My Sweet Little Kaitlyn

Isn't she the CUTEST little skunk you have EVER seen?? Yah, that's what I thought!! :)

I just had to come write about the cute things this cute little girl said to me while I was putting her to bed tonight!

Me:  Good Night, I love you.

Kiki: I love you, too mommy.

Me: I love you more.

Kiki: I love you the morest.

          I love you the Most! 

          Mommy, I love you a lot.

Me:  I love you a lot too, kaitlyn.  Go to sleep.

Kiki: Mommy, do you love daddy?

Me:  Yes, I do.

Kiki: I love daddy too.

         Jenica pinches me...in the car, and she hits me too.  

I just had to laugh, the change in the conversation so quickly.  She closed her eyes and ran her fingers through  my hair.  I grabbed her hand to try to stop her, but she put my hand in her other hand and continued to run my head, run her fingers through my hair.  She is such a sweet little girl.  And I forgot to mention the dozen of hugs and kisses I got from her while I was laying in bed with her.

curse of the smelly dryer - SOLVED!

I want to puke just thinking about the aweful smell I have put up with over the last several days.  I believe it was last friday or saturday that I started to smell something nasty in the basement.  On Saturday night Josh went down to check it out.  He came up with a load of laundry that wreaked and said he thought I had washed something that didn't come clean and that was the smell.  I didn't buy it, but whatever, it was obviously coming from the dryer.  So I assumed if that load of laundry was what was bad, I could wash a new batch and dry it with no problems, the smell should be gone.  Unfortunately this was not the case. I did 2 or 3 loads of laundry and each one came out of the washer smelling fabulous and clean and then out of the dryer smelling rotten. So tonight Josh just went down there to pull the dryer apart and what do you know...he found a dead mouse in it. Isn't that just the sickest thing ever? We have NO idea how it got lost in our dryer, but it was there. And it was dead. And it was rotting. And I think I am going to puke...

At least it's gone now and I can catch up on some much needed laundry. Guess it's time to go refill the poison in the attic!

Packages and other Ramblings...

This morning when I was getting ready to go pick up Jeni from school I went out to the car to get my water bottle.  My mother in law had just walked out her door (they live right across the street from us) and she told me I had a package to pick up at the post office.  I was totally confused, first, why was the note on her door?  And second...which package could it be?  Old Navy?  Fisher Price?  or ToysRus?  Considering those all come UPS or FedEx, I wasn't expecting anything via USPS.  I was getting Jeni and Kayla (the girl I tend) from school and we were going to go see Enchanted right from school.  When I went back out to get in the car the mail lady was next door so I waited for her to get to my mailbox, and I asked her if she had my package or if I had to go into Lehi to pick it up.  She was confused by the 2 Perry's living across from eachother and apologized several times.  I was just excited that I got the package.

It was from our Japanese Student we hosted for 2 weeks this summer, Ai.  She was such a sweet sweet girl!  This was the second summer doing it.  It is such a fun experien

ce and the kids LOVE it!!  Anyways, back to the package.  She sent us a hello kitty photo album full of pictures of us and her while sh

e was here, a japanese 1 page calendar for 2008 with our family picture (with her) printed in the center, and 2 pretty red bags with the girls names on them and they were full of Japanese candy.  I tried to monitor it, and I did good until I fell asleep on the couch and they pretty much ate it all.  It was such a good surprise.  I want to make a small scrapbook with all our pictures together (and one for Aki too) and send it to her.  This picture was taken on the 24th of July, We (me and the girls) went to the Parade downtown with my friend Danette and her son and Ai (she is the tall one) brought her friend Miyako. Oh, and there was a letter also, I was going to write it all in here, but I will just share my favorite part.  She talked a lot about how studying English is getting harder, they are reading books and listening to western music, and that the next time she comes to the US she will be able to speak fluently with us.  And then at the end, I LOVE PERRY FAMILY.  Made me smile, I am so glad we were able to make such wonderful memories with her!

Before I move on...ENCHANTED was FABULOUS!  Go see it!!  :)  

I think I have a problem...I am not so happy with the first scrapbook pages I have made...I think I should just hurry and get them printed so I can't go back and change them.  Today's wasn't just a little change...it was a whole new page!!  I bought a new page kit from Kay Miller Designs (which is darling) and I needed some pictures to scrap with it, and I am trying to only work on Jeni's first year until it's done...I only have 2 snow pictures, which go together, and I had already done a page for them...but it was not my favorite page, period.  So I started over.  Here's the first page I made!

It's ok, but this one is so much better!!

Time to think about going to bed...5:30 is still too early, but I am on week 5...wish I had more to show for it...but oh well.  I feel good, so that's all that matters, right?   I wish...I had 12 days until Josh's work christmas party...yay!  Oh, and I don't usually have 3 packages I am expecting at the same time...just the last of the christmas stuff!  :)  Ciao!

30 days and counting...

