Fryers

Fun times

2012-02-14T16:56:00.001-08:00

Just some fun pictures that I found on my phone. SINCE I'VE BEEN TOLD I NEE TO UPDATE MY BLOG!!!! Hehe. Thanks for the reminders mom. I love you!

Cool Christmas inflatable ever

2012-02-14T16:53:00.001-08:00

I usually don't like the Christmas inflatables but I thought this one was awesome and one I haven't seen before.

Cool church

2012-02-14T16:51:00.001-08:00

We went up north for Porters blessing and as we left church we tres to get some pictures of the Oqirrh Mountain temple which is right by their house.

When is too much jewelry?

2012-02-14T16:48:00.001-08:00

I'm trying to find a way to better organize my jewelry and I started doing this and this is only about 1/3 of it. I think there is just no way to organize the tons that I have.

New robe

2012-02-14T16:45:00.001-08:00

Royal found this cutest robe at Christensens for $5. She loves it!!

Newest cousin

2012-02-14T16:42:00.001-08:00

Hanging with Porter, her newest cousin. It was so cute and they were even chatting it up for a little which was so cute!

Haha

2012-01-05T15:41:00.001-08:00

I got this text and picture from Royal and about died laughing.

Don't you hate it when you get your shirt tucked into your underwear?

Five Guys

2011-12-30T20:11:00.001-08:00

A few fun pictures from Dixie's first Five Guys experience. As you can tell from the last picture, she is loving it!!

Riding around

2011-12-30T20:09:00.001-08:00

We were driving to Vegas and I turned around and this is what I saw. Bout peed my pants laughing.

Funny stuff

2011-12-30T20:06:00.001-08:00

Gotta love when our car gives us helpful hints to maintain our car. But these ones confused us.

Two months.....two cars

2011-12-30T19:49:00.001-08:00

Before you freak out, these are cars for me work. We had a 2004 Dodge Neon and it took a small rear end accident to total it off. So I bought Mountain Springs another car and before we could even make one payment on it, a staff hit black ice on the freeway and hit an exit sign.

When the dealership called to tell me the license plates we're ready, I just told them to keep them. We won't be needing them.

Car shopping. Again. Dah!!!

I love Royal!!

2011-12-30T19:42:00.001-08:00

I saw these cute tags on pinterest and even though they were supposed to go on smaller bottles, this was the cheaper option. And to make things better, usually we walk in the back door but this day, Royal walked in the front door, seeing this right away. Just a little something to show my love.

Beauty

2011-12-17T17:30:00.001-08:00

Sometimes while I am getting ready in the morning, I'll put Dixie on the counter to "get ready" with me.
She is so beautiful !!!

Coloring

2011-12-17T17:05:00.001-08:00

Another great reason for Costco..... The boxes!!! We now have a drawing table for Dixie. Who needs paper right?

Cotscto

2011-12-17T09:45:00.001-08:00

Now that Dixie is walking more, she loves Costco. And I might like it too for its shopping fun!!

Spoiled girls

2011-12-17T09:26:00.001-08:00

Dixie and I are so spoiled to have someone who brings us breakfast in bed. Thank you Royal!!

Viva Las Vegas

2011-12-04T10:58:00.001-08:00

We decided that it had been a while since we had been to Vegas and thought that would be a fun anniversary/birthday trip. We got a deal at the Imperial Palace that included 2 free Buffet of Buffet passes (normally $50 each). We drove down on Monday the 7th and checked in. Dixie was loving all the sights and sounds of a casino (and probably hating the smell as much as I do). We hung out in our room and then went to visit our good friends, Dawn and Jimmy Friedel and their son JR. They ended up watching Dixie that night and royal and I started our buffet of buffets pass ( it's a 24 pass to 7 buffets). We wanted to milk it so we could have Monday dinner and then Tuesday breakfast, lunch and dinner within those 24 hours cuz that would save us a lot with all that free food! We started at the seafood buffet at the Rio. It was really good! It was fun to get dressed up and have a child free date (thanks dawn & jimmy!!). The view walking out of the Rio was pretty cool. The next day we started out at the Paris buffet which I had heard had the best breakfast buffet. It was pretty good and I love the ambiance there. We even had crepes. We then walked back to our hotel and dice took a nap. When she woke up we went to the Old Mormon Fort which actually isn't that far away from the strip. I love historical places so it was really cool. They have it preserved really well with a lot of information. For lunch we did the Spice Market Buffet at Planet Hollywood. I really loved this one because it didn't feel like a buffet because even though it was huge, it felt smaller and more intimate

Has it been 4 years?!?

2011-12-04T10:37:00.001-08:00

Sorry I thought I was doing better with blogging! On November 2 we celebrated our 4 year anniversary. Since it was a Wednesday and royal had class (and we had a trip to Vegas coming up) we decided to celebrate a little differently. Royals class was only an hour that night and he had to drive so Dixie and I joined him and went shopping while they were in class and then we met up with Royal and his 2 Cedar classmates and went to eat at Five Guys Burgers (one of our favorites!). It was fun to celebrate the night with friends.

On our first date, Royal brought me a single yellow gerber daisy. Because of that we did our wedding colors as blue and white with yellow daisies. On our anniversary when Royal met me at work to head to St George, he has this beautiful arrangement. He said it was 4 flowers to represent 4 years. Oh yeah, I almost cried.

She can drive!!

2011-11-14T22:08:00.001-08:00

But we don't let her...

Humpy Dumpty

2011-11-09T18:12:00.001-08:00

I'm at McDonald's with Dixie right now eating dinner in St George before we head home after a few days in Vegas. She was getting antsy so we stopped here so she can play on the toys. I was talking to a family about her surgery and I explained to the little boy that she was like humty Dumpty. The family left and I was helping Dixie with her food and pulled out her kids meal toy and guess what it was? The irony just made me laugh out loud.

Happy birthday Royal!!

2011-11-06T11:10:00.001-08:00

I'm so glad you were borned!! Hehe

B Y Who??

2011-11-03T19:04:00.001-07:00

Desiree "looks like all the BYU fans have already been here"

Royal "or the one BYU fan hasn't showed up yet"

Road trip

2011-11-02T21:07:00.001-07:00

Here are some pictures of driving to and from Arizona. On the way back we stopped at Glen Canyon Dam to stretch our legs and check out the visitors center which was pretty cool. It has some huge windows with a cool view of the bridge. We got out and walked on the bridge which shook pretty good whenever a semi rolled on by.

Dixies first trick or treat

2011-10-31T19:03:00.001-07:00

With living in a town home with tons of neighbors we only needed to trick or treat for 20 minutes to get a full bag. Earlier in the day we went to Royals work where she played some games and trick or treated around the offices. I'm pretty sure she is the cutest panda I've ever seen!!

Goodbye Uncle Robert

2011-10-29T12:05:00.001-07:00

It's even so great to hear what everyone has been saying about my uncle and it's so sad that his passing is what has brought to light so much of the work that he has done. Of the things that he was really involved with is baseball and the Chicago Cubs. Here are some pictures from his viewing last night. I love the two baseball wreaths. The Cubs sent some flowers and memorabilia and even a couple of the players. There's a picture of his name at Wrigley field.

Four Letter S Word

2011-10-26T07:44:00.001-07:00

Well spring has sprung and fall has fell. It has officially snowed!! Dah!

Pictures!!

2011-10-25T21:28:00.001-07:00

Since I can now post from my phone I thought I would put some pictures that have just been sitting on my phone that I think are so cute!

Ps don't judge me cuz one of the pictures is during sacrament meeting. Royal had to work so he wasnt there and Dixie just crawled over to some guy that was sleeping with a hymnbook on his lap and took the book. She then laid it on the floor and started flipping thru the pages. To keep from laughing out loud I pulled out my phone and sent Royal that picture.

Hidden lake

2011-10-23T18:20:00.001-07:00

I found this cool lake by Cedar City. We went there tonight and it was SOOOOO beautiful!! We are totally going to go back an take better pictures with our camera and not our phones.

The transformation has begun....hehe

2011-10-23T13:05:00.001-07:00

I used to joke around that I'm not much of a domestically godess. I don't really sew, bake, craft, knit, transform a room for only $25 etc. I hated looking at crafting blogs because they made me feel insecure. And now....my first sewing machine!! For only $15 on Craiglist. Here are other ways I think maybe I am becoming the domestic godess I have oft made fun of (mostly to cover up my insecurities...hehe)

1. I now LOVE crafting blogs and can't stop looking at them. We are probably going to up our Internet to a faster speed so it will stop freezing Netflix while Dixie is watching The Backyardigans!

2. My new love is Pinterest and I recognize many of the people on it.

3. Redoing our whole bedroom with new hand made pillows and a wall that I am really excited to craftify. I'm painting our headboard and nightstands. (pictures to come)

4. I am now getting to know the ladies at Joanns on a first name basis.

5. I walk into stores like Pier One and rather than thinking "that's really cute but expensive" I now think "I can make that for cheaper!!"

Well I'm not as amazing as some of the people's items that I see online, but everyone has to start somewhere!!

Fall

2011-10-22T18:16:00.001-07:00

It's getting cold outside!!!

Halloween decoration

2011-10-22T17:29:00.001-07:00

We have this awesome huge window on the front of our house. We found two late skull heads at DI for 50 cents. Royal put one on the window and drew in the body. We found some window clings that were on sale and wa la!! A cute window!! We are really excited for Christmas when we can put our tree in the window.

Suu homecoming

2011-10-21T23:23:00.001-07:00

I just found out that I can blog from my phone so I am testing this out. If this works, maybe I'll update more often!! These are pictures from Dixie's first suu game which happened to be homecoming. She wore her first suu shirt and loved clapping with the crowd (even though she has no idea why she was clapping!). We got to sit by our nephews Zack and Cameron. Afterwards we went and got ice cream at McDonald's. It was a fun night!!!

our new love.............

2011-06-30T19:15:00.000-07:00

We are officially in love with the website http://www.cedarcityutah.com/!!!!!!

Its like groupon.com but its only stuff that is in Cedar City. There is also http://www.stgeorgeutah.com/ that has one in St George.

We have already bought 3 things.

1) Watch Me Grow---$40 gift certificate for $16

2) Clean Freaks-----2.5 hours of cleaning for $20 (worth $60)

*This house cleaning isn't something I would normally do, but after all the craziness in our lives, to have someone come and help me get the house clean--and for only $20---totally worth it!

3) Sonny Bs BBQ---$20 gift certificates for $10

Total savings thus far---$74.

Total spent thus far---$46.

YAY!!!

If you live in Cedar City, please check it out!! I'm sure the more that people look at it, the more deals they will have!

