Three is My Lucky Number

Owen and I have now officially hit the three year mark. Some days it feels like we've been married forever though (in a good way) and other times it seems like just yesterday we met. Either way, since three is my lucky number (I didn't make this part up just for the post title) I know this year will be a good one! But since the last three have been amazing, I don't expect things to change all of a sudden anyhow.

I love this picture. This pretty much sums us up.
He He He. I'm soooo glad that my brother-in-law, Josh, caught this blooper on camera. Otherwise, I might have forgotten! It's a good thing I really, really loved him when this happened. It's also a good thing that he didn't rip my dress. My little prankster; always making me laugh...even though I'm pretty sure this was an accident and has more to do with his clumsy tendencies. He still makes me laugh everyday!


Now, this picture is more of what you'd expect from wedding pictures. Aren't we just the cutest couple?
I sure love my Snuggleface!! Happy anniversary, Babe!

It's a Race!

The Pay It Forward (PIF) Exchange is based on the concept of the movie Pay it Forward. I will send a home-made gift to the first three people who leave a comment to this post on my blog requesting to join the PIF exchange. All the gifts will be made and sent out 'sometime within the next year'. How exciting to not know when your surprise package will arrive! What you need to do in return, is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog. This Exchange is only open to those with active websites or blogs.

Ooh, I can't wait to see who my lucky three are.
Okay. Ready? GO!!

*I will gather addresses sometime later; no need to give out all your personal information in my comments section. :)

No Time For Blogging...

...'Cause I'm doing laundry*!!!!


*If you are confused with my excitement of doing laundry, see here and here.

Dinner Fit For a Fool

I love celebrating holidays and special occasions with family traditions. We started a new one this April Fools' Day that I hope to continue for years to come.

We invited friends over to share all the food and surprised them with this luscious cake for dinner.


Then topped it off with a bowl of spaghetti for dessert.


Yes, you read that right...dessert for dinner and dinner for dessert.

Oh, but don't worry, the "cake" is really round layers of meatloaf with ketchup glaze filling between the layers, "frosted" with mashed potatoes and garnished with cherry tomatoes.

And the "spaghetti"? It's a cake. I baked it in a Pyrex bowl, then transferred it to the fancy white bowl and piped it with lightly yellow tinted buttercream frosting. The "sauce" is strawberry glaze with a couple tablespoons of frosting added to make it opaque and then colored with one drop of green, blue and a couple drops of yellow. This helped remove the candy-apple red color. The "meatballs" are Ferrero Rocher truffles and the "parmesan" is just grated white chocolate.

It made for a fun night full of laughter.

Would You Take a Look at That?!

I can't believe how big Miriam is getting so quickly. She already has enough hair for full piggy tails! Something about her amazes me every day. And although I may be a bit biased, I think she's adorable with (and without) pigtails.

Two Stories

Miriam is still the sweetest little girl I've met, and everywhere we go she seems to charm anyone we meet. The following stories are two adorable excerpts that I don't want to forget about my angel child.

Story One
[Setting - Immediately following my graduation's convocation ceremony where Elder Neil L. Anderson spoke, Linda and I went to the restroom while the men waited with Miriam in the hallway.]

When Elder Anderson came out of the chapel, he saw Miriam and commented to Owen about how pretty she is.
Miriam, matter-of-factly replied with a smile and her cute little "Hi!"
Elder Anderson was so charmed that he then shook her hand and said "Hi!" back. Imagine that?!! A one-year-old getting to shake the newest apostle's hand!


Story Two
[Background - It is quite common for Southerners to choose original nicknames when they become grandparents rather than just being Grandpa ________ and Grandma ________. Owen's parents are known as Grammy and Grampy to their grandkids.]

For months we have been trying to get Miriam to say either Grammy or Grampy, with no such luck. The other night I thought I'd try one more time to get her to say Grampy. She didn't say anything, but rather, gestured the sign for 'grumpy'. Not noticing at first, I kept prodding her to say "Grampy" and she just kept scrunching up her little hand in front of her face. Once I realized what she was doing, I pointed it out to everyone else and we all had a good chuckle. Hopefully Grampy doesn't take it personally and think that Miriam finds him grumpy, because he certainly isn't.

18 Days and Counting....

Bruce (the washer repairman) came today. Bad news. Had to order another part. Cause and effect. The barrel of the washer is suspended by two springs, when one breaks the other usually stretches. Not the problem...this was already anticipated and he ordered new springs to replace both. The problem...when the spring broke, the barrel landed on, and broke, "the boot" (Layman's terms: something to do with lots of water/hose connections. Still confused? If we were to run the washer with this part still broken, it would likely flood the entire laundry room... and if we were really lucky, the rest of the house too).

I'm just thrilled!! Can't you tell?! *read with deeply entrenched sarcasm*

You want to know the worst part? I actually thought it was going to be fixed today. Honestly and truly, I did! I had everything separated out. My list was ready to go. First, diapers (because I'm desperate for these...see previous laundry post for 'sposie diaper rant). Then whites, mediums, darks. Rinse and repeat (because we have that much stacked up). Then, depending on how exuberant I was feeling after tackling seven loads of laundry, I'd move on to towels, towels and more towels (Did I mention I had two loads waiting to be washed when the whole fiasco started? Good thing my parents have linen closets stacked full, cause there is no way I'm going back to the laundromat to wash towels there. In the meantime, we'll just keep swapping out news ones and eventually --sometime in the next year at this rate-- they'll all be clean again. But I digress...) Oh, sheets too. Luckily, I had those cleaned and stacked neatly in the linen closets too.

