Thank You Presidents!

Presidents Weekend was exactly what we needed after such an awful week. Friday was my cleaning/lay in bed and watch chick flicks while Ray is at the school studying day. It was very nice. It got even better when Ray came home and suprised me with my favorite treat - Mt. Dew and Dill Pickle Seeds. He then stayed up till after midnight studying so that he could go swimming with Mady and me the next day.

Saturday was perfect also. We were able to take Mady to the pool. I couldn't beleive that she played for over two hours and still didn't want to go home. She screamed when we took her out to get her dressed. While we were changing her, she managed to slip away while but naked and made for the pool again. She's getting too smart for us.

We then decided to go out to lunch before we headed home to put Mady down for her nap. We stopped by McDonalds. We had to take pictures because it was our first family McDonalds trip. My parents would take us kids to McDonalds as a special treat. It brought back some good memories as I watched Mady eat her Happy Meal and play on the Playland.

That night, Ray studied while I had Ada over for a chick flick. We watched She's the Man - it was in the $5 bin at WalMart and I just had to get it. If you haven't seen it, you should. Its soo good!

Sunday was a good day too. Other than the huge snow storm that was blowing. I was also set apart as the Releif Society Visiting Teaching Supervisor. I'm excited for the calling and feel peace about their decision. That night, we usually have family/friend dinner with everyone. But Ethan, Kimberly, Justin were all out of town for the holiday. So we just had our neighbors down the streen, Paul and Kylie, join us. We had a nice little chat afterwards while Ray studied in his room. We then planned on going sledding the next day with them.

Sledding was way fun. We found some great hills to go down. It was also Mady's first time sledding and in her snowsuit. I'm not quite sure what she thought about sledding down the hills, but she loved being outside and playing in the snow.

We left early because Mady's hands were getting cold. When we got home we decided to make a snow fort like we did a year ago. Ada and her family were gone for the day, so it was perfect (they caught us last time because they were home and its hard to be quite while making one). Paul and Kylie came home soon after and saw us. They came over and started helping us.

It turned out great! Paul and Kylie even had some spray paint that we used.

The Munk's got home around 6 that night. They thought we were crazy for doing that. We had a nice family night with them and were able to watch the Bachelor. Which now I hate because my favorite girl, Kacie B., was sent home and he kept the witch - Courtney. Ugh. Ray made me feel better by playing two hours of L4D. Nothing like killing some zombies to relieve my anger! Haha. Hope you had a good weekend as well!

A little bit of everything...

I finally feel like I can blog again, now that my blog looks ten times better. I ruined it the other day trying to do different fonts. Thankfully, my friend Emily fixed it for me! And then I figure out how silly I had been in not even knowing there is a "Template Design" link to change everything! So I've been playing around with it. I'll probably change it back to what Emily had done because it was super cute.

These past few days have been crazy, amazing, fun, entertaining, frustrating....everything. Sunday was probably where it all started. We had such a wonderful time at church. Ray gave the lesson in Sunday school and did such a good job. We then had my sister, her friend and boyfriend over for dinner. Ethan and his girlfriend came too. It was so nice to visit with them all. I really enjoyed talking to Ethan's girlfriend, Amanda. She seems like such a fun girl. Hopefully Ethan will bring her over more.

Monday we had our Valentines meal/Family Night. Ethan came over and helped me make cookies and cupcakes for our valentines. Ada and her mom came over to help me make dinner which was much appreciated, since I was running behind. Our ward was doing a dinner and a dance for a fundraiser for the young women on Tuesday so I made Ray's favorite dish on Monday. We also had Ada and her family come over and eat with us. After we went over to their place for family night - which included watching the bachelor while the boys played on their gadgets. I also gave Ray his valentine present so he could have it for his clinicals at the hospital the next day. He loved it so much!