Dixie's First Pa-sketty

2011-06-27T18:33:00.000-07:00

We had spaghetti for dinner and Dixie loved it!!! We just thought these pictures were classic, even though they are the standard baby eating spaghetti pictures that every parent takes of their baby. It is just so great that she is recovering so quickly after her surgery. When the doctor told us that she'd be back to herself again after a week it was hard to believe but here it is one week later and she is back to her old self again.

I swear I've seen this somewhere.......

2011-06-23T11:08:00.000-07:00

Poor little Dixie has been in so much pain and so swollen that we have to distract ourselves with some humor. While she was swollen, we tried to decide what she looked like and here is what we came up with...

and.....................................

Dixie had a little lamb

2011-06-23T10:47:00.000-07:00

Dixie had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb. Dixie had a little lamb whose fleece was white as snow!!

I am so glad that we got her, Dixie has had her in her crib since the moment that she was out of surgery. When she is getting fussy, she will start rubbing her fur between her fingers and it helps to calm her down. I think these two met in the pre-existance!! hehe

Her name is Lacie. When we sat down to name her, we couldn't think of anything. Do I thought of Mary, because I thought it would be funny since she is the one who had a little lamb, not the one who was a little lamb! But Royal didnt like that, so we though that maybe Grace would be fun so it would be Dixie and Grace. But then Royal thought it would be cuter to do Gracie. We had put that name on the birth certificate and all of sudden, Royal had the great idea to change it to Lacie so it would be Lacie the Lamb!! We loved it!!

And the surgery is finally over........

2011-06-21T22:56:00.000-07:00

Before the surgery, we decided that we wanted to get Dixie a Build A Bear since Royal and I have one, we thought it would be fun to make it a family thing. Now definitely seemed like a good time so she could have it with her the whole time she would be in the hospital.

She picked out a cute little lamb all by herself (I held up different ones and she would always reach for that one). Every time she looks at it, she starts smiling and shrieking. She even picked out this pink shirt, even when I would show her other ones (I think that she is like her mom and liked the sparkly gems on it)

We drove to SLC on Saturday, stopping at Build A Bear on on the way. We got to my parents house pretty late but I went with my mom and sisters to buy food for a Father's Day dinner of yummy steaks. On Sunday, we had church and the we went to the hospital for lab work. When we got home, we had dinner and hung out with our families. Royal's parents had come over to so all the Grandpas would be there to give Dixie a Priesthood blessing. We had root bear floats afterwards. That night as we were going to bed, I checked my messages and even though there was no mixed call, the hospital had left a message saying her blood had clotted on the test and it needed to get done before the 730 am surgery. So after talking about it we decided to get then because they said they are really busy in the morning, We were there will 130 am doing the tests because they kept clotting. Finally we got home at 2 and Dixie kept screaming. Finally as a last resort, we gave her some formula (which we weren't supposed to do after midnight) and got 1 hour and 45 min of sleep. The next morning when we were checking in and mentioned the formula and they said they might have to cancel or postpone the surgery. Apparently the formula creates a chocking hazard because of the breathing tube and chance of vomiting. I sat there and just cried and cried. I felt so bad and that we should have stayed up anyways with her screaming because we didnt get much sleep anyways. They just postponed it to 9 am and the doctor matter of factly made me feel like crap for backing up the whole days surgery schedule.

(Dixie's elongated head before the surgery..good for the before of the before and after pictures)

Waiting to find out about the surgery schedule

Post surgery. The surgery went very well and she was doing great. She looked good after the surgery, but we knew the days following would be full of swelling. She spent the night in the ICU and because she was so drugged and being watched over so well, they told us it would be a good night to get some sleep. We did...........12 glorious hours.

Even though we knew she was in good hands, it still paid it hard to just leave her here.

We went with Royal's parents and nephew Blake to walk around Temple Square. We started with a tour of the conference center and roof (where this picture was taken). We tried to go to the top of the church office building but it closed at 430 pm. So we went and saw the tabernacle where a sister missionary did a cool demonstration where she dropped a pin and without a microphone, it was really loud because of the building acoustics.

We got a phone call today (Tuesday) that they were moving her to a regular room at 945 am because she was doing great. We were still getting up and going and we met her there around 11. The swelling was definitely there and they had to cut her wrapping to make room. We have been hanging out all day.

Because her eyes are swollen shut, she likes to feel the sides of her crib while she sleeps.During the day, Royal, his dad and Blake went to go to the top of the Church office building and they went to Brigham Young's grave. They had a good time.

Since she sleeps most of the time, there is a lot of fun sleeping pictures. She has been doing great until tonight when we started having a fever, which is fairly common is post op. I was nursing her and all of a sudden she threw up everything and then some all over me. We got her cleaned up and I had them order me up some sweats because I had already changed into my pajamas. A few hours later, I was feeding her and she did the same thing. The just put in a new IV because her old one was pulling out and bleeding, once that was in, they are giving her fluids and medicine for nausea. So between a fever, vomiting, new IV and headache, she just had a rough couple of hours. She and Royal and finally sleeping and I think I'm going to join that party. Hopefully I can update again before we leave (which will be either Thursday or Friday!!)

CVR Surgery

2011-05-19T11:55:00.000-07:00

I have been looking all over for something that describes her surgery and I just found this great website that explains it in better detail http://www.beyondaglimpse.com/craniosynostosis

Cranial Vault Reconstruction:

Cranial Vault Reconstruction also known as CVR or traditional surgery is the most common surgery performed. It is a complex surgery and will require the use of both a pediatric neurosurgeon and pediatric craniofacial surgeon.

Some surgeons prefer to do either just the front of the skull(anterior CVR) or just the back of the skull(posterior CVR). While other surgeons might choose an overall CVR depending on the degree of reconstruction needed. In some cases a front orbit advancement(FOA) is performed to reconstruct the orbits around the eyes. FOA's are hardly ever performed without an accompanying CVR.

An incision is made in the scalp from ear to ear in either a zig-zag pattern or u-shape. The skull bones are then cut and removed by a pediatric neurosurgeon. A CVR should never be performed without the neurosurgeon who's job is to protect the duram that surrounds and protects the brain. A pediatric craniofacial surgeon then will reconstruct and piece the skull bones back together using plates, screws, and stitches. Most of these foreign objects are absorbable which means as the new bone grows the plates and screws will slowly disappear.

The pro's of CVR Surgery are:

Immediate and often lasting correction of the deformity without any visible or palpable bony defects
Drastically reduced occurrences of secondary surgeries
More qualified surgeons available to perform CVR surgery
CVR is most successful when performed on children younger than one year of age but is highly successful when performed on even older children
Any complications with the duram or blood loss can be immediately handled.
Most successful treatment for multi-suture synostosis and severe cranial deformity.

The Cons of CVR Surgery Are:

Blood loss with the need of blood transfusions(although this risk can be greatly reduced with the use of procreate shots and blood recycling procedures.)
Highly invasive surgery that last 5 to 9 hours typically
Plates and screws most often are needed
48 hour stay in PICU required followed by 3 or 4 more days in hospital
Swelling and bruising

Contest & Surgery

2011-05-03T20:39:00.000-07:00

So for fun, I entered Dixie in a Parents Magazine cover contest. You can vote for her, so if you want to (and we would love it if you did)....you can click on the following link

Dixie Glasses

photos.parents.com

And another update........the Surgery is scheduled for June 20th. Its on a Monday and then a day or 2 in the ICU and then another couple of days in the hospital. We head up on the 9th to meet with the Neurosurgeon who will be doing the surgery. We still have a good feeling about everything and are hoping for the best!

It's Official....surgery here we come!

2011-04-28T21:09:00.000-07:00

Well we found out that Dixie's head has indeed fused shut on the sagital suture (see picture)for a condition called Craniosynostosis

(A baby's skull is not just one bowl-shaped piece of bone. It is made up of five thin, bony plates that are held together by fibrous material called sutures . The sutures let a baby's skull expand as the brain grows. Over time, the sutures harden and close the skull bones together. When a baby has craniosynostosis, one or more of these sutures close too soon. The head doesn't form a normal shape)

Dr Morales called and said that her brain looks really good and there is no swelling or pressure which is really good but that we will have to do surgery to fix her skull. Its called Cranial Facial Recontruction (CVR). I'm not sure a lot of what it entails other than it being a 4 hours surgery

where they reshape everything and remove some parts of the skull. We will find out more later. Since there is no pressure on her brain, the doctor said we have time until we have to have the surgery which is much better than having to have an emergency surgery. We will have to go up to Primary Children's Medical Center up in Salt Lake City for it. Its a good thing that we live in a place with such a great hospital with such amazing doctors nearby. Even though it was hard to

hear this news, we are grateful to have a final answer and no more waiting. Now we are just waiting to schedule everything with Dr Morales's office. Thanks for all the prayers and fasting, we have truly felt them and know that everything will work out.

A good website for more info http://www.ccakids.com/syndrome/craniosynostosis.pdf

This is a normal baby head. All the different lines are the sutures.

This is Dixie's head. The line from the back of the head to the middle of the head is closed so her head is longer and narrow and her forehead is bigger.

Head update

2011-04-22T23:17:00.001-07:00

Well quite a bit has happened since I last posted about her head. We found out that her head had not grown in 2 months so the doctor had us go to the hospital for an x-ray to see if her head had fused shut. We got the results back that day with the Dr saying that there wasn't a clear opening and we needed a CT scan for a better picture. He said their office would set it up and we would get a call for the scheduling. I was a little surprised to get a call instead from a Dr up north who works with craniofacial issues called and said that our pediatrician had called and wanted us to meet. The good thing is that he comes down to St George twice a year and he just happened to be coming down the next week. We were hoping to have the CT and the meeting with Dr Morales on the same day but the radiology scheduling was weird so we could only meet with Dr Morales. It was really good though because he said that if she did need the surgery (and we wouldn't know until the CT was done) it would have to be the CVR (Cranio Vault Reconstruction) and not the other one where she would have to have a helmet. With children older than 6 months, they recommend the CVR and the good thing is that it has better long term results and the whole thing is done in surgery and after a week of recovery, everything would be back to normal. The other good news is that he didn't think her head was totally shut because he didn't feel a ridge which is usually there when its fused. But he said to wait on the CT. We headed back down this week for the CT and she did great Usually they do 2 sedatives, but she took the first one (a nasty tasting thing we were told) and went lethargic enough for the scan so she didn't need the other sedative which is good because there is less recovery time. We got to be with her the whole time and they let me stand by her during the scan. She held her head totally still but as usual, her hands kept sneaking up. Go figure even when she is drugged, those hands pop up by her face. It was so cute because both her hands popped up at the same time just peeking over the blanket. Since they didn't have to do the second sedative, her recovery time wasn't very long. So we were at the hospital less than 2 hours. She was a little fussy during the day and just wanted to feed anything liquid but other than that was good. They told us to watch her breathing so I rode in the backseat with her but no problems!!

