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.