Exciting News.....

Yesterday Landen and I found out some exciting news!!! I went and got my 5 month ultra sound and we found out the sex of the baby!

IT'S A BOY!! We are so excited. Andie is going to be a great older sister to her little brother!

Well.... that is pretty much it!
Happy New year!!!

Christmas Fun

Wow....time goes by so fast. I am so far behind. We had a good Christmas and we are looking forward to a new year.

At the begining of December Andie had to have her 4 top teeth pulled!!! It was so sad. A couple of months before that me and my brother Brett took Andie and he took his son Evan to McDonalds so they could play in that play house thing. Andie was going up the stairs and fell forward hitting her mouth right on the edge of a stair. Her mouth was bleeding and she broke some teeth. I called the dentist and asked if I needed to bring her in. He said not to worry because they were baby teeth and to only bring her in if she was in a lot of pain. She seemed to be fine after a day or two. Little did I know she had knocked her 4 top teeth loose (not loose enough that it was noticeable) after a couple of months her teeth started turning a grey color (like they were dieing) and one day I was brushing her teeth and one of her top middle teeth broke making a gap between her two front teeth. Immedialty I made an appointment with the dentist. Baby teeth or not that was not normal and she shouldn't have three broken teeth at the age of 2. I took her in and after looking at her teeth he just looked at me and said "this is really bad". I was like DUH! He said they got knocked loose and an infection got up in them so it was killing them. He said they had to come out soon so the infection wouldn't spread to her permanent teeth. The following tuesday I took her in and they pulled all four top teeth. It was a very tramatic experience for the both of us. After about an hour of them pulling her teeth she acted like nothing had even happened. She has adapted well to not having them. She will be getting fake teeth to replace them but we have to wait until her molers grow out more because that is what they will attach to. I haven't taken any pictures of her mouth but you can tell in some of the pictures that I am going to post about other things. She is still cute as ever. My family likes to call her a little Vampire.

We had a really good Christmas. On Christmas Eve my family has a party every year. We have a big dinner, Santa comes and all the kids sit on his lap, we do a little program and then the little kids act out the Nativity scene while someone reads it from the bible. At the end of the night my parents give all of the grandkids new PJ's to wear that night. Andie got curious George ones.

Evan and Andie were entertaining us all by singing Jingle bells and then clapping for a couple of minutes. They just kept doing that over and over again and it made us all laugh every time.

They decided they would jump off every once and awhile and then get back on. Kids are so funny.
The Saturday after Christmas we decided to take Evan and Andie Sledding down in Payson. It was really cold. Evan really like it a lot. Andie....not so much. Snow kept on going in her face and she didn't like that.

She really like swinging and going down the slides

Not so happy after dad took her down the hill

Andie and Landen going down the hill

Christmas Day at Grandma & Grandpa Garners. She didn't like that too much.

Christmas morning at Grandpa & Grandma Tiptons she was playing with Alli's new tea set. Evan was even joining in on the fun.

This was when she opended her dog on Christmas morning. She was SO EXCITED!! She takes that dog everywhere we go!

Opeing her Baby. She loved it.

Right when she woke up. (She wasn't very happy that mom woke her up) She is checking out her new bike and the horn that goes to it!

We had such a fun Christmas spending time with family. It was also fun knowing that Andie knew what what going on this year. Having kids is so much fun. Watching them get excited makes me happy and excited! It was nice to have landen hone for 4 days in a row without school or work. Too bad every day can't be like that :)

We hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas spending time with the ones they love.

Tonight we are going up to my brother-in-law Garett's, cabin to ring in the new year. We are looking forward to that!

Catching up...

Things have been pretty crazy around here so I haven't really been on here too much. I just wanted update with a few things.

Andie has moved on from her crib and now has a toddler bed. I don't know why I waited so long to make the switch but I finally did. She was getting out of her crib in the middle of the night and hurting herself because she was so tired. She wanted to come and sleep with us. I am not a fan of her sleeping in our bed. I decided to try the toddler bed and get her some bedding that she would be excited about and want to be in her own bed. SHE LOVES IT!!! The first couple night she still came to our bed at least once in the night and when she fell asleep I took her back to her bed. After a couple nights of that she has been staying in her bed the whole night and I LOVE IT!!