For the fun stuff, we stayed at a hotel in St George so we wouldnt have to drive down early in the morning. Royal headed to class and Dixie and I packed and headed down. We went swimming until Royal got out of class. It took a little bit for Dixie to get used to the water but when she did, she was a little fishie. It makes me so excited to take her swimming again!! After the hospital we went back to the hotel and got some more sleep (sleeping in shifts so we could watch her breathing). So even though it wasn't the most fun reason to go down, we had a fun time at the hotel.

FHE last week. We explored the toys at our townhome neighborhood. She loved the swing!!
After meeting with Dr Morales at the hospital in St George, we found this cool garden outside and took some pictures. We thought she might like the water but it was a little too cold for her.

Bad blogger..some updates

2011-03-08T21:58:00.000-08:00

So most people that follow this know that I am really bad at blogging. I feel that I have to add pictures to be able to do a post and even though I take a lot of pictures, it takes too long to upload and so I never get it done. I just need to remember that its not just about putting pictures up but recording what is going on in our lives. So here is a list of what he have been up to and we will see about getting some pictures up but for now, its all about recording our history!

1) Thanksgiving, went to AZ and had a blast taking Dixie on her first plane ride (which she did awesome on!!) We played in the desert, did some shopping at Goodwill and hung out with family.

2)Christmas, stayed here in Cedar for Dixie's first Christmas. Opened presents in the morning, more at Gma and Gpa Littles house. Royal had to work at 4 and I went to work at 8 since Royal had to work anyways. (Gotta love Holiday pay!!)

3) New Years Eve we went to East Carbon. It was really funny because we were driving up there and I was like "hey, its New Years Eve". Its crazy that people are party'n all over the world and we were driving on a dark road to a small town where we both fell asleep at like 11. We. Are. Old. People. Now.

4) February. Moved to another place. What the?!?! We weren't even looking for a new place so how did this happen? Story time.....during this frigid winter time, there was a wind from the north that froze our pipes (no water...yay!) but our amazing landlord came that day and fixed it. While he was there I overheard him offering a 3 bedroom for rent to someone. We called him later and asked about it. Its his sons first rental and they want to find good people and would love it if we moved in. So we checked it out and LOVED it! Its so much bigger and nicer and only $70 more than what we were paying for a 2 bed/1bath and a storage unit. We had the keys the next day. The only problem is that we weren't planning on moving so between going out of town, 2 full time jobs, graduate school and a baby.........lets just say the unpacking has been going a little slow. And if not for the amazing CCU 1st ward, we might still be moving stuff out of our old place!!

4) Valentines weekend. Another plane trip for Dixie. We scored these awesome round trip tickets from Las Vegas to Long Beach, CA for only (drum roll) $65 round trip. so for only $130, our little family flew to visit Aaron and Shonee Smith (Royals BFF) and we also got to see where Royal grew up (they lived in Long Beach cuz Royal's dad who was serving in the Navy was stationed there). We had a great time visiting the LA Fashion district, new LA Temple Visitors Center and...........THE BEACH!!! It was amazing!! There were dolphins, crabs, star fish and the most amazing sunset EVER! I didn't want to leave (especially to come home to a house full of boxes.....)

4) Some Dixie updates: She is now sitting up for long periods of time, eating solids (not sure why they call it solids since its basically slimy stuff, but I guess its more solid than milk!!) She is really good it and she likes fruits so far, but not sweet potatoes!! She is also doing better at tummy time, which she hated but is now getting used to. She loves holding things is her hands and getting a good at whatever she is holding. She is very inquisitive and always looking around. She loves to just sit and talk and talk, and of course we let her and soak up every minute of it!

Bad News:( For her 4 month appt, the doctor was a little concerned that her head is not growing ear to ear (its growing more front to back). He thinks her head fused together too fast. Not only does this cause cosmetic issues, but since its the head it also causes neurological issues. To 2 psych majors who know a little about the brain, this was scary. I asked if this meant a helmet to fix it and he said it would actually require surgery!! So far none of his patients have had to have the surgery so I am hoping to keep his record clean!! He said come back in a month to check up on it. Royal took her in and he said her head still isn't growing the best but he still isn't totally concerned about it. We go in Thursday for her 6 month appt and if its still not growing the right way then we will have to get her head xrayed and see if it did fuse together too soon. We are keeping our fingers crossed, and praying every night that her head grows!! Please keep our little family in your prayers. I will update what we find out.

5) Well things have been a little crazy at work with some shifting of positions but things just got even crazier because on Monday................................I fly to Paris for 2 weeks of hanging in Europe (Paris & Versailles France and London & Oxford England) with my work!! One of the teachers that was going has a family emergency and cant go. My friend Megan was the next one up and with the shifting of positions, she just couldn't go on such short notice. So after a lot of phone conversations, some (a lot actually) of tears and some logistical planning of what to do with a 6 month old when mom flies to the other side of the world and I am ready to go! I am really excited to go and glad that I work where I have these amazing opportunities but whenever I play with Dixie, I just cry thinking of leaving her for 2 weeks. Thanks so much to Kendra for watching her while Royal has work and class and thank you SKYPE for being free so I can still see and talk to my family!!

Weekend in Cali

2011-02-27T20:25:00.000-08:00

We call this her bulldog face............
When we were in California a few weekends ago, out of the blue Dixie started making this hilarious face! We were eating dinner and we about died laughing!! Luckily, the Smith's had their awesome camera nearby!!!

KODAK MOMENT!!!

Nintendo Fans

2011-01-31T18:31:00.000-08:00

When I dressed Dixie this morning, I couldnt help but think her outfit looked a little familiar........

Pictures......LOTS of pictures

2010-12-21T02:14:00.000-08:00

Well now that she is almost 4 months old, I'm finally going to post pictures!! Sorry this has taken forever and that they are kinda random. For journal purposes I am putting pictures starting from day uno.

Rolly Pollie Ollie

2010-12-21T01:44:00.000-08:00

It was the coolest thing! Last Thursday Dixie was on a blanket by the tree (because she loves the lights) and all of a sudden she rolled over! She HATES tummy time....usually cries and almost always spits up...........so we were really shocked when out of the blue she just rolled over! Now she does it all the time. The other night she started whimpering a little bit so I went in to check on her and she was on her tummy. I hope this doesn't mean nights of getting up to roll her back over! The last couple of nights she has moved around and ended up in a position different than the one was laid her down in. I am so glad that we finally got a bumper for the crib and its a nice one that is breathable in case she moves her face up against it (http://www.breathablebaby.com/)

Cutest Husband Ever!!

2010-12-04T10:15:00.000-08:00

A few months ago, Royal went hiking at Kanarra Falls at work and my brother Kyle took this picture and I thought that it was so cute!! This is why we have such cute baby, because she has such a handsome dad!!

Family Pictures

2010-12-04T10:01:00.000-08:00

When we went down to Arizona for Thanksgiving we met up with my best friend Terina and were going to do family pictures. We brought tons of clothes, had different ideas, etc but forgot about one thing..............we have a baby who decides everything! We made it through one outfit and maybe 2 poses before she started crying. As you can tell from the last picture, we tried to comfort her, but I think she was done. At least we got a few cute ones!

Its been a while......

2010-12-01T21:03:00.000-08:00

Ok so I have a baby and put hardly any pictures..........I am sorry about that, I guess we are too busy taking the pictures that I don't post any. I hope to have some coming up in the next week or so. The good thing is that not much has happened so I don't have a lot to report so there will be more pictures than words, which for me is good because to be honest when people have a lot of words on their blog, I tend to just skip to the pictures anyways!! hehe.

But as I write that I will be updating this blog soon, I did create another blog that will hopefully be easier to maintain. This second blog is one that I have been thinking about for a while and finally decided to just do it. It seems that there is always a funny picture or joke or video that gets passed around and so I thought it would be fun to have a blog of things that make me laugh. With that, I hope that it will make you laugh at least once a day (and hopefully to the point of peeing your pants). If I hear that I made at least one person have to tablespoon it, then I will know that my mission is a success!!

The address to my blog is

www.itablespoonedit.blogspot.com

For those of you who are confused when I talk about "tablespooning it", it means that you laughed so hard that you didn't necessarily totally pee your pants, but about a tablespoon's worth............

Dixie's Blessing

2010-10-10T13:23:00.000-07:00

On Sunday Sept 26, we blessed Dixie in our ward. So many people came and it was so great so feel all of that support. Royals family came the Saturday before. We started that day at a park for Crue's 3rd birthday. We had fun introducing Dixie to the playground toys, but more often than not, people wanted to hold her! Kendra had made a really cute baseball bat and ball cake that was really really good. Then we met Royals mom, dad, his sister Jean and her fiance DeeJay and her kids Brian, Blake and Rayden. We ate lunch at Brads Food Hut which I had only eaten at once before and I had forgotten that the food there is actually pretty good. We headed back to our house but I left to meet up with my mom for some shopping. We had to get Dixie a bracelet for her blessing! No daughter of mine will go through a big life event without some sort of jewely!! hehe.

We ended up getting more than just jewelry. We got some headbands, shoes and socks. The shoes are way to big for her to wear now, but next year, she will be stylin'!!!

That night we had dinner with Royal's family at Chili's and spent the rest of the night getting stuff for the breakfast we were having after her blessing. The blessing was wonderful and it was so great to be surrounded by family and friends for such an important moment. After sacrament meeting, we headed to our house where we had more food than we needed (Royal, you were right). Thank you to my mom for making her yummy cinnamon rolls!!

Sleeping

2010-10-10T13:06:00.000-07:00

One piece of advice that we got over and over again was to sleep when the baby sleeps. Being the diligent people that we are, we took that one step further.........not only sleeping when she sleeps, but sleeping exactly HOW she sleeps. Here is the proof:

Why I was induced.....

2010-10-10T11:59:00.000-07:00

So I had to be induced because I hadn't had so much as one contraction that I could feel (when I got to the hospital, we found out I was having little contractions but even with watching them on the monitor, I couldn't feel them). I joked around that either my body knew how to cook a baby but not how to birth one. My other theory was that she was just like her mom, in the sense that I do not like to get out of a nice warm bed, so why would she?? Now that we have gotten to know her personality, I definitely agree that its the second. This is a video of her waking up from a nap. She takes so long to wake up, just stretching and trying to open her eyes!! So even though she totally looks like her dad, personality wise............she is all mom!

