chopped off. It was pretty long...it used to go pretty much to her eyebrows in parts. Overall I think it looks better.

While Daddy's at School...

Tyson's mom, Lydia, Hayden, Eden, and I went sledding while Tyson was still at school to celebrate the HUGE amounts of snow we've been getting.

The snow was so deep that when I sat her in the snow it almost went up to her shoulders. So, like the mean mother I am...I buried here the rest of the way. She didn't seem to mind.

These are some fun videos I took with my camera as well. Eden didn't mind sledding...wasn't good or bad in particularly (although I think she got kind of sick of the really puffy suit by the end). She did LOVE eating the snow and was kind of sad when we went back inside after eating a bunch of it. And the last video is after sledding we decided it might be easier to drag Eden along instead of carry her...she just sat there nicely because I think she was tired. It kind of reminds me of injured people coming off the mountain when they hurt themselves skiing or snowboarding. haha.

Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Our little family had a great Christmas. We were able to spend a lot of time with family and have a wonderful time. Here are some pictures (because I think I'm a picture-a-holic when it comes to blogging...I'm all for the "a picture is worth a thousand words" not to mention that I think that if I were to WRITE a thousand words you would all just fall asleep in the process.)

Eden was able to get a lot of toys, diapers, wipes, and food. It was exactly what she wanted (or what I wanted). she's been loving all her toys and LOVES eating most anything and everything.

We went to Tyson's extended family party where the kids got together and acted out the story of Christ's birth. Eden was an angel with her Aunt Lydia and was a very good sport as we dressed her in a white cloth, wings, and a halo. She LOVES her Aunt Lydia (on Tyson's side of the family Lydia is her favorite and on my side of the family my dad is her favorite although she isn't picky about who she goes to as long as they carry her, play with her, or feed her.)

Eden also got Christmas pajamas that are funny. We found them on super discount (I think they were under $1 because they say "Will Reiley" on the bottom flap and were probably given back due to misprint...but that made it all the funnier to have her bum flap with that on there.)

Santa came to visit and we all got to sit on his lap (including Tyson and me). Eden...was not a fan of Santa. Scared her to death. Funny cause she really does like to go to most anyone, but Santa apparently is a scary, scary man. She'll figure out that he's not so bad of a guy later on.