Make a Smilebox postcard

6 and 6

I am at my mom's house and thought I would try the picture thing of sixth file, sixth picture and see what I came up with. It is a picture of my dad when he was a baby, about 18 months old. Tanner looked so much like him when he was a baby, I'll find a picture later and put up of him so that you can see. I have always loved this picture of my dad. You can see the mischief in his eyes already. And that he was a big boy. When he was born my grandparents wanted to name him Danny but the Dr. refused to sign the birth certificate with that on. He could be Daniel or Dan but not Danny because he was a big boy. So he is just Dan. I always thought that was a funny story.

50 questions

Fifty Questions...
1.Do you like Blue Cheese? yes, I do
2. Have you ever smoked a cigarette? No, but I used to dream about it. . . I have always been too scared to try in case I couldn't stop.
3. Do you own a gun? No, dang it but my dad has a Lady Derringer that I think should be mine.
4. What flavor do you add to your drink at Sonic- Diet cherry limeaid
5. Do you get nervous before a doctors appointment? Yes, dang it.
6. What do you think of hot dogs? Since I have married Gary they are a staple in my diet. I like them Martha Stuart style with saurcraut with sour cream.
7. What is your favorite Christmas song? Mary Did You Know. Tutu has about five different versions on her computer and I love listening to them all.
8. What do you like to drink in the mornings? Shockingly I have been on a water kick lately, I know. Frightening. I also love cranberry juice. Cranberry grape is the best!
9. Can you do push ups? No,
10. What is your favorite Movie? I am a movie fan but I don't have one favorite.
11. What is your favorite piece of Jewelry? My wedding ring. It was my grandmother's "mother's ring" and has ten diamonds, one for each kid. Gary talked my mom out of it and bought a solitair engagement ring to go with it and I love it.
12. Favorite Hobby? Still scrapbooking. I actually sat down and did some pages this week and I still love it.
13. Do you work with people who idolize you? No, I wold be happy working with people who respect me. . . My bosses do but not my co-workers. I stir the pot too much I guess.
14. Do you have ADD? I don't think so.
15. What is the trait that you hate about your self? I am disorganized.
16. What is your middle name? Ann
17. Name 3 thoughts at this moment. My head hurts, I wish I felt better, I need to check on my kids and see what they are doing.
18. Name 3 things you bought yesterday: Nothing
19. Current worries right now. Money, getting Gary through school, being healthy
20. Current hate right now: being sick again, being fat, not having the energy to do what I want to do
21 Favorite place to be: Disneyland. At home on the couch with my girls and my hubbie, Disneyland
23. Where would you like to go? Disneyland
.24. Name 3 people who will do this? I have no idea
25- Who's answers do you want to read the most. Every one's
26. What color shirt you wearing right now? green
27. Do you like sleeping in satin sheets? No
.28. Can you whistle? no, my grandma tried to teach me but was never successful
29. Favorite color? blue and yellow
30. Would you be a pirate? of course
31. What songs do you sing in the shower? whatever silly children's song is stuck in my head at the moment. silly songs I make up about my kids
!32. Favorite girls name- Danna and Anya of course
33. favorite boys name- I think I like Melburn for my grandpa. . . I like Garrett. . . I don't know what is my favorite.
34. Whats in your pocket right now? lint
35. Last thing that made you laugh? My kids singing and dancing
36. Bed sheets as a child? blue cotton
37. Worst injury you've ever had? when I ran over myself and you will never know that story so don't even ask
38. Favorite snack. these days, carmel popcorn
39. Favorite thing to do on Sunday: sleep
40.Who is your loudest friend? Jodi
41. How many dogs do you have? None
42. Does someone have a crush on you? My hubbie
43. What is your favorite book? I am a huge book fan but I don't have a favorite.
44. What is your favorite candy? chocolate
45. What is your favorite sports team? I don't do sports
46. What songs do you want played at your funeral? Till' We Meet Again
47. What were you doing at midnight last night? Yeah! Sleeping
48. What was the fist thing you thought this morning? Someone get that kid a sippy so I can go back to sleep.
49. what is your favorite meal? Lonestar's prime rib and baked potatoe and salad with oil and vinegar
.50. Where is your happy place: On the couch with my hubbie and my kids or Disneyland.