Wait? That was so long I forgot what I was talking about....Oh, right! My list. I was ready to go, and then the news came. At first, he said he would be able to tape it up and we'd at least be able to wash some loads. So, I figured I'd cut back the list to only the necessities...diapers...then a load or two of clothes.

Nope. Shot down there too. No diapers. No whites. No nothin'! Taping would work. So, here I sit instead, dreaming of laundry heaven (think neatly folded stacks of laundry, crisply ironed shirts hung with their respective colors, drawers full of socks, etc.) while I sit in laundry hell (no explanation needed). I have a feeling it's going to be a long four (to five) days...pray that it's four....please!

Proof!!

I graduated Friday morning and just to make sure you'd believe me, we took hundreds of pictures. Just kidding, we actually took pictures because we're a picture-happy family and we wanted to share the day with people we love. So, here are some favorites, because there seriously are hundreds to choose from. (Our new camera is awesome, and Owen loves to use the continuous shoot option. It makes for some awesome candid shots...and some not-so-awesome ones too).

How about we start with one of the not-so-awesome ones?

Not only is the graduation get-up one of the most tacky things ever, but it is obnoxious too! I was messing with it the whole day and happy to finally have it off after the events.

Alright, now that that's out of the way...a cute mom and daughter shot.

Our cute little family.

That's the face of a very happy girl!

I'm so happy to be finished! Thanks for all who have sacrificed, supported, and encouraged the culmination of my undergrad degree. For those who have wondered, "So, now what?"...more to come on that later, but suffice it to say, I plan to be the super-mom/homemaker of a kind and conservative homeschooling family.

Happy Easter

We have had a joyous Easter weekend filled with an egg hunt, delicious Easter dinner (ham, cheesy potatoes, asparagus, deviled eggs, and rolls...yum), homemade chocolate covered marshmallow eggs (tradition!), a spirit-filled Sabbath day and a beautiful, Earthly reminder of our Savior (see pictures below).

But, without further ado, a play-by-play of the egg hunt:

At first Miriam was just excited to run around in the grass but she quickly discovered the brightly colored treasures and started gathering them.

She inspected the eggs. Outside...

...and in.

She didn't want to put the eggs in the basket, but we're bigger than she is and we wanted her to move on and pick up the rest, so we convinced her otherwise.

She was a happy girl toddling through the grass.

And when she was finished, she led us all inside.

The next two pictures show the beautiful full arch, double rainbow (although the second rainbow is quite difficult to see) that came after last night's rain storm. I felt they were appropriate for Easter because rainbows always remind me of the Savior's Atonement and Resurrection.

What a miraculous and important event that was from history! It completely changed the world and my knowledge and testimony of it has changed my life. I love the newness that rainbows represent after a good rain and this is the feeling the Atonement and Resurrection can bring each of our lives as well. I am so grateful for this knowledge and for a loving Heavenly Father and Savior to provide this healing power and strength for me.


When I am Baptized - LDS Children's Songbook, page 103

I like to look for rainbows whenever there is rain
And ponder on the beauty of an earth made clean again.
I want my life to be as clean as earth right after rain.
I want to be the best I can and live with God again.

Mount Washmore - 10 ------- Haylee - 0

We currently have a laundry crisis taking place at our house. Now, just to clarify, I do not use crisis flippantly like our fearless government leaders who have convinced many that a trillion dollar bail-out was necessary because we are in crisis. Nope, this is the real deal.

I currently have 10+ loads of laundry that need to be done. I understand that you may be thinking "Haylee, get off your big, lazy behind and just get it done!" and I assure you, I'd love to. Really.

I actually quite enjoy doing laundry (Bathrooms too...It's an illness, I'm sure. Dishes, not so much. Anyone up for a trade? Hmm...back to the point). Laundry. The separating, switching, folding, etc. all make me very happy. I even enjoy ironing and putting it all away. So, why hasn't it been done already? I'm sure you've already caught on, but just in case you really need it spelled out...our washer is broken. That's right...broken.

broken \ˈbrō-kən\
to become inoperative because of damage, wear, or strain

It has been now for two weeks....TWO WEEKS, YOU HEAR?!!

Once we realized that something was seriously wrong we called a repairman (Oh, and by the way, the fiasco began with the first load I had started for the week...and I still had at least three to go!) He didn't actually come to inspect the damage for another four days and came just to tell us that the whole problem was a broken spring. He had to order the part and it would be four to five days...if the part was in stock!!! It's now been seven business days, plus two weekends making a grand total of eleven days since he came!

We've already been to the laundromat once and spent $12 on four loads that received a mediocre wash while I sat convinced I was going to leave with some sort of dangerous communicable disease. I doubt we'll do that again.

And I've been making do with disposable diapers. Gasp!! I can now reiterate my absolute loathing of disposable diapers. They stink. They leak. They take longer to put on. They stink. They swish when Miriam walks. They literally make me throw my money away. They stink. They leave Miriam with a diaper rash. They have to be changed at least twice as often as our bumGenius diapers (or else they leak and cause rash...not to mention the lovely little gels they leave all over her little bum). And, they stink!

But for now...we wait...and I may break down and call a neighbor and beg them to let us borrow their washer before I lose the last ounce of sanity left in me.

*Oh, and for those of you unfamiliar with FlyLady, Mount Washmore is one of the laundry references she frequently uses when discussing the Laundry Quandry.

Potatoes are Done; People are Finished

So, I suppose I should say I'm finished....but I'm from Idaho and supposedly that makes me an official redneck, so DONE it is.

I'm DONE!!!!!!!!!

My final day of student teaching was Friday and I officially survived my three month sentencing in a public school classroom. Today I presented my student teacher work sample and skirted through an online religion final. Graduation is Friday and I'm elated!