Goodbye January 2008

I'm always one to look back on how things have gone. I decided to look back on the last 228 days. That's how old Brennon is today. Since I found out on July 3rd, 2007 I was pregnant- I found out I am pregnant with two of my sisters. One of which I've been pregnant twice with one of her pregnancies. Keilie turned 4. We found out it was a boy! Caden won first place at the ward Halloween party. We dodged the "layoff" bullet and kept our wonderful job. We had Randy's family come for Thanksgiving. We had our friends, the Flesvig's, join us for our ward Christmas Party- we sure wish they'd accept to come to church or listen to the missionaries! We made it down to Utah to surprise my parents for an early Christmas present. We came home from Utah to get a new car and get rid of the "colored side". Shelby turned one. Shelby got tubes. I know it sounds like a lot when we find out we have nine months to carry these blessings, but when you look back at all that has happened in these 228 days, you see how fast it has gone. I'm looking forward to having my sister come for two weeks in February just to be with me. I can't believe that there are only 38 more days until Brennon's due. How fast the time has gone. Goodbye January!

Husband Tag

What is his name? Randy Arthur
How long have you been married? 7 1/2 years
How long did you date? "piano teacher"-4 months, dated- 3 months, engaged- 2 1/2 months
How old is he? 30
Who eats more? He does.
Who said I love you first? I said it in a card, but he said it to my face.
Who is smarter? I say Randy is. Unless it has to do with children, cleaning, or "women" problems.
Whose temper is worse? Mine
Who does the laundry? I do, although Randy does it quite often. He really does help out a ton.
Who does the dishes? Me
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? When looking from the foot of the bed, I sleep on the right and he on the left. I have a thing about covers coming off a certain way!
Who pays the bills? I do, although Randy handles the budget and entering everything into "Money"
Who cooks dinner? Me, most of the time. He's good at doing it when I'm not in the mood. He's such a good cook. He uses a ton of dishes, so I try to do it most of the time to cut down on after dinner time in the kitchen!
Who drives when you are together? He does. It's the man's job.
Who is more stubborn? Me by far. He's so good to me.
Whose parents do you see the most? We try to make it even since we only get to see them every so often. We love the Dirks' king size guest bed though!
Who proposed? Randy- at what I thought was a "surprise birthday" for him that Mike and I had planned. Jokes on me!
Who has more friends? We share the same amount of friends, although I email more than he does. I'm also the one to remember their birthdays, so in a way- he has friends because of me!
Who has more siblings? I do. There's 5 of us and 4 of them.
Who wears the pants in the family? We're equal in everything.
I tag...... Kim & Rebecca

Shelby's Birthday Tubes

Today we went to the Casper Surgical Center and got Shelby a late birthday present. Tubes in her ears. We went in on Monday to hear the ENT tell us that she was about 24 hours away from another double ear infection- her 6th in five months. So, we scheduled an appointment. We arrived at the appointed time of 7:45 am, without food or drink the night before at 8:00 pm. This is how happy she was. She was teasing me. I never did get a good picture of her sitting in that big chair.
We had to wait from 7:45 am to 9:10 am for them to take her. Her favorite activity was these blocks. She'd put them in that yellow bucket and take them out. Then, she'd take them in and out of the drawer below and put them in and out of the bucket. She LOVED it. I'm glad she was so happy.
By about 8:45 am, she'd had enough of being hungry and started to get fussy. The nurse brought in the Tylenol in the syringe and set it on the counter. Well, all the medicines she's ever had tasted great, and since she was so hungry- the tears started to fall. The nurse finally came in to give her the medicine about 10 minutes later. Let me tell you- Shelby would not let go of the syringe. She sucked that thing for the next 15 minutes just to get anything to fill her little tummy. After the surgery, the recovery nurses all took turns snuggling her. They were in love. The minute she saw me though, there was nothing going to stop her from getting to me. It was fun to snuggle my little one knowing that this is the start of a whole new life for her. The doctor said she had "A LOT" of fluid behind both ears and should start to feel "A LOT" better from just having it sucked out. I can't wait to see her take off. I think I'll be posting soon to tell you she's finally walking! I'm so thankful for modern day miracles. I sure love my little Shelby!

Happy 1st Birthday, Shelby!!!!!!

