To Journal or not to Journal

Last week we had some issues trying to find Jerika's birth certificate so we could sign her up for drivers ed.  As a result, I pulled out all of my journals from my youth (I am 100% certain the certificates were there and now they are not).  Anyway, in looking through those journals I got thinking about writing down my thoughts and what journalling really entails.  It used to be that I felt as if my scrapbooking was my journal keeping.  When my girls asked me the other day why I don't write in my journal anymore, I told them that now my blog is my journal. (FYI my friend got hers printed into a cute little book and it is amazing.)  As I have thought about that I have decided that the events in this blog only contain my REAL feelings about some things and I mostly just focus on our family events.  Then I got thinking about it a little more and realized that I really should start writing in my personal journal again.  Life isn't always as peachy keen as I make it sound in my blog and sometimes I really should get a few things off my chest without the world having access to it.  Such as my 3 a.m. rant a few posts ago, I think they would have been better if I would have just written it in a private place.  So, that is my random journal thought for the day.  Hopefully tonight I will get the trip down the river of death story posted. 

On a completely unrelated matter, I will have all of you know that I am a good person and would pretty much do ANYTHING FOR ANYONE ANYTIME!!  So those of you Janel / Sister Young haters poo poo on you!!

Just stuff

Colton

Braden

Tanner

We Love These Boys!!

Colton, Braden & Tanner

I think the person trying to make them smile, was not standing behind me.

I think they were getting tired of me!!

But don't you just want to kiss them all over the face!! They are so cute and so good!!

More Bezzants...

This is Andrea and her family, she is my sweet friend Jana's niece so it was really fun taking her pictures.

My cute friend Jennifer - this will be baby 7, she is super AMAZING!!

The Bezzants

What an amazing family!! And guess what, they let me take their big family picture. It was a lot of fun, but not the easiest job ever. Kate helped line them all up and then all I had to do was push the button on my camer. It is really hard to get the attention of all those people at once. So, I hope they liked the end result. Thanks Jennifer for sharing your family!!
Everyone ground level

Me standing on the picnic table.

Grandparents w/ grandkids (could have been better)

Siblings and spouses - some were pregnant and will be adding to the family soon.

Kate Week

Wow, what a week!! Kate and her boys came to stay at our house for a week and we had SO much fun!! She came on Saturday and we had dinner that night with her and the two Tylers. Sunday they went to church with us and we realized how much we miss them sitting by us every Sunday. After church we did our usual naps even though they were here. When we got up from our nap, she had already starting making dinner, which included her rolls (YUMMY). Sunday night we had Family Home Evening, because that is our usual day since Ray is gone on Monday nights. Monday when we got home from Jerika's voice lessons she had dinner ready for us again!! It was so nice. After dinner, we went out to our good friend Jennifers house and took pictures of her entire family. Then on Tuesday night I decided I should fix dinner for a change and then we went to zumba. Wednesday night we didn't have mutual, so we had Suzette Gee over for dinner (we all used to be in Young Womens together and I forgot how much fun those 2 are when we all get together) and then after dinner Kate colored Jerika's hair and mine too (we are both much blonder now). Thursday we went and took pictures of her kids, those boys are so cute and so much fun!! I forgot what good kids they are, some of pictures from that night are a little silly, but under the circumstances they did pretty good. Then they had to leave on Friday, I was so sad. The people at work were jokingly calling her my wife, but it was nice to have extra help and another adult to talk to all week. We have really missed them and it was so nice to spend time with them again. Now I guess it is our turn to go visit them.

Wow, I look pretty scary. But this is us together.

Most of the pictures I took of Kate during the week she had a silly look or her mouth was open. This is Kate and Suzette.

Cute, silly boys!!

International Dance Festival

Every year at BYUI they have an huge dance fesitval with dances from lots of different countries. My boss is usually in charge and this year he gave me some free tickets. So, these are the people I took with me. It was fun, be kind of went a little long for Kinlee & Tiff. There were dancers from Egypt, Mexico, Thailand, China and U.S, I think that was all. It was fun to see the different styles that each country has. And it was a fun night for all of us, we even went to dinner too.

Cierra, Jerika & Kinlee

Tiff & I
What you can't see behind us the CRAZY guy that sat next to us, who kept hitting on Kinlee while his wife was out in the lobby with his kid. That guy was NUTSO!! He kept trying to get her to go down on the floor and dance with him during intermission. COOKOO

In the day light....

I would just like to point out that I really do have some amazing neighbors, really nice people, couldn't ask for better people.  I just really dislike the animal issue.  I felt a little guilty and wanted to clear that up when it wasn't the middle of the night.

Quite possibly the worst weekend of my life.....

This weekend was crazy and I do have some pictures to post, but if I do it will be completely out of order.  So, I am going to just say that I am ready to move to someplace where there are no animals allowed!!  I live in the city limits and I am surrounded by animals.  Now, I am not an animal lover, but I am not an animal hater either.  But, as you can see I am typing this at three in the morning.  I am awake because I was coughing and I thought I would give Ray a little break and let him sleep since he has to be up at 4.  So, I came to sleep on the couch and as you can tell that isn't happening.  So, I am on the computer.  Last night we had some of the same issues so tonight I turned on my air conditioner when I went to bed, so I couldn't hear the animals, but since I came to sleep on the couch I hear everything.  I just posted the following comment on my facebook:  "Barking dogs plus quacking ducks, plus coughing mom, plus aches and pains from near death experience equals night number 2 of no sleep for me."  No sign of the rooster crowing yet, but I am sure I will be awake to hear that also. 

Those of you who really know me know I really need my sleep and you know how crazy I get when I can't sleep at night.  Ray and Jerika both took sleeping aids to help them sleep, but they make me feel so groggy the next day, so I chose not to take them.  However, I think I will feel much more groggy tomorrow after not sleeping at all.  Since the ducks moved in next door, Jerika has had to take sleeping pills almost every night, who knew ducks didn't need any sleep or maybe they sleep during the day, I don't know.  I feel quite lucky, however that we don't hear the sheep except when we are outside and the chickens are pretty quiet at night, except when there is a rooster in the bunch.  Wow, am I rambling or what?  I think tonight is one of those nights that it is a really good thing I don't personally own a gun. 

Okay, that is all I have to say because I am not feeling very nice right now.  If anyone knows of a place I can move where no animals are allowed, let me know.  At this point I would even consider moving back into apartments where they don't allow pets just so I can get some sleep.  Oh, did I mention we can't leave our windows open at night because of the noise too.

Cousin visit....

Ray's california cousins both came to visit this summer and we didn't get any pictures of Shantay while she was here. But, here is Laina and her family with the girls.

Kinlee, Jerika, Jonas, Sophia and Emma. They all got a little wet before taking the picture.

Ray and Laina. Now before you scroll down and think that I posted the next two pictures upside down, I want to tell you that my precious husband took those upside down because he thinks he is so funny. I posted them just to show everyone why I usually don't let him take any pictures.

My first trip ever to Mesa Falls and then we fed the fish.

This was one of Jerika's picture that she fixed, so I thought I would put it on.