you + me = US

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Giving Thanks - #2 For Antibiotics

Get well soon, Will.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Giving Thanks - #1 For People

Artwork by Paige Pooler

#1 For People: I have so much to be thankful for. But I want to start with the people in my life. It takes a lot of patience to put up with me and my crazy antics. Especially now as the birth of our baby approaches. I have been more needy and difficult than ever, yet I have felt so much love and support from all directions. I just want to send this out to you, thank you for being there, even when I'm not. Thank you for being kind to me and for keeping me going.

Thank you for being you!

"In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit."

Albert Schweitzer

"One's friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human."

George Santayana

Monday, November 1, 2010

Witches Night Out - Part Two

As promised, (and mucho thanks to D.D.) here are the rest of the pictures from our fabulous night! This is really just a glimpse of all we saw!

D.D., the headless freak bride, and Megan.

Our witchy crew and some seriously tall dudes.

Brazilla, Me, and the reigning Queen, Talullah Spellbottom.

Megan and a freaky masked man.

While shopping, I ran into one of my favorite people! So good to see you, Sarah!

Megan got a witchy manicure!

In her own words, "I was so scared, I almost started crying!"

Carrie, D.D., the lovable Lucinda, Me, Megan, and Mom

Thanks for a GREAT night girls!!!

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Costumes, Jack-O-Lanterns, and Smiles

Every year Mom throws a great Halloween party at her house. This year was better than ever. The costumes were entertaining, the food was festively delicious, and the pumpkin carving was messier than ever.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Currently Haunting My Front Yard

Several years ago, my mom made some ghosts that grace her front lawn every Halloween. They are so adorable. This year, with A LOT of help from her and my sister-in-law Carrie, we made a gaggle of ghosts for my lawn! It just goes to show what some old hotel sheets, p.v.c. pipe, a dab of black paint and a little creativity will do! Next year I plan to add some spooky accessories.

BOO!

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

October Creativity

I took these to some friends today. They turned out cute, I think.

If you'd like to share this message with a friend, shoot me an email @ imsoronry@yahoo.com and I'll send you the Word document. The message goes like this;

"Being a Christian
is like being a Pumpkin.

God lifts you up, takes you in, and washes all the dirt off of you. He opens you up, touches deep inside and scoops out all the yucky stuff-- including the seeds of doubt, hate, greed etc.
Then he carves you a new smiling face and puts His light inside of you to shine
for all the world to see." Author unknown.

And just for fun, here's some silly Halloween friends I painted while the kids were playing with watercolors. JTWIS.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Monday, October 25, 2010

Witches Night Out - Part One

Witches night out has become an unmissable tradition around here! Each year is a riot. This one was no different. Before we headed out to Gardner Village for the fun festivities, we gathered at mom's house for a few laugh and get some pictures. We've been doing this for the last four years. Yes, we're a bunch of dorks, and YES, we had an absolutely FABULOUS time!

Stay tuned for more!

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Happy?

I stumbled across this the other day and LOVED IT! Could the key to happiness possibly be this simple? Follow the arrows. What do you think?

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Good Times at Hee Haw Farm

Yesterday Alfonso and I realized that for once (in a long while) we didn't have any obligations or appointments in the evening. Scouts had been canceled. Mutual delayed. The question was, "What to do?" Stay home? Go to a movie? For the last two years, close to Halloween, we've taken the kids to a farm @ Pleasant Grove. They have so many fun things to do. Since the night was open, we piled in the car and headed down. I'm so glad we did! Here's just a few things we did there:

for more info visit their website http://www.heehawfarms.com/

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Halloweenie

So the Relief Society in my mom's ward had a "Dinner With a Witch" night last week and they needed some witches to entertain. Due to my progressively "swell" state of being, the coordinater had to twist my arm to do it - but I'm glad I did, we all had so much fun. The dinner was fabulous, by the way Merideth, I need that recipe for those yummy witch fingers!!!

Mildew Rose, Hyperspeed Helga, and Spells O'Hara

Mildew Rose was a Marvelous Emcee

Helga does her thang.

This witch gave the greatest performance of the night!She sang, "Little Purple Pansies" 100% OFF key!!! It was great!

A close-up of Spells O'Hara's massive hiney. BOO!

I just have to show you my cute witch I bought with my prize $ from the Witch contest last year. Currently on display in my living room :)

Kids Say The Darndest Things

9/8/14 After a massive pillow fight with Spence and Will, Mia fell to the floor and exclaimed, "I'm soaking tired!"