Sitting on her new bed with her new princess P.J's
She was pretty excited if you can't tell

On Saturday morgning we decided to put our Christmas stuff up since Landen didn't have work. Andie LOVED it when we pulled the tree out and pluged the lights in. She wanted to help Dad set it up.

Andie giving Dad some pointers on how it is done

On Monday it was my Dad's party at his work. They invite the whole family. I loved going to these when I was little because we got to see SANTA. Andie pretty much loved it.

Andie two of her cousins and some other kids listening closely to the program. (They were being so funny. Nothing interesting was even going on)


When Santa walked in the room Andie immediatly jumped to her feet and ran over to him. She was the first one to sit on his lap. She was so excited. It was cute.

I wasn't so sure that was going to be her reaction because last year it was the exact opposit. I am thinking that it was because the santa last year really was scary and I would have cried too!!
Christmas 2007
His beard was so yellow it looked like he smoked a couple of cartons of cigaretts right before he got there.

Change of date in opening of the Jerk Shack

In my last post I said that Brandon was opening the Jerk Shack Tomorrow. It has been changed. The company that is doing there menues has not got them done. They are hoping that they will be able to open on Tuesday. I will keep you posted!

A shout out for my Bro!!

Tuesday my brother Brandon is opening a food joint called "The Jerk Shack"
He served his mission in Jamaica and ever since he has gotten home 8 years ago he has wanted to start some kind of Jamaican restaurant. He finally is doing it. Tuesday is the day. It is yummy Jamaican food spiced with the Jamaican Jerk Spice. It is located in Orem across the street from target in the Sprinkler World parking lot. It is a little colorful building that you either walk up and order or go through a drive through. If you live in the area stop by and try it out.

I am so proud of him for not giving up and doing what he really wants to do. I hope it is very sucessful and people just can't get enough of it!
Love you Brandon!!!

EASY Pumpkin Choclate Chip Cookies!

These are the easiest and fastest cookies I have ever made. It will be hard to make any other kind of cookie! I got this from my sister-in-law Marcea. Here is what you need.

1 Spice Cake Mix

1 Small Can of Pumpkin

1 Bag of Choclate Chips

Mix all three together

Put dough on Cookie sheet

(however the dough is on the cookie sheet is how the cookie will come out)

Bake on 350 degree's for 15 minutes

All I can say is YUMMY!

No More LIES!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay......so there has been some lieing going on......by me. I have been lieing to family and friends and even some ward members. I have decided to come clean and finally tell the truth. Enough is enough. Yes, Andie is going to be a big sister! I know I started that off a little dramatic....hehehe. We are so excited! It has been hard to keep it a seceret for as long as I did. For some reason people have been asking me like crazy or we get into the converstation of wanting to have another baby. I usually start telling everyone the seconed I find something exciting like this out. I told everyone very early with Andie. This time we decided it would be better to wait. I am 3 months. The little peanuts due date is May 25th. I have had my fair share of being sick and that would be the REAL reason for the lack of blogging. I think I have been twice as sick with this one than I was with Andie. My wonderful husband has been putting up with a disaster for a house and the dishes never done (they make me throw up). He is the busiest most hard working person I know, and when he got a chance yesterday after school to come and take a quick nap before work he did the mountain of dishes for me and cleaned up a little bit! To him he was just probably glad he could finally see the sink again but for me I almost cried. He did a wonderful service to me.
I hope that the sickeness will be over with in a couple of weeks. I don't know how people can deal with it through there whole pregnancy. yuck!
We are so excited for our new addition to the family and hope everything continues to go well with this pregnancy! I am sure from here on out there will plenty of pregnancy posts.

Fun in California!!!!

We had so much fun spending 6 days in Cali! It was nice to spend some time with Landen and I know that Andie loved seeing her Daddy more then just on the weekends. This is what we did:

Day One

We flew out of SLC at 8:15 a.m. When we arrieve to Long Beach airport and checked into our hotel we were off to Universal studios. Without realizing it we left our camera in one of the bags we left at the hotel. We had no camera for the whole first day. My sister took some for us though so when we get those from her I will post them. One of Andie's FAVORITE things that we did there was see Curious George. Right when she saw him walking around she ran right up to him and started hugging his leg. It was so cute. She loves George. It is so cute how she says his name.