Sorry its not the best video, it was dark.

And she's here!!!!!!

2010-09-01T10:58:00.000-07:00

Before

After!!!!!

Sorry this isnt that long, I will be updating this soon but I wanted to get something up. Dixie Grace Fryer was born on 8/31/2010 at 4:47 pm. She was 9 lb 9 oz and 21 inches. I was induced that morning at 12:30 am and pushed for 2 hours until we finally got to see her beautiful face!! She has 10 fingers and 10 toes and is a healthy baby. We are so excited for this new addition to our family and will be posting tons of pictures (since as new parents, we take pictures of everything!!!)

Cool Videos!!

2010-08-30T17:40:00.000-07:00

My brother Kyle showed us these 2 videos on youtube and I though Royal was going to pee his pants!!

Getting ready for baby!

2010-08-29T15:50:00.000-07:00

So people have been asking if we are ready for a baby. While I have yet to figure out of they meant physically or mentally, I thought I would take pictures of some ways that we have gotten ready physically........

Toys The pink one Kendra found at a garage sale for $5, when we found it online it was $98. Deal!!!!!!!!!!!

Got the car seat ready, the bases strapped in our cars and bags are packed for the hospital. As I was taking this picture I started laughing because the following song popped in my head "All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go....." Although no here is leaving on a jet plane. A big thanks to Sami Hunt, one of my co workers for the cute car seat cover! I love it!!

Got a high chair ready for feedings, This is a really cute one from Grandpa and Grandma Little. We love it so much, we put it together the night we got it!

A panoramic view of the nursery. Can you tell with the drawers and shelves that I am a little OCD about organization?? The glider was teal green but my mom sewed new covers for it with some $1.00 a yard fabric we found. It looks great now!

I found these cute frames at Tai Pan but they had weird pictures inside so I had our little artist Kelci draw something else. They turned out better than I was even picturing!!!

The cute valance my mom made with some more sale fabric and ribbon. The toy holder on the right is one that I had when I was little and the mobile on the left is one that we found at IKEA and it has cute little bugs on it.

I saw the button frame thing at Tai Pan and told one of my co workers, Brittany Cropper about it and that I wanted to get some vinyl lettering that said Cute As A Button and it turns out that she had a machine that cuts lettering so she made the vinyl and Royal painted this board. When we put the lettering on the board, we forgot to check the back and put the lettering on upside down from the hook so we had to put some hooks on the top and hang it with ribbon. Opps!

Royal went and bought this the day that we found out we were having a girl. It was when Roberts was going out of business so all the main letters were taken, hence there wasn't anymore letter Es. We decided that the moon can kinda pass for an E.

Budding photographer............Crue

2010-08-29T15:37:00.000-07:00

Crue found my camera in my purse and started taking pictures, here are some of the good ones!

He didn't take this picture obviously, but I thought you should see who the budding photographer was!!

Living the Life of Luxury......when its on sale!!

2010-08-29T15:12:00.000-07:00

So we have been good about checking our mail every Tuesday what for so many years I saw as junk mail, that I now see as money saving gold. We clip the coupons and see what stores have things on sale. On this particular weekend, we found (among other things) steak and lobster. On the way home, we were talking and thought it would be fun to combine these 2 rich tastes for a great dinner!! The lobster was precooked so Royal boiled it in some flavored water to give it some flavor. We had done Bountiful Baskets that morning and had corn and lettuce to eat and dress up the plate (Royal's idea). It was so fun to sit and learn how to eat a whole lobster and to pretend that we normally have steak and lobster for dinner on the weekend. Like the post title says....................we were living the life of luxury.................because it was on sale!!

Royal called me over and had me come look at the stockpot. I think the lobster was surrendering

The yummy finished product!!

Yeah, I still can't help but play with our food!!

Zucchini Zucchini Zucchini

2010-08-29T14:52:00.000-07:00

Zucchini everywhere...........its been great having sisters who garden and a mother who bakes!! One night I stopped by my parents house and walked into the most delicious smell. My mom had 15 loaves of zucchini bread, zucchini cake, zucchini cookies, etc. Needless to say, we definitely got to take some of that goodness home!! Thanks everyone!!

Cravings...........kind of

2010-08-17T20:36:00.000-07:00

So with this pregnancy I haven't had any real cravings, but there are certain foods that I liked before but they sounded even better with being pregnant. I have noticed that foods that pregnant women seem to crave/hate when they are pregnant, the kid seems to have those same loves/hates. IE my mom hated tuna fish when she was pregnant with me and I have never liked it. So I am making a list of the foods that I have really liked during this pregnancy and then can check up to see if they are true for Dixie.....

1. Peanut Butter and Jelly sandwiches (basically the only thing that sounded good for the first 3 months)
2. Orange Juice............part of me wonders if this is because Royal was born in Florida.
3. Mint Chocolate Ice Cream (just finished a bowl actually).
4. Dr Pepper, I'm not much of a soda or caffeine drinker but this sounds good more often.
5. BBQ chips. I found this out by Royal buying some cuz it was on sale and not only did I eat most of the bag, I went and bought another bag the next week.

Invisible Car

2010-08-17T20:25:00.000-07:00

So along with all the cool features of our new car, there is one little downside that I have noticed a few times on the road.....................apparently to other cars on the road, its invisible!! There have been 3 separate times (the 3rd being this morning) that I have had to either honk or swerve to avoid being hit!! Twice it was because someone tried to move into my lane right where I was and once pulling into our apartment and someone was coming down the driveway and almost slammed into me until I honked. I think I should start taking advantage of this cool feature...........just not sure how............any ideas??????

Expensive Paper

2010-08-07T10:40:00.000-07:00

Royal got a phone call that he could finally pick up his diploma from SUU. I was joking around with him telling him to be careful because when all is said and done, its a really expensive piece of paper. Without missing a beat, he said that he thought a marriage license seems to be more expensive!! I laughed so hard, but this got me thinking as to the price of some of these important pieces of paper. Here is what I found out..........

Birth Certificate: Average cost for raising a child ages 0-18

$124,800

(based on a survey by the US Deptartment of Agriculture)

4 Year Bachelor Degree:

Public 4 year college is $7,020 a year so $28,080 total

(Facts from College Board)

Average cost of a wedding: On average, couples that live in or travel to Cedar City, UT spend between $12,975 and $21,625 total for Average Cost

(Based on information from www.costofwedding.com)

Case of copy paper $46.99.

Well it would seem that copy paper is definitely cheaper but I think that people would argue that the other costs with the previous three papers are priceless............

The Canyon

2010-08-07T09:14:00.001-07:00

So its was our usual Friday problem................what to do in a small town for our date night? We thought it might be fun to check out someplace new to eat so we went to Old West Smokehouse (Former Depot Pizza, which was formally Godfathers Pizza, love small town turn over) since its fairly new. As we were walking in, another couple was walking in too and asked us if it was good and we told them we had never been here and were coming to find out. Our table had this fun game so we played it together first, then tried to see if we could do better individually. Yeah.....not as much but it was fun. The food was really good, we each got a brisket sandwich as it was the waitresses recommendation. They make their own BBQ sauce which was SO GOOD!! Afterwards we went home because I hadnt been home all day but on the way home I had an idea.................what if we took our newly returned camera up the canyon and hiked around and took some pictures. There is a small tunnel up the canyon so we just walked around there. It was getting dark so it was kinda fun to walk around because even though the tunnel is not very big, it was darker in the middle. After that we came home to change our wet shoes and had ice cream and watched Stomp, which Royal had rented from the library. It was a great night, we are definitely taking advantage of our last few Friday nights of it only being the 2 of us!!

Its baaaackkk!!!

2010-08-06T21:46:00.001-07:00

Thank goodness for the BBB (Better Business Bureau)!! I have never had to work with them before but now that I have, I love it! So if you read out blog, you might have noticed a few times where I talk about our camera being in the shop for a cracked screen. Well we decided that 45 days was too long to not hear anything from the company so I was calling, emailing, etc to the company and still was getting no response. Because we had mailed it to a place we found online, we thought for sure that we had gotten scammed and lost both our money and our camera. Well I wasn't going to miss the first memories of Dixie because someone in Minnesota decided to keep our camera!! So finally I put in a complaint to the BBB and within 2 days the camera was in the mail!!

We were so excited and when we got it we went to turn it on and it wouldnt..........because...........they returned our camera but not the rechargeable battery it needs to turn on. So another mean email to company and another email to the BBB that the company was only halfway done. Well today in the mail....our battery!! I am so glad that we have an advocate like the BBB to make sure that things get done. Any by the way if you need a camera repaired, only send it to http://www.darntoothysam.com/ (why did we send it somewhere with a name like that?? I dunno...) if you nothing but time to kill!

East Carbon Weekend

2010-08-06T20:46:00.000-07:00

For those of you I haven't seen in forever, here is my belly-- Side and Front views

So I realized that I forgot to post about when we went to East Carbon. It was so much fun (as usual) and very busy. We took Zack, Cameron and Thomas, our three nephews from Cedar. We were joking around on the way up there that I was surrounded by cute boys!! We had to make a stop in Huntington so I could meet with some people from a Wilderness program and while I did that, Royal took the boys to a park. It was actually nice to stop and take a break. After another pit stop in Price, we made it to East Carbon. We stopped long enough to unload the car and then went to Pick N' Shovel. Its the one nice dining restaurant in the town and my favorite!! With it being Community Days, it was a little busier than usual but it was fun to sit around with everyone because the whole family came!! (Thanks mom and dad for dinner!). The next morning we were going to go swimming but decided to go to Community Days first. Almost everyone went to the parade and Royal and I stayed back and got ready and met everyone there. We had fun running around and seeing all there is to see. I think I had more fun than Royal because he had to play banker and hold all the boy's money and then follow them around while they figured out how to spend it. We did spend some time looking at the cars and thought maybe we could get Dixie this Mini Cooper limo since it was all decked out in Barbie and it was Barbie pink. The back of it has an actual hot tub (thats why it looks like a truck bed).

After spending the morning in the sun we headed back and ate lunch. We hung out for a bit and decided that we would go swimming after the baby shower. So we went to the church and set everything up.

It didnt take too long so we locked up the building and went back home. We were trying to figure out what time we should head back for the shower and decided that 30 minutes early was probably good since we had to unlock the building. It was fun to sit and talk as people arrived. The first game we played involved this beautiful picture.