5/15/14 We were watching a Baby Einstein movie featuring a rhino puppet. Mia said, "Mom, that rhinoceros is a genius."

5/13/14 Mia just told me some disturbing news about her imaginary friend. "Squella, not like you, so her is hiding." I even offered Squella a popsicle to bribe her into liking me and she wouldn't budge.
5 minutes later:
No wait, Mia just informed me, "Her likes you now. Her gets a pop-is-cle."

5/02/14 Mia has been coming up with some unique names for her imaginary friends, Squilla, Quinley, Tortilla are just a few. Well today she was talking to her friend Celia and said,
"What's your Cat's name, Celia?
"Tiddley-Dee"
"Oh!!! GREAT name!!!"
Later, I asked her later about the cat and found out that there are TWO! One cat's name is "Tilly-Tina" and the other's name is "Tiddley-Dee."

4/21/14 Mia was shouting at me from the bathroom in a bossy way. I said, "Mia, don't talk to me like that." She said. "I YELLING at you." I needed to leave the room and she shouted again and said, "Mommy come here, right now. I gon count and you gon go in time-out!!!" Sweet swirling onion rings, I'm in for it.

4/4/14 While enjoying a chocolate chip cookie together, I asked, "Mia, why is chocolate soooooo good?" To which she naturally replied, "Cuz we gon' eat it."
Best reason ever.

1/07/14 At the store, at the top of her lungs, in attempt to tell me that she's going to "crack me up" Mia shouted, "Mom, I go a crap you up!"

12/11/13 Today at story time Miss Sally was teaching the kids about the color red. She was pointing out those with red hair. She said, "This little boy has red hair, and look, this mommy has red hair. And this mommy has red hair!" There was a pause and Mia shouted out, "I HAVE TWO MOMMIES!" All the parents looked around, Miss Sally bewildered, looked at me. Appalled I laughed and said loudly, "I have NO IDEA what she's talking about." Everyone started laughing. . . hard! For the life of me I couldn't figure out why she'd say that. So afterwards I asked Mia, and she pointed to the two mommies with red hair and said, "See? Two mommies!" Ohhhhhh, now I get it. Two mommies with red hair.

12/14/13 The dinner table was busy with multiple conversations occurring at once when Mia said, "Hey Will, this song my favorite: (in sing-song)
Hello Kitty, Hello Kitty,
I like Hello Kitty"

12/03/13 Ben was teasing Mia on the couch. When she angrily yelled, "Ben, DON'T BLOW ME! I NOT a bubble!!!"

11/13/13 Today I was crying and couldn't stop. Mia dropped what she was doing and ran up and said, "Hold me, you feel better!" I hugged her tight and put her down. A few seconds later she came up and said, "Here Mom, a have a Kleenex."

Lately, Whenever we are having a nice snuggle moment as a family, Mia will come up and say, "All To-ah-gedder."

10/13/13 I need to preface this by saying, Mia's word for "girl" is "grill." After church Mia got very upset and ran to her room. Alfonso went up to try to comfort her and said, "Don't cry, Mia." To which she responded, "But grills like to cry."

09/25/13 Mia and I were playing with pretend snakes. In their "conversation", they made a deal and so I told her, "Let's shake on it." she immediately began to violently shake the snake.

08/24/13 Once again, Pandora displayed the album cover (One World's Acoustic) of Justin Bieber on the screen. Mia looked at it again and said, "Mom, look! A doggie. Doggie wif guitar."

08/21/13 Pandora displayed an album cover of Justin Bieber on the t.v. Mia, startled a little by the music, looked up at the screen, studied for a minute and said, "Cute doggie!"

08/19/13 As we were all getting ready to go swimming, Mia was excitedly showing everyone her "swimming soup."

08/17/12 A day after I taught Will about the Star of David, Will was playing with a couple of triangle magnets. When he had overlapped them just right he held them up and said, "Look, it's Jared's star!"

08/16/12 After taking off Ben's newly acquired football gear, Will sat next to me, sighed, and said, "It's nice to have a football player in the house."

07/24/12 I was looking at my wedding ring while tucking Will in to bed. Will noticed and said, "That's a pretty fancy ring." I said, "It is. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever owned. But I love it mostly for what it stands for." Will surprised me when he responded, "You love it because it reminds you of the day you got married. Even if it was made of wood, it would be a still be a great treasure."