Now that it seems Christmas is in full swing...Thanksgiving left more than a week left of November after, so part of me feels like I'm getting the Christmas stuff out too early, but I think the sooner I put it up the better...meaning it will be up a little longer than usual.  I love Christmas.  

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We went to my parents that morning and hung out and then ate around noon.  My brothers all left around 3 to head to their inlaws, so did we.  Josh's family was going to wait to eat until 4, but they had more extended family come and they did it at 1 instead, so we missed dinner, we got there in time to see all of his cousins, and then we all went down to his parents house and hung out for the evening.  It was a fun day.  

I swore I wouldn't go shopping on Black Friday, it used to be fun, but I am not really a fan of the huge crowds anymore.  I woke up at 7 when I realized it was garbage day and ran frantically outside to get the cans out.  I couldn't go back to sleep, so I called my friend Danette (she was at walmart at 4am) to see if she was back already, she was and we decided to go out together.  We went to Target, that was pretty much a walk in and walk right out.  The line was 2hours long, no deals worth waiting that long for, especially since it was a 2 day sale...and they were giving rain checks.  I ended up going back that night and got rainchecks for a bunch of cheap games and $4 movies.  Then we went to Old Navy where I got pajamas for the family and a fleece for both the girls, they were half price, so $5 and $7.  Then we went to Roberts because I thought they had a 40% off your whole purchase, but I misread the ad and it wasn't until Saturday.  We went to McDonalds and ate breakfast and then back to her place where we ordered a couple things from Childrens Place.  

I decided I wanted to get the whole house cleaned up before I pulled out the christmas decorations.  So I spent the afternoon cleaning and then we went to a wedding reception for a girl josh works with.  Saturday I brought a ton of bins up and started deciding what I was going to put up this year, it's getting to the point that I have so much stuff I can't put it all out or it just looks like a cluttered mess.  Ever since I have painted the kitchen/family room I have just been using "seasonal" garlands on the top of the cabinets.  I pulled down the fall leaf/pumpkin one and put up some pine garlands...I even figured out a way run a hidden cord up and put christmas lights up there too...topped off with a lit 3 foot christmas tree on top of the pantry.  Ok, apparently I just need to take some pictures and post those instead.  We even put christmas lights up this year, that's a huge first and they look awesome!!  :)

Anyways, I was really just getting on here post my latest layout that I am pretty happy with!  So here you go, then I need to go to bed, I have an early morning, back to the gym!!  

Christmas is coming...

Makes me want to break into song.  Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat...lol...yah, I'm a dork.  I have been singing that song in my head for a little while now, time to move onto something different.  Here's the only page I got done today, in-fact, it's the only page I have gotten done in the past several days.  But I thought it was appropriate because Christmas is sneaking up on us.  

On that note, I have mostly gotten the Christmas shopping done.  The only thing left to buy is PJ's for Josh and the girls for Christmas Eve...other than that I'm done for my immediate little family.  We still have to draw names for our extended family, but if that's all I have left to do, then that's not so bad.  Josh and I will go shopping together when we get to spend lots of money at his works holiday party/costco shopping spree.  It's in 2 1/2 weeks, I can't wait!!  I have been working really really hard on exercising/trying to eat right to see what kind of a difference I can make for this fancy party.  That's not the only reason why, but it's a good reason to work a little harder for the next couple of weeks.  Too bad thanksgiving (read: pigging out) has to happen in between it all.  Oh well, what do ya do!? 

I still haven't missed a day at the gym...today made day #17!  I will go in tomorrow, not quite as early because I don't have to be back to take Jeni to school, and then I will take Thursday off and have to do something from home of Friday because the gym decided to be closed after all because they are getting new flooring in.  Sooo...I will probably pop in a hard core turbo jam video and call it good.  

Today was weigh in day though...even though the number on the scale was only down .2 it made my day!!  I gained almost a whole lb of muscle in the last week, and all the changes put me into a new category.  I was in the "moderately overweight" category and now I am in the "slightly overweight" category.  I don't know why, it just made me very happy, probably because I know the next step down is healthy weight!  woohoo!  I have quite a way to go though!  I finally measured myself yesterday, I hadn't measured myself since i was working out over the summer...kinda depressing...I was right back where I started.  Oh well...

Ok, now I am just rambling, i am exhausted, I have tons to do tomorrow (including getting up fairly early) so I better get to bed!  Happy Thanksgiving if I don't post again before then!  :)

Wednesday

Here it is, the page that I lost last night.  I remade it this morning.  Nothing too exciting, but I am happy with the way it looks.  Today is crazy busy, I am heading to lunch w/ my friends in a few minutes, I still have to do my hair, and then as soon as I get home the girl I babysit will go home and then it's back out to the store (I'd rather take 2 trips out then take 3 kids shopping) I have to pick up a few things for an activity days activity later this afternoon.  I have a feeling once I get done with that I will be ready for a nap, even though it will be 5pm.  I am sooo tired already, I would just lie down and sleep if I could, but I can't.  And my arms are still sore from the gym yesterday and  my legs are sore from today.  Just can't win.  Do you know how awesome Jumping Rope is?  You burn almost 300 calories for 10 minutes.  That's awesome!  So that's what I did today.  And then I did some abs, and legs.  I'm worn out!  But it's good...today is day #13 in a row!  I haven't missed once.  I am so proud of myself.  Ok, afro hair is begging to be straightened.  More later!  Happy Wednesday!