Alaena melted candy bars in diapers and we had to guess what they were. Guess who won that one........me! I said I may not know anything about babies, but I know my chocolate!!We played some other games (including a word search with things related to me, Royal and Dixie and I did horrible!! I couldnt even find my own name!) and then went to my favorite part........opening presents!

Hehe. I got so many cute (and very needed!) things. A big thank you to everyone who came and for Mom and Alaena for putting everything together. It was so great and so fun to see people that I only get to see a few times a year. After we were done and cleaned up, the weather turned really bad so we werent able to go swimming afterall which was a bummer. That night, Royal and I went to the Rodeo with Joe and Alaena. It was fun but cold so I was glad when it was over. We went into Price and ate dinner (at midnight at JBs). It was a good end to a good night. The next morning we had church (which was really crowded & hot so Royal and I sat in the foyer for Sacrament meeting) and after church some people played the Wii and hung out while a steak dinner was cooking. The kind of steaks we had were being discontinued at WalMart so they got them at a great price. When dinner was done we decided that we had better hurry home so it wouldnt be too late by the time we got back. It was such a great weekend and crazy to think that the next time we head up there, there will be 3 of us!! Thanks again mom and Alaena for the awesome baby shower!!

Newest Edition to our family............

2010-07-27T20:45:00.000-07:00

So when reading the title, I bet you thought that we had our baby....nope, she is still kicking my ribs at night, not due for another few weeks. But in preparing for her upcoming arrival, we finally got a second car!!! We have been looking and looking for months and hadn't found THE ONE. I can't decide, which was harder; finding a spouse for time and all eternity, or trying to find a cheap reliable car!! I found this on Craigslist because I have always like PT Cruisers (actually thats not true, I thought they were ugly until I drove one a few years ago and really liked the inside and came to like the uniqueness of the outside). But we almost bought one before the Malibu but it didnt work out with our trade in at the time (thank goodness because we LOVE LOVE LOVE our Chevy Malibu that we got insead). So on with the story, I found this online, in our price range and only (dah, dah-dah, dah) 35,000 miles on it!! So I called the guy and since it was up in the SLC area, my brother test drove it first and had great things to say about it. So, sight unseen, we got the loan from our our bank and headed up a few days later to go buy it, going up the night before and getting it the next morning. We test drove it and loved it. It was from a guy who buys nicer repos when he finds them as a hobby to his auto broker business. We took Lex and Shanna out to lunch to thank them for looking at the car for us and each of us took turns driving it home. I drove it to Fillmore and then we switched and Royal drove it home.

Even though it took forever to find and I was starting to get worried, that we would have Dixie before we found another car......it seemed that everything worked out (even our insurance payment.... it only went up $20 a month because it lowered the payment on our other car---gotta love the multi car discount!!!)

My First Love.........

2010-07-08T17:32:00.000-07:00

So this is something that I have been drooling over since it first came out. I probably have the whole infomercial memorized because I have seen it so many times! Then a few weeks ago, I used one at my friends house and knew I needed one even more!! Not wanted.....but needed!! hehe. Then one glorious day while checking the mail, we got some Costco coupons. I was flipping through the pages when I saw my Magic Bullet and a $10 coupon. AHHHHHHH (angels singing in the background). We went to Costco a few days later (where its only $45 to begin with) and finally got one!! Royal said that he understood that I have been in love with the Magic Bullet longer than I have been in love with him so he understood and wanted me to get it. YAY!!

It was really funny because after we bought it, he said he wasn't all that impressed with it, but I was using it to make a chocolate/peanut butter milkshake and he said he wanted one but he didn't want one with peanut butter (which he absolutely hates). So I whipped him up his own milkshake in his own cup. As we were enjoying our delicious beverages, I asked him if now he thought it was magical......and it said it was pretty cool.

Why living in a small town is fun

2010-07-02T20:58:00.000-07:00

So last Saturday night, we were doing the boring married couple thing and going to the grocery store because chicken thighs and cereal were on sale, when we saw a party at the Main Street park. After getting our groceries, we walked on over and was glad that we did. We walked around the booths they had set up where you could buy stuff. One of the booths had forks that were bent in various ways to make everything from salt and pepper shakers

to cell phone holders and various statues. If they weren't $20 a pop, we probably would have bought one but we had a hard time justifying $20 for $1 worth of forks!! We did go by another booth and saw a really cute baby pink (with SPARKLES!!) photo frame and it was only $2!! It was really cute and we were excited to find it. After walking around some more, I was parched so we went over to the food section and found a booth with otter pops that were 2 for $0.75 each so we each got two and it turns out they were the big ones and not really otter pops at all! We walked over to where the band was playing and danced while eating our otter pops. It was so much fun!!! The band was really really good. There was someone playing trumpet, another playing trombone and the main singer was amazing! When we left, we turned in to the radio so we could listen to it on the way home.

Baby Shower

2010-07-02T20:55:00.000-07:00

A big thank you to all those who came to my baby shower last Saturday, it was so much fun!! A really big thank you to my mom and sisters for putting everything together and making a really yummy breakfast! My sister in law Shanna took pictures for me (THANK YOU!!) so when I get those I can put them on here so you can see what party animals we are!

SLC Wedding Weekend

2010-06-27T19:48:00.000-07:00

(While waiting for all the pictures, Crue was playing hide and go seek. Can you find him in this picture?)

The weekend of June 10th we headed up to SLC for my cousin Amanda's wedding. I was really excited to see the rest of their family because when the Jones family gets together, its bound to be a good time!! We headed up Thursday night, test driving some cars in Provo along the way, and had a family BBQ at their house in Cedar Hills. We decided that we shouldn't stay too late because we were staying with Royals aunt and uncle in Taylorsville but on our way there the big blue and yellow IKEA stood there in its glory just beckoning us to come in and we succumbed. And its a good thing we did because we found a much better coffee table than we have now and it was only $20. We also found a cute lamp and mobile for Dixie's room. When we got to Taylorsville, it took us a while to figure out the garage door opener but once we got it open, that's when they showed up. Aunt Frances from Huntington was there too because they had all gone out to eat. We talked for a while and then all headed to bed. The next morning we headed downtown for their sealing in the SLC temple and then waited outside for pictures. Thats where all of these pictures come from. It was raining and really windy so standing outside was not that much fun but we survived. Finally we headed next door to the Joseph Smith building for their luncheon. There were speeches and musical numbers and after a few hours, it was all over. We headed back to Taylorsville for some rest (yeah the pregnant lady would now rather rest than go shopping....) We had a few hours to chill and then headed back to the JS building for the reception which was really crowded. After eating the yummy snacks, the dancing started. When it started to get a little crazy, we took a romantic walk around temple square. We had borrowed some umbrellas which was perfect because it was drizzling a little bit outside. We walked back and it looked like the party wasn't going to wind down soon even though it was almost 10 pm so we said good bye and headed to bed. The next morning, we met Jean, DJ and Rayden (Royal's sister and her crew) for breakfast at IHOP and then went and test drove some more cars (deciding that we would never buy from Stockton Malone---they wouldn't give us any info on any cars like price and mileage. They just walked us from car to car asking if we liked that one or this one. Hello, we have a budget for a reason. ) After that we were ready to head home. We made it just in time for Coopers 1st birthday after party (all the adults who stuck around ordered pizza).

The temple..........how romantical..........

The Little sisters, although judging by my belly, I definitely don't live to the last name..............not that I ever did before.

This is the Little family, not professional picture. I think we all look so funny since no one was paying attention...........a real candid shot.

Grandpa Swasey

2010-06-20T18:32:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite things. When Royal was little (a long long time ago.......hehe) his grandpa made this booster seat for him. It has been at Royal's parents house in East Carbon and when Royal went up during Spring Break he brought it back. We are so excited for Dixie to use it because even though Grandpa Swasey is no longer here on Earth, this is still a way for Dixie to have him in her life. Royal sanded the whole thing down and repainted it in a similar red. The pictures of the bottom is where he signed it with Royal's name. It says Roy Fryer because Grandpa Swasey was Royal too, so for the first few years of his life he was Roy. I wish I would have gotten a picture of it, but I just noticed this weekend that Grandpa had also signed it RS in the bottom corner.

This is after Royal sanded it down. This shows the orginal red color.

The finished product!

Craigslist.........love it

2010-06-20T18:21:00.000-07:00

This is the changing table that we had the adventure of driving to Irontown to get. It was white but Royal painted it brown to match her room (he did it while I was at work so I wouldn't inhale paint fumes). It looks so cool!!! It looks cleaner too with it not being white. Plus all the baskets and everything I have bought to put underneath are white and pink so it all works out together. Sorry the last picture isnt the greatest, I couldnt tell what I was taking pictures of.......(So excited to get our camera back!!)

We onyl bought one can of spray paint, we had to go get more............

The finished project!

Baby Sitting

2010-06-20T18:11:00.000-07:00

When Kendra said that they would be cleaning their house for memorial day, I said if they needed baby sitters, feel free to bring them by! We ended up having them for most of the day and had too much fun. The first few pictures are ones tha Crue took. These are the few that I chose that are somewhat clear. The last ones are Royal getting attacked by these two cute boys. I think he thought if he played dead, they might stop......hehe.

So even though Crue missed Royal in this picture, it does show some of the vinyl lettering we put up that I wanted to post about!! There is another one in Dixie's room that says "Be Your Own Kind of Beautiful". More pictures to come as her room nears completion (and we get our camera back from the shop)

Thought this picture was so cute!!

Las Vegas

2010-06-20T17:50:00.000-07:00

The weekend after Royal was released our friends in Las Vegas were blessing their baby JR, so we went down Saturday night after Royal got off work at 9 pm. We got here just in time for bed! The next morning was fun getting ready with 2 other couples in the house! The blessing was fun to witness especially knowing the next time we participated in a baby blessing, it would be for Dixie!! After sacrament meeting, we headed to Jimmy's parents house for breakfast (which was good because we were starving!) Dawn and Jimmy had made a really yummy french toast bread pudding in their crock pot that was really good! After eating and hanging out we headed back to Dawn and Jimmy's to change back into regular clothes and get all of our stuff packed up. We then went to Dawn's mom's house and hung out for a little bit. We decided that even though it was Sunday, it would be fun to see the Atrium at the Bellagio and see the new City Center. The Atrium had its spring theme and there were sculptures of large ants. The City Center was pretty cool with tall ice columns and water things.

We were wondering if it comes up, where would that be?

Might be hard to tell but the bright red behind the flower is a large lady bug made out of red flowers.

I have seen this snail before and I always think it looks so cool. The two toned roses on it are my favorite!!

These columns are totally ice. Ice. In Las Vegas? Something about he** freezing over???