07/23/12 After a run to Dairy Keen, Will shared the following insight: "The most humblest flavor of ice cream in the whole entire world is vanilla." When I asked why, he said, "Because it's simple, it's plain, and it's always there. "

07/05/12 Fearing that Mia might ruin his pillow fort, Will asked, "Mom, can we put her to sleep?"

06/28/12 As we were setting the table for breakfast, Will (7)said, "I'm a simple man." I couldn't help but smile. "I'm a simple man with complex thoughts." Did I mention, he's 7???

06/25/12 While I was looking for a rubber band, Spencer handed a large one to me and proudly said, "I wear 5 rubber bands on my wrist at all times."

06/22/12 For the second time, Spencer said, "I don't believe in sarcasm." I argued that sarcasm does exsist and gave him an example. His response, "I call that oppositism."

06/03/12 While we were driving, Spencer spotted a slowly oncoming tractor and car and said, " 'Wow, tractors drive slow!' thought the lady in the green car."

06/03/12 We had watched a bunch of old footage of Beatles performing some of their hits, when Will yelled out, "Can we PLEASE stop listening to classical music?"

05/12/12 Trying to explain to our sick kids why we couldn't have friends come play, I said, "We need to get this virus out of our house." Will said, "Lets give it to someone else!"

03/03/12 Will just said, "I have a faculty butt."

03/01/12 Will told Ben that from now on he wants to be called Bethica, queen of the sea.

03/01/12 Will came inside from shoveling snow with cold hands. After explaining to me that the problem was his gloves, he asked,"Can I have an upgrade?"

11/29/11 Me: "Will, what do you want the person you marry to be like?" Will: "Hot and sexy." Room fills with shock & stifled laughter. Me: "Will. . . what does it mean to be hot?" Will: "That you just came out of the desert."

11/28/11 When it's time for oracion/prayer, Mia oftentimes will fold her arms and talk quietly while the prayer is said. At the end we say "amen." She loudly says, "BOB!"

11/26/11 Alfonso swatted at the pesky fly once again. "It's taunting me." He said. Will exclaims, "It's taunting you??" Mutters to self, "I hate taunting flies."

11/10/11 Will walked in the door and when he saw his friend Annie sitting on the couch said, "I knew this day had something special in it." "What?" Annie asked. "You! I knew you were coming over. You make today special."

11/10/11 In the car, Annie (a girl I'm tending) said, "Jesus is so lucky! He gets to be born on Christmas, huh!"

09-09-11 Alfonso and I went on a date for our anniversary and left the kids with family. After we picked up the kids, Will politely asked, "Were there a lot of people at the anniversary?"

09-08-11 At the breakfast table, I was telling the kids that tomorrow would be Alfonso and my anniversary. Will lowered his head and said, "I'm glad I don't have to see that."

09-07-11 At a restaurant, we were all joking back and forth and Will said, "You gotta be pushing my leg!"

08-20-11 At our moving sale, my 3-year-old neice, Nicole held up a shiny quarter and said, "Look, I have a quenny."

08-20-11 5 minutes later, Nicole was whining. Her Mom, D.D. said, "I'm not going to talk to you until you use a big girl voice." Nicole gave her a mean look and said, "But you just talked to me."

08-19-11 Will, sitting at the table kept singing, "Can't you see, I love my pancreas, look at me, I love my pancreas." Over and over. Thank you, Wierd Al.

08-19-11 Quite proud of himself and giggling a little, Spencer announced, "Faster than a speeding two-year-old, able to leap a towering pile of laundry, it's SUPERMOM!!!"

04-29-11 We had just finished a large meal at Chick's Cafe when Spencer leaned back in his chair and energetcally patted his stomach saying, "Now I know what Santa feels like."

04-28-11 Will was helping me pull our huge new stroller out of its box. His job was to pull the box down as I held the stroller up off the ground. It wouldn't budge. He paused and said, "Wait, should I go drink some milk, to make my muscles stronger?"

About Us

Our blended family is many years and obstacles in the making. We two were raised in separate countries, different cultures and upbringings. For each of us, God's blessed broken road weaved through marraige, the birth of a child (or two) and a painful divorce, in the end, leaving a himless her and a herless him. We met on a blind date in 2008 and haven't been able to stay away from each other since. Married for time and all eternity in the Salt Lake Temple, we and our four children are determined to BE a forever family. This blog is an account of our daily lives, our ups and downs, and our journey to become "one."