Proudly Presenting "C-DUB"

Good old Courtney tagged me; so here it goes.....: )

What is his name? Chad William, also known as c-dub, c-walk, donk, and c-weed : )

How long have you been married? coming up on three years here in may.....good night, that went fast....but honestly it feels like we've been together all our lives. (we love it)

How long did you date? Well, honestly from our first date to our wedding day was about 4 and 1/2 years, but there were definitely some episodes of non "dating" along the way, at least one long episode anyway.

How old is he? 24

Who eats more? I am definitely the one who is always hungry and I also definitely eat a lot later at night than he does, but sorry Chad, I still think you take the cake on this one...no pun intended.

Who said I love you first? Definitely him....you're talking to the most non committal girl here. Chad went from being my best friend to my fiance merely because I couldn't commit to that boyfriend stage. I definitely loved him, I think I just said it in more round about ways.

Who is smarter? I have to work and study really hard, but I love learning anything and everything, whereas Chad is a lot more naturally smart (and a lot smarter than he thinks he is, by the way)

Whose temper is worse? Honestly, for the most part we are two pretty mellow fellows, we can both get frustrated at times, but it takes a lot for us to get there.

Who does laundry? Ever since we've had to do our laundry at our complexes coin operated machines, both of us totally slack off in the laundry department. But we usually do it together.

Who does the dishes? Yet again, another tag team effort.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? We like to switch things up every now and then, but I often find myself sleeping closest to the door, hence, closest to emyri.

Who pays the bills? Chad mostly pays the bills, Vandi mostly worries about the bills.

Who cooks dinner? Whoever's home first around dinner time, but honestly, Chad's the much better cook. I am working on my kitchen skills, however. Yet, I find it's my lack of desire that mostly interferes.

Who drives when you are together? It's this weird phenomenon, but Chad is almost guaranteed to be the driver when we're together.

Whose parents do you see the most? Hmm....probably mine, but just a teeny bit more.

Who proposed? Chad did; on a mountain top in a snow storm: )

Who has more friends? We both have friends and love our friends, but Chad is by far better at keeping in touch with them. He is constantly calling them up and talking to them. I on the other hand find myself often thinking about my friends and hoping their doing great, but rarely actually talking to them. (something I'm working on) The good thing is though that most of our friends are both of our friends anyway, or at least his friends are married to my friends kind of a thing: )

Who has more siblings? biologically, I do, step-half sibiling-ologically he does; I have four brothers, Chad has a real brother and sister, three step sisters, and one half brother.

Who wears the pants in the family? Considering Chad and I typically prefers wearing shorts, I guess that means Emyri wears the pants. She's hard core like that: )

Pretty much all I can say is that I love Chad's guts. He is the craziest, cuddliest, most hilarious, loving, patient, and humble best friend I have ever had : ) I can't quite explain why he loves me so much, but there is never a doubt in my heart or mind that he does. With Chad around, there is never a dull moment...and I wouldn't have it any other way: )

My Heart 2 Heart with Emy

I think I had my first real life conversation with my emyri tonight. I know we've talked to each other billions of times before, which most likely consisted of me talking at her or to her, but tonight I sat her in my lap and face to face we talked and really communicated and I both loved and hung on to every last minute of it. It started out when she started to cry once she realized her daddy was gone for the night. We sat down and talked about how that made her feel and what she missed most about her dad. It just kind of snowballed into a full on chat about the time when her cousins bonked heads and started crying and how grandma held Bailey until she stopped crying. We covered how Jaxton slept on our couch this last weekend and how funny it was when he pretended to fall off of it when he woke up. She brought up the time when Kaylee came up to go swimming with us and we played ring around the rosies in the water together, oh and we also played "sharks". She remembered that after we swam we had to be quiet (shhh), because baby Olly was sleeping. I could almost see when a new memory or thought would enter her little mind and then the conversation would shift to something else she thought was hilarious or that she wanted to talk about. We even ended up talking about Abinadi in the Book of Mormon and how the "tigers" sitting next to King Noah in the picture had their mouths wide open. As I watched her use her words, sound effects, facial expressions, and movements to tell me all about what she was thinking, I was amazed at how well she actually can process things, remember, feel, and communicate, and also shocked to realize how often I probably pass what she's really trying to tell me about what she's thinking by. I loved being on her level tonight. I loved listening to all she had to say. It makes me wonder just how much more she would say if she had the means of communicating it. One of my greatest goals in life is to be a mom that listens and a mom that talks with her kids in a way that they want to, can, and love to talk back. I was grateful for the reminder that that starts now, even with a one and a half year old. Those kind of precious moments, like the ones I had with her tonight, are the kind that make my life so meaningful. Isn't it the best!