Prayin' Kids

It seems odd that one of the biggest fights at our house is often who gets to say the prayer first. We often have two blessings on the food and have to keep track of who gets to say "night-night" prayers first. They both have the usual sweet little prayers and sometimes get sidetracked and need help getting back on track. Last night Gary was helping Anya with her "night-night" prayers but I am not sure it went exactly how he had planned.
Gary: "bless Momma and Danna"
Anya: "bless Momma and Danna"
Gary: "bless me"
Anya: "bless Daddy"
Gary: "bless Anya"
Anya: "bless me"
After it was all over we had to sit for awhile and laugh. I am not sure who is the smarter of the two here. I am often left to wonder.

Spring has Sprung

You know that spring has sprung when you can't keep clothes on the kids. Saturday was such a beautiful day that we went down to Grandma and Grandpa Reber's and watched them work in the garden. Danna can't wait until the "begtabbles" are ready to pick because she "lubs begtabbles". Anya just couldn't keep her clothes on and Danna joined her in soaking in the nice warm sun. That's how you get vitamin D, right?

Happy Birthday Grandma Lindberg

Saturday was Grandma Lindberg's birthday. She called us Friday night to remind us and said that the Emery's were taking her out to lunch so I invited us to go along. We met them and Grandpa and Grandma's favorite Chineese buffet which we love because they have lots of different shrimp dishes and Danna and Anya both love shrimp. Danna and Anya wore their Valentine's dresses for the first time because they were both too sick to enjoy Valentine's Day. They were sooooo cute. I didn't get pictures but will next time they wear them and put them on. Grandma Reber made them for them because I just didn't have the patience too when it came down to it. Our Grandma sure does take good care of us. We had an enjoyable day and loved visiting with The Emery's, Grandpa and Grandma and Mike and Kristin. We need to be better about spending time with them.

Pay it forward! round one

A friend had this on her blog and I was the first to comment so now it is my turn to have it on my blog. Sounds easy enough since I have an entire year to make a gift. I hope you guys have fun and keep it going. I also have another friend who posted this so I'll be doing it again if you miss out.

{The Rules}
Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me - something crafty or yummy, who knows?!
Winners must post this challenge on your blog, meaning that you will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift -anything!- for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!
The gift that you send to your 3 Friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember: It’s the Spirit and the Thought That Count!
When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate Linky Love! If you are not one of the Top Three Commenters on this post, you can still play along. Go ahead and start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same! SO, REMEMBER...Pay it forward!
P.S. If you are one of the first three and don't have a blog to post on I have come up with a wonderful idea. Take the next three friends that call you just to chat and Pay It Forward to them! Then challenge them to do the same :)Let's help make this a wonderful world to live in and show our friends how much we care for them :)

Don't forget to e mail me your address.