Sparkly..........many of you have seen that face when I get around sparkly things.........

The lights on the ice columns kept changing so it was really cool looking.

These are the water tornado things in City Center. We were thinking the motors had to be pretty strong to get that much water to spin!

No More Monkeys Jumping on the Bed!!

2010-05-16T19:16:00.000-07:00

When we got over to my parents house and Crue was so excited to show us how he can "Jump. Higher!!" I asked him if he can jump over the house and he would just laugh. So I guess what means no.........

Can it be????

2010-05-16T19:14:00.001-07:00

We were over at my parents house for our usual Sunday night hang out and my mom showed me one of 2 random tulips they have in their yard. I took this picture and loved the way it came out. And my mom loves the way it makes it look like their backyard is a beautiful field of lavender and flowers!! Can it really be spring in Cedar City, even though it snowed last week??? Please let it be!!!

End of An Era

2010-05-16T19:03:00.000-07:00

So today Royal was finally released as second counselor in the University 12th ward bishopric. Its a calling for a year and even though he didn't get put in until last August, the bishop and first counselor had been in for three three years so they released the whole bishopric. Its been a fun year serving in the singles ward (and really ironic that both of us had been in that same ward at one point in time before we got married). Royal got to bear his testimony in church which is always amazing to hear. He said that he has learned a lot in the last year and would feel ready to be in a bishopric of a family ward, but then he clarified saying that he wasn't in any hurry and everyone laughed. I am so proud of him and we are both excited to go back to a married ward!

Funny Mothers Day Cards

2010-05-09T20:37:00.000-07:00

Since I am going to be a mother soon, Royal got me a really cute card that read:

Outside: You are really great with kids

Inside: Especially with the big one you married. Happy Mothers Day.

For Royal's mom, we got a funny one too.

Outside: Know what I'm especially GRAPEFUL for??

Inside: The great job you did RAISIN me!

I wish I could be a card writer and get paid for all my corny ideas. How do you sign up for that?

This Weekend

2010-05-09T20:21:00.000-07:00

Since Royal's parents couldn't make it last weekend for graduation (Royal's brother was graduating from CEU the same weekend and since our nephew Zack was getting ordained this weekend, they thought they would kill two birds with one stone). They got there Friday night and we met them at their hotel and took our nephew Blake home to stay with us for the weekend. We started Saturday morning by going out to breakfast at IHOP and then over to David and Ruths for some fun and they made us lunch of some yummy hot dogs. I was still full from breakfast but with hog dogs being a favorite and wanting to eat for 2, I made sure to eat one. Then we headed to Park Discovery where we all got sunburned playing outside. I had fun with Blake trying to find the planets that were painted on the wood and 15 different plaques that each had a different type of bug. Royal had fun making the kids scream on the tire swing! We headed from there to Wal-Mart where we needed to pick up a few things and some of the kids got swimming suits so we could all go swimming at the hotel. We went home to change and met everyone there. It was cool because we had the pool all to ourselves but with 13 people, it filled up quickly. People alternated between the hot tub, playing chicken (Royal has some sore shoulders today) and playing tag. Tag wasn't really all that fun because there weren't very many places to go without being tagged. After swimming, we went and changed and met at Chili's for dinner. I think this is becoming a tradition because this is where we ate last time they were down. No complaints from us!! It was so good, plus they have the unlimited chips and salsa, which we started on right away. After dinner, we headed to Ryan and Ruths and when it was time for all the kids to go to bed, everyone headed to our neck of the woods to see our new apartment (stopping at Maggie Moos on the way of course). By the time we got to our place and sat for a bit, the days activities started to hit all of us and we were all ready for bed by 9 pm. Mom, Dad, Joe and Alaena headed back to the their hotel and Blake played Wii for a few minutes. We were thinking Royal was going to get released we had to go to our ward at 11 and wasnt able to go to the lunch David and Ruth had provided (turns out he didn't get released and we still have no idea when it will happen, the Stake just says it will be soon. But then again, they also said it would happen around General Conference. Maybe they meant October.....) After our church, we grabbed some lunch and went to David and Ruth's building. After waiting a few minutes, Zack was ordained a deacon. The East Carbon clan was heading out after that because mom had to work at 530 am the next morning. It was a really fun and busy weekend. Thanks for everything mom and dad!!

Big Rock Candy Mountain

2010-05-09T19:55:00.000-07:00

While Royal was studying away for finals, I was planning a little get away to surprise him. In talking with one of my co workers, I got the idea to rent a cabin at Big Rock Candy Mountain. I didn't want to do something that would be really busy with a lot of driving and this since this is only 1.5 hours away, it was perfect. We stopped in Richfield to get some stuff for breakfast the next morning and decided to get a movie to watch, since we had brought our DVD player. Royal found all 3 Xmen movies together for $10. Then he found Blue Crush/Honey/Josie and the Pussycats together for $10. I love Honey and Blue Crush so we thought it was worth it. We were excited to get 6 movies for only $20. SCORE!! When we got to our cabin, we hung out and watched TV and then realized it was finally time for dinner. We headed south to a place called Hoovers that my coworker told me about. I am really glad that she told me because it was amazing. Royal got a prime rib and I got crab stuffed shrimp. It was sooooooo good. We decided it would even be worth driving up from Cedar for. I got a picture of the outside because it looks like a little store or something small, but inside was awesome and packed with people. There was so much food that I couldn't finish it all, so we got a to go box and we headed back to our cabin. We set the box outside so it would cool (can you tell where this is going to go...) and we went for a walk on the trail right outside the cabin. We walked for 30 minutes or so but then decided that it was going to start raining on us so we turned back. We were almost back before it started raining on us. We ran to a shelter right by the creek because it was cool to hear the water running while it was raining. Finally we ran back to the cabin only to discover all my food was gone. Yeah......college graduates at work here. If you check out the picture you can see the large foot print of whatever animal it was. The next morning had our breakfast of donuts and fruit in bed and got ready for church (all while admiring the snow that had fallen the night before, so much for mother nature realizing it was May). We were planning on going to a 1:00 pm church in Richfield but after driving by 4 church buildings and then asking someone, we found out it was Stake Conference. We tried a few more buildings in hope and finally found one that people were walking into.....and it was the singles ward. Even when we are not here for our singles ward, we still catch another. We only stayed for Sacrament meeting and then headed home. It was such a great relaxing weekend.

Luncheon

2010-05-09T19:43:00.000-07:00

With Shanna and Royal graduating, we thought it would be fun to have a luncheon for all our families in town. We had it at our church building, and everyone brought something. Lex/Shanna and Royal/I each brought a 6 inch sub sandwich, Royal made a potato salad, dad made homemade root beer, mom made a pasta salad, and Kendra and mom and dad all made homemade ice cream. We played around while setting up and watched Crue wear off all the sugar from the candy he had eaten during graduation. It was a good turn out, with Shanna's family, my family, Royal's brother David and his family, my cousin Tamera and her family and Kyle came with some people from work. With 12 feet of sandwiches, there was enough for everyone!! After lunch I kidnapped Royal for a fun weekend.......

Graduation

2010-05-09T19:14:00.000-07:00

(Check out the awesome SUU tie!!)

Well as you can tell by the countdown timer, Royal is graduated!! It was such a great weekend. We got his cap and gown on Thursday so we would be all ready to go on Friday. Friday, I left work at 3 pm to pick up Royal from home and make it to where he was supposed to line up by 3:30 pm. We made it in perfect time. I dropped him off and went to park the car and find a good spot in the Centrum. I was saving a spot for Lex and his in-laws as well. It was a good thing that I was there early because there weren't many seats when it got started. At 430 all the graduates walked in to the sounds of Pomp and Circumstance being played by the orchestra. I think they got tired of playing because every now and again, they would speed up really fast. There were your standard graduation speeches, with the keynote speaker being US Senator Bob Bennett. Afterwards we went and got some cookies in the Sharwan Smith Center and headed home and changed and enjoyed the fact that Royal had no homework to do!! (We had also celebrated the night before by Dustin taking us to dinner at Golden Corral in St George.) We decided to make some yummy homemade pizzas (and by we, I mean Royal made some pizzas.) and watched a movie. We didn't get too crazy because Royal had to be in line the next morning by 730 am!!! But it wasn't too bad. We did the same routine of me dropping him off, finding a parking spot and then reserving seats in the Centrum, this time it was for my whole family. And everyone was there right on time, which for 800 am on a Saturday morning, I wouldn't have expected it! This ceremony was much faster because it was just the reading of names for the whole Humanities and Social Sciences department. I tried to get some good pictures (thanks to Lex and Shanna for letting me use their camera) but I must have been too excited because most of the pictures came out blurry (as seen below). Before we knew it, it was over and he was graduated!! I am so proud of him and how hard he has worked to get this degree. I am so lucky to have married such a great man!!

Fun date in a small town

2010-04-25T19:33:00.000-07:00

Last night we were trying to think of something to do for our weekly date. We wanted to do something really fun because Royal has been studying like crazy and had to work a lot this week. We were going to go star gazing at three peaks but after running some errands (putting stuff in our storage shed and looking at cars around town-we're thinking of getting a 2nd car soon) and getting back home, we were feeling totally lazy and decided to get a Redbox movie. We went to the Maverick by the bowling alley where we ran into an old friend from our first married ward. Then we decided to take advantage of the buy one get one for 25 cent blizzards at Dairy Queen. The line there was crazy but we thought it was worth it. We bought some dinner too and then headed some with our food and movie--Did You Hear About the Morgans? It was a pretty good movie and a really fun night!

This is for class...I promise!!

2010-04-25T19:25:00.000-07:00

Royal has been taking a stress and pain class this semester so we had to have pictures of him doing things that relax him. Playing the Wii is a way to do that, so we took these pictures. Love it when homework is hard stuff like this!

Some days I'm bigger than others

2010-04-25T19:16:00.000-07:00

So I'm nearly 6 months along and really just kind of starting to show. But it seems that some days I feel bigger than others. We took this picture last Sunday when I looked bigger but then this Sunday you could hardly tell I was pregnant! All well, I can still feel her kicking all the time which is the important thing. Plus its nice that I am not showing too much now because I can still wear all my clothes!

Amazing husband

2010-04-25T18:49:00.000-07:00

This morning while I was getting ready for church I thought I heard Royal making something in the kitchen but when I went in there I didn't see anything. He was just making salsa for a class thing that he has this week. But then I noticed that the oven was on and when I looked, this is what I saw baking. It was the most delicious quiche I have ever had in my life!! He had put all evidence of cooking in the dishwasher so he could surprise me. I am so lucky to have an amazing husband and that I can benefit from his wonderful cooking skills!!