Valentines day was so wonderful. Ray made it so special for me. He had bought me so many wonderful gifts, including flowers and chocolates. We went to the dinner and the dance put on by the ward and then he was so sweet and had gotten tickets to go see The Vow. I was a little put out by the ending but overall it was a great show. I had a test the next day so I stayed up until 3 studying - and Ray stayed up with me. He must love me eh?During these past few days Mady has been crazy! We are starting the terrible/funny twos. She has been driving us nuts - everything from peeing on the carpet to putting on my mascara. Today I think topped it all though. We have our next door neighbors watch Mady on Thursdays and because they are right next door we have them just put Mady down for her nap here and take a baby monitor over so they can hear her. Well today Ray came home to find Mady not asleep but running around naked! She had somehow managed to climb out of her crib, take her clothes and diaper off, poop on the floor, and run around having the time of her life. Hopefully this won't be a reoccurring thing.

An Update

Remember when I told you that I would be posting more? Well that was a lie. I, however, will promise to blog at least once a month. That's not to hard right? Let's just hope I won't be swallowing those words later.

Things have been anywhere from nice and relaxing to crazy scary balling my eyes out. School has been going good so far. Ray is so busy all the time working hard on his school work. He has started his clinicals - which take his to every hospital in the area (Beaver, Parawon, Cedar, St. George). They have him do 12 hours shifts, which is normal nursing hours. School for me is going good. Just work work work, then study study study, then a class here and there (since most of mine are online). Wednesdays are my worst days. I go from 12-9. I have this 3 hour class, that is only once a week thank goodness, on Economics. Shoot me.

Mady is getting so big! I can't believe that I"ll have a two year old in a month! When did that happen? She is talking all the time. I love when she says her prayers, its just too cute. Hopefully I can record it one of these times. She's been doing good after our little scare just the other week. She had had a fever for 4 days when we rushed her into the ER late at night. She had a fever of 104 on one ear and 105 on the other. She had to have an x-ray for her lungs, a catheter to check her urine, two needles (one of them was supposed to be the iv but they didn't get it in so they just drew blood again), another iv which didn't work either and they started feeling her arm up with fluids (that was scary), and then some medicine, given anally, to help with the fever. Ray gave her priesthood blessing to help her with the pain and to help to doctors figure out what was going on. After all that, we finally were able to go home around 3-4 in the morning. The few days after she was still acting sick but her fever had broke and her cough was better. She is now doing better than ever!This weekend we were able to go home and attend my littlest sisters baptism and my second oldest brother's Eagle. It was so nice to be with the family and so see my relatives. Ray had Nursing Convention that was mandatory for his class, so unfortunately he missed the events. He did, however, was able to visit his parents. Hopefully we can make it up there soon to visit them. We miss them. I just can't believe how old my siblings are, though. My baby sister is eight! Nathan, my second to oldest brother, now has his eagle and is coming down to SUU in the fall. Its crazy how time can creep up on you. I loved spending time with my family and seeing Mady ever so happy (because of how spoiled she was). Hopefully we'll be able to go back.Other things we have been up to:

Swimming:
Mady loves going to our recreation pool. It has a cute kid area she loves playing in. I always love taking her and playing with.Going to the park:
I've been trying to go out more with Mady instead of keeping her inside where its nice and warm. Luckily it hasn't been too cold and we were able to enjoy a nice couple of days at the park.
Games:
We've been spending some good quality family time playing with our Kinect. Its been so much fun! We've also been playing some Left4Dead lately. Its so much fun playing with Ray and Ethan, and getting some of our close friends as well. Its wonderful!

My Projects

I really liked doing these projects, even though most of the time I was saying, "what was I thinking?" I really like being crafty...or well in my case, pretending to be. I find it a way to release all my stress and I like to focus on something other than school.