Day Two, Three & Four

We spent those three days in Disneyland and California Andventure. Right when we walked into Disneyland and saw the castle Andie said, "Princess" Oh how she loves the princesses and tinkerbell. She had so much fun on all of the rides. We weren't sure if she would get scared on any or them or not. The first ride we decided to go on (because we were walking by and there was NOBODY in line) was pirates. Andie didn't get scared at all. She just sat there and watched things as they went by. She didn't even get scared on the big drop at the begining. After that ride we pretty much knew that none of the other rides were going to scare her, and none of them did. We mostly stuck with all of the kids rides, except for pirates and the haunted house ride ( which also didn't scare her). She had a lot of fun seeing all of the different characters and going on the different rides. On the third day they closed California adventure early and did a trick-or-treat thing with the characters. We went to that and Andie had a blast. She was dancing all over the place and just having a good time. We did so much those three days that I can't even remember it all.

Day Five

We spent the day at Sea World. The shows were really fun to go to and Andie can't get enough anykind of fish. She liked seeing the Dolphins jump in the air. By the end of the day I was SO EXAUSTED!!! This whole week it was SO HOT there. I was not expecting it to be so hot. All the people that worked at the different places that we went to kept saying that it is too hot to be October. I packed clothes for milder weather. I had to keep wearing the same couple of shorts or I would have died in the heat!

Day Six

We packed up all of our stuff and headed down to Huntington Beach. Of course right when we get there Andie falls into a dead sleep. There was no way the stroller was going on the sand so we just walked out on the pier while the rest of the family played in the water. We ate at some yummy place right by the pier and by the time we were done it was time to head back to the airport for our 7:00p.m flight home.

We have so many pictures and I have no idea what pictures go to what days so I am just putting them all at the end.

We stayed at Landens Grandparents house for two nights and spent the rest of the nights at the disneyland hotel. We are so greatful for all they did for us while we stayed with them. They made us some wonderful dinners and breakfasts. They did way too much for us but we really appreciate all that they did.

She is ready to go have fun on the new toy story ride! (it was such a fun ride)
She got so hot that day she just started laying in the shade!

She loved playing with these goats at Disneyland.

Minnie!
Andie and Evan in jail
Evan and Andie on Grandpa's lap.

watching the princesses dance


Me and Anjali on the Merry-go-round

Mickey!



Running across Tarzans bridge
ELMO!!!

Grandma & Grandpa Patten

Our flight to California. She wasn't too happy when she had to be seat belted. Our flight home. Notice all the new princess toys

So many pictures and so much fun. We love pictures if you can't tell. If I didn't think I was already boring everybody I would have put more on here. Good thing I am using this as a type of history/journal for my family.

A very needed VACATION!!!!

I haven't posted anything exciting for awhile. That's not because I haven't had time to it, it is because nothing exciting has happened and if something exciting did happen I forgot my camera or the batteries were dead.
We are flying out early Monday morning to California. Andie's first plane ride.......Andie's first for a lot of things. We will be leaving late Saturday night. We are planning on going to Disneyland for 3 days, Sea world, Universal Studio's and the Sandiego Zoo. Hopefully everything goes as planned and we have lots of pictures and stories to tell. We are going with my whole family (Except for a couple of people) and I am so excited! It will be a lot of fun. The last time we went on a vacation with my family was to Hawaii and it was a couple of months after we got married. Lots of fun.
We are so excited!! It is definatly long over do and needed very much. Landen needs a break from school and work. We just need time to spend together as a family and this is the perfect way to do it.

The most delicious salad!!

My friend Heidi linked my blog to her blog for a salad I made. I decided to put it on here so everyone can try it!! My Mother-in-law Melanie gave me this recipee. This is the BEST salad I have ever tried.