Putting together the crib

2010-04-23T18:25:00.000-07:00

We got this crib when I was only 2 or so months along but now that we have a place where we know we aren't going to move for a while, Royal was anxious to get it set-up. I was trying to be a good helper, but I think Royal was much better at putting it together that I was. I will get more pictures of the baby's room when it gets more put together.

Weekend in Salt Lake

2010-04-23T17:52:00.000-07:00

For Easter weekend, we decided to go up to Salt Lake since Kyle's friend could fix the scratches on our bumper and after being apart while I was in Europe, we wanted to spend the weekend away. We left of Thursday afternoon and had to make a pit stop in Payson at Walmart because in our haste to leave, I left all my make-up! We stayed at the Hilton, which we were really excited for also because the rooms were only $50 a night! When we were looking for hotels a few weeks ago, we thought that because it was a)General conference b)Easter and c)a weekend, that nothing would be available but nope, a good deal! It seemed like others had found the same thing because there were a lot of other families staying there. We were going to switch cars with that guy that night but decided to wait until the morning. We went grocery shopping (gotta love it, we are staying at a nice hotel but are bringing all our own food to avoid eating out and spending money) and found some inventive ways to eat for a few days with nothing but a hot water heater (aka coffee machine!!). The next day we did a temple session at the SLC temple which was amazing and then walked around the Church history museum for a while. Royal's brother John picked us up from there and we went and had pizza and a movie at his house which was awesome! We were going to go swimming the night before but I was so tired that night that I crashed onto the bed and couldn't seem to get up. So that night (we waited until all the little kiddies would be in bed) we went to the indoor pool. We were surprised that it wasn't heated but had fun playing around. The next morning we had to check out but the hotel held on to our stuff because we had conference tickets! Royal is amazing and scored those to surprise me. We met up with some cousins afterward and got a fun picture. We went back to our hotel to get our stuff and our car which had been returned to its beautiful unscratched self. We went back to John's house and took him out because it was his birthday. He had us go to this really yummy Japanese place. On our way home we stopped to drop something off that we had of Lex and Shanna's and since we were right there, we had to stop at IKEA. It was a great weekend!!

This is a sculpture that my uncle did. He makes really cool stuff out of old junk. You can check out more of his stuff at http://www.timlittlesfineart.blogspot.com/

Driving in the boonies

2010-04-23T17:25:00.000-07:00

With looking at Craigslist for stuff for the baby, my sister found a really cute changing table. The lady called me back saying they still had it. Online, it said they were in Cedar City but in talking to them, Cedar City extends 25 miles outside of town!! The table looked cute and the price ($25) was too good to pass up so I decided it was worth checking out. Royal had to work so I called my mom (who also has a bigger car that it would fit in if we did buy it) to see if she wanted to go on a trip! We took Crue with us because Kendra was going grocery shopping and we thought he would like the trip! The drive actually wasn't very long but it was out there in no where. The couple we met were really cute and the changing table was great! I bought it (and was thankful my mom was there to lend her parenting expertise!!) but it wouldn't fit in the car so we had to tie it to the top, which I'm sure looked awesome!! It was just starting to get dark but we decided it would be fun to check out Old Iron Town which was 2 blocks away. We saw the beehive thing where they would make charcoal and some other ruins. From reading the signs, we learned that some of the iron from here was used in the oxen under the baptismal font of the St George Temple!! By then it was getting dark so we headed back home and of course Crue was out in the first few miles. I guess we just know how to party!!

Graduation Pictures

2010-04-23T17:16:00.000-07:00

With Royal graduating, we thought it would be fun to do some pictures. So we walked around SUU and got some really good ones. We were hoping to get some because with our camera screen being broken, we can't really see what the pictures are until we look at the memory card with our laptop!! These are some of our favorites!!

(PS I married a hottie!!)

Europe trip

2010-04-23T17:10:00.000-07:00

Here is a summary of my trip to Europe. I copied it from my work blog so if it sound like it was written for parents of teenagers............its because it is!! I will get pictures up here soon!

We made it safely to Paris after what seemed like a very long plane ride! We hit the ground running right away - touring the St Chappele and then Notre Dame, also seeing the prison where Marie Antoniette was held and the building where the first shots were fired when WW2 hit Paris. St Chappele was really cool because there was stained glass windows all across the top of the church and with the light shining through, it was so beautiful. We ate dinner at a nice little place close to the Seine River and were excited for our first chance for french food (I ate a hot dog....yeah very french. I didnt know there were so many hot dogs in Europe so I made sure to eat one in every country.....wait for the pics.). We then took the subway over to the Sacre Coure and looked out over the city at night (after walking a million steps to get to the top!)

The next day we started off by stopping off at a French bakery and getting chocolate croissants and other goodies for breakfast. We then took a train out to Versailles for the day and looked around the palace and grounds. The chateau was so large and we loved seeing the Hall of Mirrors where the Treaty of Versailles was signed. We then headed back to Paris and went to a great place for dinner. It was close to Notre Dame and the kids proceeded to eat steak, duck, and escargot among other things. They all enjoyed their meal very much! After dinner we stopped for ice cream. Then we headed on the metro to see the Arche de Triumphe and then went over to the Eiffel tower. We went to the very top and got to see the city of Paris at night! It was incredible and the kids all enjoyed the experience a ton.

Well we finally made it to Deutschland (Germany). After a delay in our train at Stuttgart, we finally arrived in Munich very late. That morning we woke up in Paris and headed over to the Louvre where we took in a couple of hours hitting some of the high points. The kids enjoyed seeing the Mona Lisa, Venus De Milo, Winged Victory, Egyptian artifacts, etc. After the Louvre we took in a quick lunch and headed back to our hostel to pick up our bags. We then took a very packed subway (carrying all our bags) to the train station, where we headed for Germany. We were able to get dinner in the train station in Stuttgart (curry hot dogs, doenner kebobs - which are basically like gyros, and sandwiches from a bakery).

Our first day in Munich started out with the usual stop to a bakery for breakfast and then we hopped on a train to Neushwanstein castle, which was about 2 hours away. As the train got closer, we got a look at the beautiful snow covered Alps. We were running around the train trying to get as many pictures as possible. We then had to get on a bus for a few minutes to take us to where we started the hike to the castles. There is a smaller castle that we stopped at first and then Neushwanstein. Once we made it to the top, Jon took us to a place where we had a great view of the castle as well as less people around. We walked back down and stopped to grab some food before heading back to Munich. That night we went to eat at an authentic German restaurant (good thing Jon speaks German!) and tasted fine German cuisine such as brats and sauerkraut.

The next day we took the metro and another bus to the town of Dachau where we went to the concentration camp of Dachau, which we learned was the first concentration camp and a training for all the others. We started in the main building and walked thru where the prisoners were first taken and showered. In another building we saw examples of their beds and bathrooms. Outside the camp we saw the crematorium which was a very humbling experience. The students were very respectful and for those in our group that were Jewish, it was very close to home. We ended with watching a movie about the camp and headed back into Munich. We went back to where we had dinner the night before by the Glockenspiel. We heard the bells ringing but never saw the animated characters move. We finished the evening off by grabbing our packs back at the hostel and then heading to the train station to catch our overnight train. Let me tell you - that was quite an experience. We had two sleepers, each with 6 beds crammed into fairly tight quarters. One sleeper for the girls, one for the guys. That was an eventful night of sleep (or in some cases - lack thereof)! Luckily, our first day in Venice has been fairly easy and so we were able to relax and catch up on some sleep. We did manage to ride up and down the grand canal in a boat and stop and walk on the Rialto bridge. We did some perusing of the shops (stocked with locally blown glass items and other items) and stopped to get some gelato, which the kids all loved! That night we were able to get some real Italian pizza at a place just off the main square. It was fun to see Venice in the boat at night.

The next day was a beautiful day in Venice (minus the rain) and we started by taking a boat through the Grand Canal down to San Marco's Square. We walked around down there and went inside Saint Mark's Basilica. We had the opportunity to peruse some shops and the kids have enjoyed looking at and buying some of the many blown glass items they have there.
We got on a train in the afternoon and headed for Rome. We arrived in the evening, ate some dinner in the terminal and then got on the Metro to our hostel. We settled in that evening and decided to just call it a night so that everyone could get a good night of sleep.

We woke up and headed for the metro station after getting some breakfast. We were going to walk over to the Vatican to spend the day there but after receiving news that the metro could be shut down on Wednesday due to a strike, we decided to visit the things that were farther away from us while we had use of the metro. So, we went to the Colosseum first and walked around inside. The kids all enjoyed this very much. We ate lunch in a cafe with a great view of the Colosseum. We then walked through the different ruins on Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum. We then walked through the streets of Rome down to the Pantheon (stopping for gelato on the way). We toured the Patheon and then walked over to Piazza Navona (a square where people are hanging out, selling things, and painters make drawings). A couple of the students had their faces drawn by a local artist in characterture form. We then walked back to the Pantheon and ate dinner in a restaurant right in front of the Pantheon! After dinner, we walked over the the Trevi Fountains (where we each threw in a coin for luck and the promise that we will return to Rome) and then walked from there to the Spanish Steps, which is a beautiful set of stairs where people hang out in Rome. It was getting late so we headed back to our hostel.

For our last day in Rome, we headed to the Vatican which was only a few blocks from our hostel! We went straight to the Sistine Chapel. It took a while to walk through to get to it, but was totally worth it! To look at the ceiling and the walls, it was amazing to picture Michelangelo painting this himself for 4 years. We then walked around to see other museums of the Vatican. We finally headed outside to go to St Peter's Basilica, described one of the most beautiful churches. Once we made it through the long lines of security, we were free to wonder around where we saw St Peter's tomb and the beauty inside. It was truly stunning. We left and got our biggest gelato yet at a place that was between the Vatican and our hostel. We were pretty tired so we headed back to our hostel and later on, some people when shopping in the neighborhood and we ate dinner at a cafe just next to our hostel. We knew we had to be up early the next morning so we got everything packed up and ready to go.