Wonderful Hubbie

My Wonderful Hubbie got me the cutest Valentine this year. He was so excited when it came that we traded Valentines on Friday, a day early. And I must admit it made my Send Out Cards Brownies pale in comparison. He got me this adorable Cow Bear and some yummie Chocolates. When I saw the bear I had to laugh. It brought back memories of him asking my mom if he could marry me and reminded me just how much he loves me. If you haven't heard it before the story goes like this. About a month after we had started dating we were already talking about getting married and my best friend, Autumn, had warned Gary that when he got around to it it had to be memorable. Someone came up with the idea of paying my mom in cows for me and it was perfect. I was in on all of this and helped to find the necessary cows, which wasn't easy. We gathered up ten cows, stuffed cows, cow cookie jar, cow pictures, cow candy and put it all in basket. Then he waited for the perfect opportunity. It came when my family was having a Jensen Family Party and my Uncle Paul's in Mesquite. Gary came with me to meet everyone and after dinner presented my mom with the basket filled with ten cows and asked if he could marry me. Of course she couldn't say no and we have always had fun telling everyone that I am a ten cow wife. (Mahonna was only an eight cow wife so I beat even her!) Then he had to come up with how to ask me. We had talked about how to save money and I told him that I would love to have my Grandmother's ring with ten diamonds (one for each kid) my mom had the ring and I would be more than happy with just that. We had plans to go to St. George over Valentine's day as it was on a Sat. that year too and were going to stop at mom and dad's on the way through. I thought that Gary would ask my mom about the ring while we were there but he didn't and I was a little annoyed that he chickened out. Before we left my mom insisted that we stop on our way back to Vegas the next day. I didn't get why but I promised her we would. Then we started on to his mom's house in Bloomington. He passed the exit and I asked him what was up. He blew it off and said we were going straight to his sister Shanon's house but he missed that exit too. I was like, whatever, and went back to sleep in the back seat of the car. . . Mike was riding shotgun. Pretty soon we were sitting in front of the St. George Temple and Mike asked what we were doing there. Gary told him to sit tight for awhile that we would be back. I just figured we were going for a walk so he could prep me before meeting his crazy family. We walked for a little bit and then right in front of the Temple he dropped to one knee and pulled out a box with my Grandmother's ring and a beautiful diamond solitair and asked me to marry him. I was amazed and a couple little old ladies walking by were tickled and stayed for the show. Where did you get that ring!?! and Where did you get that ring!?! It seems my brother had delivered my grandmother's ring to Vegas and Gary had picked out a solitair to go with it. Everyone was in on it except me. I am so clueless but of course said YES! and loved the whole thing. See, I really do have a wonderful Hubbie and I love him very much!!!!

Anya's Second Birthday

It is hard to imagine that two years have passed since this beautiful one entered our lives. She is a spitfire, wonderful, sweet, smart, demading, stubborn, humorous, baby girl. She loves singing, dancing, reading, snuggling. My favorite times are early in the morning when she wakes up and calls for me in her sweet little voice and when I go to pick her up she says, "I oldju" and snuggles down into my chest like she did when she was a tiny baby. For the first several months she was always freezing and couldn't sleep unless she was laying on top of me. My mom gave me a hard time the first couple of weeks after Anya was born because all of a sudden I would burst into tears. Even now I tear up just thinking about it. I was just so grateful, still am, that she was here, and healthy and beautiful. I sometimes find myself hurrying through life and taking time away from my girls doing things I think I should do instead of just enjoying them. I constantly repent of that because I am and will always be so grateful to be a mom and to be a mom of my two beautiful girls. And with that I am going to go watch a movie with my babies. I will have to tell you about Danna thinking Anya is crazy later. Remind me. . . it is that good.