In summer I got this idea that for Christmas I should give all my close friends and family members some cute blocks that you see all over PINTREST. I could get all the wood from my Dad, I'd cut them out, sand them, paint them, mod-podge them, and then Wa-la! A beautiful homemade present. Well I should have calculated school, child, and work in that. When I went home for Halloween, I spent a full 10 hours doing this:My Dad helped me out a lot by doing the hard stuff. Luckily I could do most of the cutting. Except I became very scared of using one of the machines when I took of half the skin on my finger, so my Dad took pity and did the rest for me.After that, I hardly touched my blocks until after school. And I totally forgot about the whole sanding part. Ugh. That was awful stuff. Thankfully I have an awesome husband and a best friend who helped me alot.And and I can't forget my sweet little girl. She loved helping Mommy.And I must give a shout out to this awesome girl - KayLa! She used her cricut to cut out all the letters for me, which unfortunately took hours. But she was a good sport. Well to be frank, I only finished some of them. The rest I will finish....I will....sometime. But for now they look like this:Here's some of the finished ones (the last three are the actual pictures I got the idea from, but mine look exactly like them):My next project was the make my living room actually look like a living room. We just bought new gorgeous couches and I wanted it to look awesome. That meant buying some new curtains and a new collage of pictures. For the collage, I found the perfect one thanks to PINTREST. I set out the picture frames how I wanted them, put a marker dot where the nail holes would go, taped it to the wall and then started nailing.My curtains turned out great. It really adds the homey touch to it I think.For now, I think I got my fill of projects, don't you? My husband sure does :). For now I'll just focus on school for awhile....

Holiday Break

This break has been so nice, filled with many projects, relaxation, friends, and wonderful time spent with family. And when I mean many projects, I mean those "what was I thinking" projects. But that will have to be a whole separate post.

It was so nice to finally be done with the semester. And now that it was done, I could focus on Christmas, presents, and shopping with this girl!This year, I had such a fun time picking out gifts for others. Not to mention how fun it was to make our little goody-bags for our neighbors and friends. I got the idea off of pintrest. I loved it! only I just had to pick an idea that was so time consuming. Good thing I have an amazing husband who puts up with me and my projects.

My first idea was actually really easy and delicious! Ray kept eating them. All you do is get pretzles and kisses or hugs (or both), then stick them in the oven for a few minutes so they melt. Let them cool, and then wala! Yummy wonderful goodness. I couldn't find a picture of where they were all finished, but you get the idea.My other idea wasn't so easy. I saw the cutest cookies and thought, "I have to do those!" And so I did. But thank goodness for my husband. I was going to make my homemade sugar cookies and frosting, but Ray said it would be too much work. So we just bought some BettyCrocker. Smart man.But then the cookies weren't as big as they were supposed to be, the frosting wasn't working. The marshmallows were too big and weren't melting right. And so on and so forth. And so, let me apologize to everyone who received our goodie bags. I'm sure those cookies were just awful - considering that everything about them was store bought. And I don't know about you, but store bought frosting is just nasty.

Christmas was just amazing and perfect. We were able to spend it with both families again this year. I think I will be sad when the day comes that we won't be able to do this and we'll have to pick and choose like most couples, or just celebrate it on our own. But while it lasts, I will savor every moment.At the Wayman's we did all our usual traditions. I didn't take many picture this year. But if your wanting some fun traditions for your family and are kid-oriented, go here. It was fun opening all our presents. I was so stinkin excited for Mady to open hers. When we first went up to see what Santa had brought us, I was too excited for Mady to even notice what Santa had brought me. After seeing Mady's reaction to her Yo-Gabba-Gabba stuffed characters and bath toys, I looked to see what I had gotten. I was quite surprised. It was a Kinect! It has been so fun playing it with all our friends and family. But more on that in another post.
Then we went to the Martel's and celebrated with them. My father-in-law took all the pictures there, so I'll have to get those later. I did receive this beauty. I have wanted a new couch ever since I was married. We love it!It was so fun being with everyone and going to my family parties while being up there. On New Years, we were able to spend it with our awesome friends. We made homemade pizzas, which were delicious, played some cards and board games. And then while all the boys did some of this Us girls, did some fun cookie decorating. The cookies, which were made by Anna (the one in the red), were absolutely amazing! It was so fun to be with our friends and family, and to celebrate the birth of our Savior. Oh! I almost forgot. This also happened over the break..... Awesome, no? Well happy holiday's everyone! Today is the first day of the new semester, wish us luck!