Strawberry Salad

1 large head red leaf lettuce

1 package fresh spinach

1/3 cup crumbled bacon

1/2 cup red bell pepper chopped

1 red onion thinly sliced

1cup strawberries sliced

1/3 cup sugar

1 cup cashews

15 wontons

Pull lettuce apart. Fry bacon and chop into tiny bits. Chop red pepper, slice onion and strawberries. Put cashews in frying pan with sugar and cook until sugar has coated nuts. Cut wontons in to strips (each wonton about 3 strips) and fry in oil. Add everything to the red leaf lettuce and spinach and toss.

Dressing

1 TBs red wine vinegar

3 TBs sugar

1/2 cup canola oil

1/2 tsp dry mustard

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 cup strawberry jam

Add dressing to salad and toss or serve on the side

10-12 Servings

So easy but so Yummy.........

I made this delicious.........well I don't even know what the name for it is but it is yummy no matter what the name is. Kacy gave me the recipee and it was so easy to make. Some people were asking me for the recipee and I never got it to them. I am going to put in on here because it will be easier that way.

You will need:

-1 cup butter

-1 cup brown sugar

-Pecans (as much as you want)

-1/2 cup caro syrup

-Big brown bag or two big mixing bowls (one of the bowls has to be able to fit in your microwave)

-1 box of Crispix cereal (if you can't find crispix you can use half a box of rice chex ceral and half a box of corn chex ceral)

Put butter, brown sugar and caro syrup in a pan and bring to a boil. Let it boil for 2 mintues. Do not over boil.

Put ceral in brown paper bag or big mixing bowl.

Pour sauce over ceral and pecans and shake the bag.

If you are using mixing bowls then put the other mixing bowl over the top of the other one so there is a tight seal and shake the bowls so the cereal is being tossed and mixed.

Microwave one minute

Shake again

Microwave for another minute

Serve

I didn't put pecans in it when I made it.

I just used mixing bowls because I didn't have a brown bag.

I couldn't find the crispix cereal so I used chex, half a box of corn and half a box of rice.

I am blessed to have two sisters

I have been thinking of my sister Anjali a lot today. Probably because her birthday is today. I have been thinking about how blessed I have been to be able to call her my sister. Growing up I only had one sister, Lisa, who I love SO MUCH. I never thought I would have another sister. My parents made it clear they were done having children. Me and Lisa were out numbered having three older brothers, which was ok because we had good relationships with them.

When I was in high school our family was blessed by our Heavenly Father to trust our family with one of his precious daughters. Anjali lived with us for 3-4 years and was as much a part of the family as I was. We called her our sister even though by law she wasn't. In 2007 she was offically and legally a member of our family. My parents adopted her after a long but well worth it process. On February 16th 2008 she was sealed to our family in the Manti Temple!!! That was an amazing experience and made our sisterly relationship eternal.

When I got home tonight from visiting my family I just couldn't stop thinking about her and the love I have for her to the point I was getting emotional. I don't know where this was coming from. To have my thoughts so overwhelming and powerful. The spirit was touching me and I know that Heavenly Father loves her and I could feel that love.

I feel very blessed to have Anjali as my sister and that I am able to learn from her and share life with her. She added such wonderful things and qualities to our family that no one else could.

I used to have one sister but now I have two and she makes our family complete.

She is expecting her first baby in February and I am SO EXCITED for her and Garrett. I am happy to be able to share this experience with her.

Well I guess what I am trying to say is that I love Anjali very much and our family wouldn't be complete without her. I just wanted her to know that!!! I know that the rest of my family feels the same way.

I LOVE YOU ANJ!! Happy birthday!

Reflecting........

The past two years have gone by really fast! I can't believe that Andie just had her 2nd birthday!!!! She is growing up way too fast. It goes by faster and faster. I love her so much. I was just looking at some pictures of her when she was born. She doesn't even look the same. She looked so much like Landen and now she looks more like me. She had dark hair and it was straight. Now she had curly blond hair. She was 6 pounds 10 ounces and was 21 inches long. She was born on her due date september 11th. Which I was very happy about. I was not looking forward to going over my due date.

Andie one day old

I thought she looked so much like Landen when she was born







One year birthday

September Birthdays~ Happy Birthday

Andie 11th

Anjali 17th

Jayden 23rd