Weak Sauce Post I Know

I know I haven't posted in forever....and I feel really bad about it....and as you will already be able to infer upon reading the title of this here blurb, this post is going to be no compensation. Oh well, in this small amount of time I do have I will attempt to catch you up on the recent happenings in our little world.

School is going well....our schedules are at times monstrous, but I'm sure you all know exactly how it is: ) My internship is awesome. It actually has me considering becoming trained and certified in doing forensic interviews with children who have been sexually abused (something I don't think I ever would have considered had I not been able to work with and observe my incredible supervisor, who by the way is awesome at what she does). I've heard things and read things that I never thought I would in my life time, but I'm so glad I get to be a part of helping kids get out of the situations that life often places them in. I also get to teach in home parenting, and am currently working with a lot of teen moms and single moms, which I love. People are amazing. My internship also has my heart hurting some moments when I think about how much I'm having to be away from baby girl. I hate that she has to be baby sat so much. I feel bad for my wonderful babysitters (especially since we don't have much to offer them $ wise), and I feel bad for little girl who has just recently begun crying when we leave her at the sitters now. I honestly have to keep telling myself that even though there are moments of doubt when doing this incredibly time consuming internship feels like it can't possible be the right thing for me to be doing, that in fact it is right and I (we) just have to keep moving forward and make the most out of it. Honestly, it's not that bad.....I just miss my Chad and Memers.


I baby sat my neighbor's two little boys this weekend, who are in fact two very cute little boys. But after a night of chasing them around trying to wipe their really runny noses (which was in all honesty making me pretty queezy), lifting them out of emyri's crib upon finding they'd somehow climbed in and were jumping their little hearts out....time and time again, and rushing the oldest one to the toilet upon finding he'd had a coughing fit and thrown up his recently consumed granola bars all over emyri's toy chair...

*I pause here in the list of happening to insert that while the oldest boy was continuing to throw up in the toilet while I stood over him, his little brother was right by my side pretending to throw up as well. He kept copying his brother's hurling sounds and saying "I threwd up, I threwd up". Emyri who has never witnessed an actual "throwing up" in her life so far was also crowding in as close as she could to see the action. Needless to say it was mayhem.

(list continued)...We ended the night with the oldest boy, (yes the one who had only moments earlier thrown up) ramming his tiny head into the corner of our entertainment center leaving a huge purple and white dent, that was just itching to bleed uncontrollably. At least it wasn't full bore bleeding, I told myself as I got him a wet washcloth to hold on the wound. And poor emyri was pretty much traumatized by the end of the night (heck, I was pretty much traumatized by the end of the night) but she was so worried about Jesse getting hurt that she just kept crying and crying and wouldn't let me put her down. So I felt terrible by the time their parents came to pick them up. "You're never going to want you're boys to come over again" I found myself saying as they carried their boys out the door.

Oh well, so I'm not the best baby sitter. I'm ok with that. So weak sauce post turned into a long weak sauce post, but hopefully you still found some enjoyment out of it. Just in case you didn't, I leave you with this fun little video emyri and I found the other day. Goo Goo Dolls + Elmo; who couldn't enjoy that!

*I stole this from Tatum's blog...hope she doesn't mind:)

These are Chad's responses to the following questions..........

I love to eat – real authentic tacos
I hate to eat - menudo (for the spanish impaired this is cow stomach)

I love to go – to Lake Powelll
I hate to go – out in the cold in the morning and scrap my window

I love it when – "You call me big Papa"
I hate it when – I step in dog poop and track it through the house

I love to see – people fall down (but not when they're hurt)
I hate to see – fat men's harry bum cracks when they bend over

I love to hear – my little girls laugh.
I hate to hear – our upstairs neighbors (if you know what I mean)

I love to touch-water and corn starch
I hate to touch-Cadavers

I love to smell- Homemade bread
I hate to smell- flatulence

I love to think- about graduating and having a home one day...and the summer time
I hate to think- about the money I dont have

I love to read- short stories
I hate to read- text books

I love to watch- movies......pretty much every night
I hate to watch- soap operas

I love to sit-in a hot tub
I hate to sit - in gum

A Love LikeThis!

Driving home from school today this song came on the radio....I've heard it before, but between really listening to it this time and my head boppin' I had flashbacks of my own journey to finding love. Needless to say I was filled with the warm fuzzies and couldn't wait to get home to see my boy: ) (The song reminds me of Chad and I...not so much the music video, but it's still cute: )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t6iNXgvRXU



(still haven't figured out how to put a youtube video directly on my blog....any help?)

Plus, what songs remind you of you and your boy?