Tonight we celebrated Shelby's birthday because Randy's going out of town tomorrow. She looks a little sad, but it's because she thought we were taking it away again. She really wanted to touch that fire.
She's looking at her hands in kind of a "what have I done" sort of thing. She squished her hands a bit, then started to lick them.
It wasn't going down fast enough, so she just picked up the whole thing. We were all laughing and egging her on. She loved it.
I think she likes this birthday cake stuff!!
Caden made her her own birthday card. We decided to hang it up to always remember it. He was so happy. We love you Shelby and couldn't imagine life without you. Thanks for making our lives more happy.

Same old "New" computer

About three months ago our 2 year old computer started to act up. It would turn off for no reason and when we'd try to turn it back on would just beep at us. Randy told me it was the motherboard and told me to call Dell. Well, he got sick of me putting it off, so he finally called himself on Monday. We had a new motherboard shipped to us on Thursday. I'm so proud to tell you all that this is just one of the specialties Randy's learned from some of his previous work experience. He was able to put it in and gave me a "new" computer. Thanks so much, honey. It really was making me frustrated.

Out with the Old and in with the New!

On April 20, 2006 we were blessed with a new Mercury Mariner from the company. It was the first nice car we'd ever had in our marriage. The fact that it was free was an added bonus. Well, in the 627 days that Randy had that vehicle, he put 126,500 miles on it. We took plenty of trips down the Utah and one 21 hour drive too and from Indianna with this thing. That is 201.75 miles PER DAY on that- average of course. The average for high miles in one year for any vehicle is 41.09 miles per day. Randy drove 4.9 times the daily average. We will miss the heated seats, 6 CD changer, and 4 wheel drive, but there is one thing we will not miss. In fact- we were counting down the days for it's departure. In April 2007, Keilie decided to try out a pen on the fabric of the door. From that day forward, that side was known as the "colored side." There were fights, arguments and even taunting if someone had to sit on the "colored side." It infuriated me. No matter how many times we made the comment it was just pen, they still had fits if they had to sit on it. We eventually made Keilie's permanent seat there since she's the one that colored it. I'm so glad to get rid of that "side."
On January 7, 2008 we were blessed once again with a new car. This time, Randy got one that would accomadate our growing family. It's a Ford Taurus X- it seats 7. We don't have the wonderful heated seats, 6 CD changer, or 4 wheel drive, but Randy says it's worth it to have the extra row. Plus, this one's faster and he can turn off the traction control. What a plus for someone that loves to peel out and do doughnuts in the snow. We had ordered the "light sage" with the picture in mind of a very light green. But, as you can see, it's not what we expected. Randy says he likes it better, but I had my heart set on the sage. I've seen them and love the color. I'm already used to this one, but would have liked it better I think. Randy took it one week later and got "Blizzak" tires on it, so it should handle great in the snow. Let's hope we can keep a clean record as far as accidents are concerend- just like the Mariner. We sure do love the blessing of good cars for this line of work and all it's traveling. We'll see if we can put even more miles on this one!

Holiday Memories

This holiday season turned out perfectly. We were able to pack up the Mariner and make it down to Utah before any of the storms came in. We were there for about an hour and the snow started. We felt so fortunate. We had a fun time with the Dirks playing games and eating. The funnest part was playing the gift game and seeing Caden hiding his bubble gum so no one would steal it. It was the cutest. We then went down to my parents house for a surprise. We had told them that we wouldn't be down until about 6:00pm on Christmas day. It was fun to see their shock and excitement. It made it all worth it. I, unfortunately got sick on Christmas day and was pretty out of it. I did have fun watching the kids open their gifts. The big things that the kids wanted and got were a pink Carebear for Keilie and Wheelies for Caden. Shelby just wanted to crawl around and eat anything that fell on the floor. It was fun. We played a lot of games the whole time and just did whatever we wanted. It was so fun to be with family. We were able to see some friends that live away and just be a family. I'm so glad we have such a great job that allows us to have free gas, a great vehicle, and the week between Christmas and New Years off paid. I'm the luckiest girl in the world. We hit a storm on the way home that trapped us in Evanston for 2 hours. We got so bored that Randy decided to look at the map and see if we could find another way home. He found a route and got up past the road closers. We called when we were about to Rawlins and found they had opened it, but by this time it was almost 4:00pm. Randy really is a good driver. I'm SO happy to be home, although Randy's not feeling well and Shelby has an ear infection. The reality hit us hard! I'm so glad we were able to share this season with our loved ones. It's definitely one to remember.