Stupid Photoshop...

I was going to finish ONE more scrapbooking page and then post them all for you to see. I was on the last one, which was by far my favorite of the handful I got done today. I changed the font of the last thing and it CRASHED! And even worse, it was never saved. So now it is 10:30...bedtime...5:30 creeps up too fast! So tomorrow after I get back from the gym I am sure I will sit down and try to recreate it. 

I will just share this layout for now.  It's from Jenica's book I am working on for her first year.  I think it turned out pretty cute.  We still have the bear, it's fun to see how tiny she used to be compared to that thing, it's really not that big now that she's so big.  I'm off to bed now, more tomorrow!

Credits: Paper - weeds and wildflowers, font - ck aire

Sunday, Sunday...

And so begins another week. I am not so excited for tomorrow morning and the fact that the alarm goes off at 5:30am. But I am thrilled to go to the gym...I have such an awesome streak going that I don't want to quit going now! My arms still hurt from killer weights on Friday, I can't wait to whine to Jared (my trainer) about that. I am really good at complaining! :) I ate like crap all weekend, it's back to counting tomorrow...
On Friday I felt like an endless pit...I'd eat and I was still starving...so not a good thing to go through when you are trying to LOSE weight. Yesterday while Jenica was at her friends birthday (which by the way she had a blast...they watched Ratatouille and made their own little pizzas for dinner), we went to my brother and sister in laws house. My oldest brother just had a major surgery to cut a lot of junk out of his mouth and fuse cartilage into his nose to widen it to make it easier to breath. He suffers from really bad sleep apnea. So he is home for the next 2 weeks (he's already been home for 1) while he recovers. So we had a good visit with him and his wife and their dog Ruby. She is so cute! She's a schnauzer. I am trying to figure out how to talk Josh into letting us get one. They will be breeding her next spring, she's pure bred and the stud dog is also...I'm sure they would give us a really good deal. The girls love playing with her, she's really patient with being man-handled by the kids. And she is very smart...my favorite trick is when my brother "shoots" her with his hand pointed like a gun and she falls over and plays dead.
Ok, enough talk about my brothers dog.
Today was the primary program @ church. It was so good. I was bummed because Jenica's part got sent home and it said "Jenica: Hold a picture". What the heck...she doesn't get to say anything? Well, to my surprise they made a few changes and Jenica ended up with a speaking part and she did great! My parents came down for it, we left after sacrament and they came over and I made a big lunch. It was nice to get to visit with them.
Pretty much since the time they left I have been scanning pictures, something I have been DREADING doing because I have already done it once...at my parents and they didn't turn out good because the glass was dusty. I got it done again and so far they look pretty good.
I got a page done, but now I am having problems uploading it. It keeps freezing. I will eventually figure it out.

Whole lot of nothing going on...

I used to blog regularly on xanga, but I haven't in weeks.  I don't know what my deal is...so I thought I'd try something new.  Maybe I will post my posts in both places because I will miss all of my xanga friends, it's great over there.

Today has been pretty uneventful.  Jenica went to the church for a couple hours for the primary program practice/primary activity.  Tamara came and hung out with me for awhile while she was gone.  I picked up Jenica from the church and went to smiths and got some stuff to make for lunch.  I don't know what I was thinking...I have to go back to the store to get stuff for dinner tomorrow, my parents are coming down for the Primary Program and staying for dinner.  It'll be nice, they don't make it over too often. 

Jenica has a birthday party from 6-9 tonight to go to, so I am trying to figure out what we should do while she's gone.  I'd like to go to dinner or something, I tried to talk Josh into going to ToysRus with me to pick out what to get the girls for Christmas this year.  I think it would be more fun it he helped me, instead of me making all of the decisions.  He didn't like that idea.  I have $200 burning a hole in my pocket from Mattel from recalled Polly Pockets I sent back.  I am thinking it through too much...it shouldn't be this difficult.

I have become a digi scrapbook collector,  I have bought dozens of cute kits and fonts and other stuff.  I think I should get crackin on getting caught up with the actual scrapping part.  lol  I want to have the girls 8x8 books of their first year done for christmas, that is a lot of work on my part.  Kaitlyn's won't be too bad because all of her pictures are digital.  Jenica's on the other hand are 90% printed pictures.  I am dreading scanning them all, especially since I haven't quite figure out how to get the best scan from our scanner.

Now I am just rambling...and I have to get Jenica off to her party in a minute.  I will try and get some pics scanned so I can complete the pages I made today and share them!