The Holiday Break Down

This holiday break has been so much fun. However, I thought I would for sure find some quality time to blog this break, but somehow we were still busy...but in much more exciting ways than the usual busyness goes. We got to spend most of the break in SV which is always really fun for us. We love getting to be with our families. They are such fun and hilarious people to be with. Good times had by all: ). Christmas was really fun. Emers caught on to the "tearing colorful paper off of wrapped boxes to find exciting and fun things inside" real quick. She got a toy puppy with a leash she can pull it around with, but was much more impressed with the just her size baby stroller she also received. (I noticed Pearl also was a recipient of this awesome gift PMB) It's so fun to watch emyri with her babies. She is already a cute little mother hen who insists on having her babies wrapped in blankets before carried or put in their stroller. She cuddles them, pat's their backs (have you ever noticed how much you tend to pat your baby on the back? Maybe it's just me, but I realized I did it all the time when emyri would start patting Chad and I on the back too whenever we'd pick her up: ) Funny girl), and she's constantly taking off each of her dolls clothes so she can give them a "baf" (bath). We love our baby girl, and needless to say Christmas with her this year was loads of fun: )

We also got to go to my family's Christmas party which is always a blast. I honestly love everything about our Christmas party from the loads of food, getting to chat it up with all of my hilarious cousins, seeing how many new little kids their are, all the way to watching the boys betting on their basketball shots, the pathetic yet funny talent show, participating in the brawl of a game called "the grab bag", and watching grandma take all of the happenings in and realize that because of her and grandpa all of us are there that night having so much fun. My favorite thing this year was being able to share all of this family tradition with Chad. He's been there before, but this year he was comfortable enough to thoroughly immerse himself in all of the mayhem and I loved watching him enjoy it so much. Emyri also had loads of fun running around with the other twenty something little kids.

We're headed back to school tomorrow morning to hit the books again for another semester. I'm coming to the harsh realization that between my 22 hr. a week internship and chad's full schedule of classes and work that I may only get to see my precious husband a few hours a day
...which is already a reality for many of you (I honestly feel for you)...I was just hoping it wouldn't come so soon. Oh, well we'll just have to make the time we do have together high quality fun.

Welp, we'll end the post here with the many faces of emyri (or at least the one face she keeps flashing in every picture we take: ).......
At Missy's (my sister in law) salon After bath time grin...she loves her bath time
After bath photo #two Washing dishes with grandpa....if only I thought washing dishes was that much fun Our pretty girl And last but definitely not least......
Don't even ask.....I'm not sure what in the world she was thinking: )

Some Thoughts I've had Recently

Should I be more concerned that my nephew just pushed my daughter down the stairs? (It wasn't really that bad. It was only down the last three steps. But pretty much he was just curious as to what would happen if he were to give her a little nudge. It resulted in him being in some major trouble and asking emy if it would make her feel better if he took her to mcdonalds with them. She enjoyed her fries, but still flinches every time Jack gets a little too close.)

Did that seriously just happen? Did my baby just actually drink the remaining contents of the almost empty beer can she found in my step father in law's garbage? What the?!? Do I need to be concerned about what that may be doing to her body? What kind of mother am I considering I was right there typing on the computer not paying attention enough to notice my toddler was consuming alcohol? Needless to say after removing the booze from my child's paws I hurriedly looked up online whether or not I should be concerned, I removed emer's beer stained clothes, gave her a bath, and didn't mention a thing to anyone until Chad got home. Upon sheepishly telling him in private he burst out laughing and proceeded to relate the story to his entire family. I was embarrassed, but all things considered, it is a pretty hilarious story: )

(upon walking in the front door...) Sweet! He cleaned the house! He's the best!.....sniff, sniff,.......but what is that awful smell? (then entering the kitchen....) beans.....nasty, stinky beans. (I remember all over again why I dislike them so) But hey, the house looks great!

Why is it that whenever I start cooking dinner I end up cleaning the entire kitchen instead! It may lie in the fact that I like to do things that I know I can actually accomplish. It's hard to find satisfaction in something that I am so terrible at. I may be the worst cook in the midwest, maybe in the entire west.

Is cold cereal considered a decent enough meal?

I can't believe Chad won the photo contest!...and when I say"can't believe" it isn't referring to his photography ability....it's just that we really needed that 100 dollars right now. Once again...we are looked out for by someone so much greater than ourselves.

Pretty sick! How odd is it that a goat's milk tastes like a goat smells.....and for those of you who just haven't ever had the invigorating experience of taking a whif of a goat, let me just tell you....it's not pleasant.

(this was more of a conversation/string of thoughts) "No Jaxton (another nephew), you can't have a brownie for breakfast." (I open the cereal cupboard) "Why don't you have some cereal instead. Look, you can have some Captain Crunch, Peanut Butter and Chocolate Puffs, some Cookie Crisps, err (my voice begins to trail as I suddenly realize the true nutritional value of cold cereal and I think to myself "or you could just have some brownies broken up with milk poured on top") (I glance over and see some bananas) "Hey Jaxt...what do you say to a banana and a brownie?" (He whole heartedly agrees and I feel justified...at least he got a serving of fruit,right?)