Wonderful Weekend

This weekend was a lot of fun. Friday afternoon I left school, right on time, of course and found my wonderful hubbie and two beautiful girls waiting for me in the monster van out back. Gary had picked up the girls from the sitter and decided to suprise me. It was a wonderful suprise. We decided to make an afternoon of it even though Danna was dressed in her jammie top and sweat bottoms. (I know, mortal sin Autumn. I am teaching her to dress in jammies.) We all loaded into my car and went to run errands, shop for food, and go to dinner. Yeah Friday! After that I sent the girls and Gary home in my car and took the monster van to run another errand at Wal-mart. When I got home we had ice cream and watched a new movie. The Astronaut Farmer. I really enjoyed it.
Saturday was my dad's birthday. He was talking out in front of our house so I took the girls out (naked mind you) to wish him a happy birthday. "appy birfday gampa" Who could resist that. We spend the day cleaning, organizing, and crafting with the girls helping all the way. Then we got ready for Tanner's baptism. Danna was so excited for "Tanner's tism" and was excited to see him go underwater and say Congratulations Tanner! She talked all evening about her daddy baptising her when she gets to be eight and getting to wear a white dress again. I hope they change the rules again because now they make them all wear the white jumpsuits and I want to make them white dresses. I have been planning it since Dal was born 18 years ago! Can you hear Gary laughing at me in the background.
Sunday we survived church and yes that is exactly what it was. Both girls had nuclear meltdowns when Gary went up to help bless the sacrament. So, I took them out in the foyer. Gary came out to help after the sacrament was over but by then there were a lot of frustrated mom's and dad's out there. We never did make it back in sacrament meeting. Oh well, we'll try again next week. Sunday afternoon we had dinner at our house and celebrated Grandpa's birthday with chocolate cake with bright blue frosting. Maybe someday the blue will wash off their faces. Next time we are not sending grandma for the cake.

8 years ago

I have been thinking a lot lately about what I was doing 8 years ago and where my life was. I had just sworn off men, again, after getting my heart broken, again. I had just spent 40 days reading the Book of Mormon straight through and had a great experience with that. I was just about to meet a man I thought would sweep me off my feet only to land in the ditch, again. And I was thinking a lot of where I was in my life and what I wanted. It is easy for me to remember in detail things from that time in my life because that is when Tanner was born. I was so excited to be an aunt and that my brother and Jenny had a healthy baby boy. I was so excited to meet him and my excitement just continued after I did. When things in my life weren't going how I wanted them to go I was so excited to have Tanner in my life that it was okay. I read stories about Sheri Dew and her nephew Tanner and I knew that I wanted to be that kind of aunt to my Tanner and all the other neices and nephews to follow. Tanner has always been a special boy to me. He is full of smiles and adventure. He loves his cousins and his brother and sister and is such a big help with them all. I remember right after we got Danna we were at mom's house and she was asleep in my room in the basement. I had a baby monitor set up so I could hear her from upstairs. Tanner was with me when she woke up and he rushed to the monitor and picked it up like a radio and said, "Don't worry sweet girl, we're coming to get you." I almost cried. I remember for months he would say, "I love that girl." And he has never been scared to show it. Now he is eight years old and he has big boy adventures to attend to but he still takes time to show his love. Today I asked him to take Danna to primary for me and off they went, hand in hand. I wish I had the picture to share. I hope he knows how much we love him and how proud we are of him and his decision to be baptised. We are looking forward to next Sat. to share that special day with him. Love you Tann!


My night in shining armor. I loved this phase!


Tanner relaxing after cleaning up around the girls' house Dec. 2005

Prayers Please

I have so much to blog and don't have time right now. I just wanted to quickly ask for prayers on behalf on one of my students. Amazingly after 18 years teaching this is the first time I have ever had one of my students seriously injured. His name is Hunter Thurston and he fell off the back of a moving vehicle on Thursday evening and was life flighted to Vegas. They have put him in a drug induced coma and are hoping that the swelling goes down in his brain. A blog has been set up at HunterThurston1.blogspot.com if you want to follow his progress.

Big Girl Danna

Sunday, January 4th was Danna's first day of Primary. She was a very good girl. She didn't want to go when Mama took her but decided she could do it when Grandma took her. She liked going to class and singing the songs. She is getting to be a very big girl and we are very proud of her.

New Year Resolution

So, My New Year Resolution was going to be to write something on my blog every Monday so I could keep track of the things that happen this year and keep better in touch with my family and friends. Notice that today is Monday, not Sunday so I am rewriting my resolution already. My New Year Resolution is that I am going to do what I can, when I can and NOT BEAT MYSELF UP ABOUT WHAT I DON'T GET DONE. That's it. . . That's all. If I can do that I will feel very proud of myself at the end of this year.