We got up early and had to take the metro to the train station and a train to the airport. We went through security with no problems and had just enough time to get breakfast before we boarded our plane (which consisted of taking another bus to our plane). The ride was 9 hours long but wasn't too bad because we could sleep or watch TV or movies on the small screens on the back of each seat. Once we arrived in Philadelphia we had to go through customs and re check all of our bags in security. It was exciting to be back in a place where people spoke English and we had some dinner of Japanese food! Once we got to Las Vegas, we collected our bags, got the van and drove back to Cedar with most of the students falling asleep after a long day of traveling

Baby on the Way

2010-04-08T22:27:00.000-07:00

So as you can tell by the timer, we are expecting our first!! This is really exciting and we just found out on April 1st that she is going to be a girl. We are naming her Dixie Grace in honor of our grandmas. Royal's grandma is from the south (Georgia) and my grandma's name is Grace. Everything has been going well so far and her due date is August 24. We did tell our family at 6 weeks to have as many prayers as possible that all would go well with this pregnancy since the first one last year didn't. Thanks to everyone for those prayers and we are excited for our new addition. We even went and got some pink and brown John Deere fabric so that I can learn how to make a baby blanket (any help/instruction would be appreciated!!)

Colbie Calliat Concert

2010-04-08T22:20:00.000-07:00

We found out Colbie Calliat was coming to St George and thought that it would be really fun to go so I got a group of kids from my school who wanted to go as well and we ended up being the supervision for 8 kids. It was really funny because most of them were girls. Royal and one male student were the only boys. The show opened with one of her band members singing and he was amazing. There was also another part where she had the stage manager sing. At first he said no and he looked small and not like a stage performer, but he had the biggest, most amazing voice. Everyone was on their feet cheering for him. She did all our favorite songs for her encore, so we were singing out loud when we left. We went to get dinner (at 1030 at night!) at Dairy Queen afterwards because we were hungry. We got back to Cedar around 1130 pm. I really want to get more of her music now!

Dance Dance Dance

2010-04-08T22:02:00.000-07:00

MY HERO!!!

So even though we have a few things stacked against us............

1) we are white and therefore cannot dance and

2) are married and therefore probably shunned from Institute dances,

.............we still went to a few dances in a short period of time.

The first one we went to was a Superhero Dance. We wore our Mormon Dude and Mormon Chick shirts and made our own capes. We competed in the couples category for prizes but a cool looking Mario and Princess Peach beat us out. It was so much fun!!

The second was a formal Valentines Dance that's actually for married wards. Thanks to my mom reminding me, I found an old dress that actually fit (minus the fact it was a few inches too short) and we headed out and had so much fun. This is the 3rd year we have gone to this dance and will continue to go every year. Its fun to have a dance where everyone is dancing because everyone has a date! Although this is the only church dance that I have been to where there was baby-sitting! We didnt have that growing up! hehe
This is our awkward, first date picture. This is what we would have looked like had we met in high school or something. Gotta love Royal's tie sticking out!!

An actual picture! It really was like High School since we are at my parents house and my mom is the one taking the pictures!! Love it!

Globetrotters Game

2010-04-08T21:58:00.000-07:00

While Royal was in class, I went with my school to a Globetrotters game at the SUU Centrum. They played the Washington Generals and even though it was definitely geared towards the younger crowd, it was still fun!

Big Blue's First Accident

2010-04-08T21:46:00.000-07:00

So we had our first accident (kinda) with Big Blue. We were driving one of my students to St George at 630 am and just as we started down the steepest part of the trip, we hit some ice, did a full 360 while sliding across the road and this is where we stopped. Heavenly Father must have been looking out for us because we were a few feet from hitting rocks on one side or if we had been 10 or more feet down the road, we would have been in a ditch. We went off the road at the perfect place and no one was hurt. We just decided there was nothing we could do cuz we were so stuck so we made it a good situation. Apparently we were one of many on the side of road.

We had a few Highway Patrol stop and one was really confused I guess because when I told him that we had help coming from Cedar City, he said that wasn't fast enough and we needed someone to come from St George. When we worked out the milage, we were defineitly closer to Cedar City!! A big HUGE THANK YOU to my dad (who had just fallen into bed after a long night of having Lex pull him out of the snow cuz he got stuck too) came to our rescue. It took a lot of digging just to get to where we could hook a tow rope on but be got it. And we got to see his new Suburban and I now will forever love that car!!

The only thing that Big Blue suffered were scratches all over the bumper but thanks to Kyle's mad hook-ups, we met a guy in SLC who fixed it over Easter weekend for only $100. We are so lucky!!!

Just chillin on the side of I 15!!

Ladies night in Vegas

2010-04-08T21:17:00.000-07:00

In January, all the Phelps cousins gathered together in Vegas for a fun filled weekend!! We stayed at the Orleans, which is actually a pretty cool hotel. There was a couch in the hallway where we all had our rooms and it was the general meeting spot for anything.

The first night, we went shopping in the gift shop and bought a ton of cute $10 purses and other things. Some of us went and saw a movie in the theatres at the hotel. We almost had the whole theathre to ourselves. Aunt Nanette was taking pictures of all of us sitting and the manager came and got upset and said we couldnt take pictures inside. The movie we saw was Leap Year (go figure, a chick flick). We saw this for Alvin and the Chipmunks and saw a Kodak Moment!

We shopped at the Miracle Mile shops, went to the Bellagio fountains, chocolate fountain and atrium. I don't have a ton of pictures because there were so many others taking pictures, I figured I would steal those later!!
That day we went to Wayne Brady's Lets Make A Deal at the Tropicana and go figure with how many of us there were, one of us actually won!! My cousin Holly who is about my same age first won an entertainment center thing worth $6000 but then went for the big prize at the end and won a car and trip worth $25,000. We all ran to the stage screaming and I lost my voice for the rest of the trip. It was so awesome!!

All the Phelps sisters from oldest to youngest

Then the Little sisters and our Victorias Secret bags!! We were taking so many pictures right here that people probably thought there was a celebrity around or something!!

We finished the weekend with a hot chocolate milkshake or something (my cousins would kill me for not remembering the name of the drink) from Serendipity. It was awesome!! After that, everyone headed to the airport (people had been leaving throughout the day as well-Kelci had left earlier that day after we went to the M&M and Coke factories and had lunch at Outback Steakhouse). The cool thing about the trip was that people went in different groups and I had so much fun getting to know those who I didnt know very well.

Mom, Loni and I headed back to Cedar but we stopped in Mesquite to eat dinner....and to play some slots. We had a dollar each and Loni actually got up to $8.60 but of course, we lost it all. It was really fun and late but we had a good time!!

Little Family Progressive Dinner

2010-04-08T21:00:00.000-07:00

Since the Phelp's do a family progressive dinner, we thought we would start a Little one in Cedar City since between all of us kids, there are a few different places. We started out with soup at our place, salad and Lex and Shannas (above picture), appatizers and hot chocolate at Loni's, main course of enchiladas at Kendra and Jareds and ended up at Moms and Dads for dessert and opening of secret santa presents. It was such a fun night and we were all really REALLY full!!

This is what you get when Jared has you for Secret Santa.

Royal was really excited about the tool set that he got from my dad!! I got a really pretty silver necklace from Kendra.

Fun in California

2010-04-08T20:04:00.000-07:00

A few weeks before Christmas, I got a phone call from an old friend inviting us to Palm Springs, CA for a few days. Of course we were all about that!! We left on Tuesday December 15 and drove to Fullerton, CA to visit Aaron and Shonee Smith, Royal's best friend and wife who are living there while he goes to optometry school It was so much fun to see them since its been so long. We spent that night at their house and the next morning headed to Hollywood and Chinatown.

Rather than drive to Chinatown, we took the LA metro which was fun. There was a sign in Spanish that said something about not shooting your guns in the air on New Years. Royal said that growing up in Long Beach, that you could tell it was New Years when all the guns started going off. I guess the hospitals are tired off all the bullet wounds!!

On our way back to Hollywood from Chinatown, we found out it was the Hollywood premiere of Avatar!! I hadnt really heard of it, which is funny to think now since its so popular, but we decided it would be fun to see who all would be there. Then when we were waiting in line, someone came and said if we wanted a better spot where we could take pictures and get autographs to follow him to a better spot. It turns out we were the human background and were supposed to look like screaming fans. Ironic since we couldn't even tell you at the time who was in it!! People were coming by and doing interview and we hoped they didnt talk to us!!

We did have kind of good spots and were able to see Cuba Gooding Jr (to whom Royal screamed hi to and he actually waved hi back!!--the same thing happened with Tom Arnold), Brandon Frasier, all the cast of Avatar, Danny Devito ( who is so short I almost missed him) and.......

Michelle Rodriguez!! Someone that I acutally know!! I loved her in Fast and the Furious and Blue Crush!! I got her autograph and this picture. The lighting and crowd were pretty bad so its not the best picture ever but it was so much fun!

After we got to Palm Springs, we went to the Redlands, CA temple the next day. It was a smaller temple and the celestial room was AMAZING. I love that we try to hit a temple whenever we can so that we can see different ones. Otherwise, I don't think we would have ever seen this temple.

Elvis Prestley's honeymoon home. We were driving around Palm Springs and found it via Loni's ever so helpful GPS.

The main street in Palm Springs. We loved walking down the street and going shopping. We found a cool thrift store where I got some books and Royal got some ties.

The inside of our hotel. It had 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.

There was a balcony and a grill so we BBQ'd one night. It was so cool!! It was fabulous to be sitting outside in December and it was still warm. We thought the same thing as we would go swimming every day for hours. The weather (for being just before Christmas) was wonderful!!

The view out of our balancy....can you see why we said yes to this trip??!?!?

The view of the pool from our room.

There was a cool dino thing on our way out of town so we stopped to have some fun and almost didnt make it out alive!!!!!

But thank goodness we did!!

I took a double take at this sign, we decided to get some food somewhere else!! HEHE.

It was such a fun trip and actually got us fired from our apartment manager job because when I called and told the owners that we would be gone for 3 days, they heard 10 and thought we were abandoning them. We are so grateful that we had a fun trip and got out of the worst job that we have ever had in our lives. Never has getting fired from something been such a blessing!!

Some more Christmas pictures

2010-04-08T19:56:00.000-07:00

Here are some fun pictures that we took while hanging out in the large town of Price while we were in East Carbon for Christmas. Price is the largest town by East Carbon (about 20 minutes away). This is the window of the JCPenneys they have on Main Street.
Tried to get a picture of Royal pointing to where it said College of Eastern Utah since thats where he got his associates degree. I don' t think the picture worked all that well.

Funny stuff

2010-03-03T15:02:00.000-08:00

So I tried to add more posts and for some reason it keeps saying there is an internal error (which I guess is good because normally its a user error!!)

But while I try to get that figured out, here are two funny videos that were forwarded to me today and both made me laugh. The first is a tribute to Royal's mission and pretty much describes perfectly the drive across Iowa east to west. The second is just awesome!

<a href="http://www.cmt.com/video/" target="_blank">Tom Mabe: Eavesdropping</a>

Tom Mabe: Eavesdropping