I am sad..

I got my hair chopped off. :( I went in to get a simple trim of about 1-2 inches. The lady ended up chopping off 8 inches. :( I already miss my hair so bad. When i first went in she looked at my hair and said i should chop off 6 inches. I lost a lot of hair after my pregnancy with Tanner. A bunch has grown back. So, as a result, the bottom 6 inches of my hair is very stringy and thin. She showed me the difference. So, she told me if i cut off those 6 inches that my hair would look a lot healthier and fuller. So, i decided "FINE, i will do it".... I was very hesitant. She ended up chopping off a bit more than she said she would. The result is that i miss my hair now. Terribly.

Yup, it's true...

We are pregnant with our third. I know, i know...I told some of you we were waiting until we were done with school to have another one. Well, Shane and I changed our minds quickly and with a little help from above. We decided to pray about it...be careful what you pray for my friends. :) haha. No, i am j/k. Anyway, really one prayer did it. I think one week after that little prayer is when we conceived. Funny how that works out. Now we are pregnant with number 3. We are very excited though. If you would have asked me a few months ago i would have said, "no more for now." Anyway, i am in my 11th week. Almost done with my first trimester. aaahhh. Now, i just have to say this to make myself feel better so that you all know. I get HUGE during my pregnancies. I usually look 2-3 months further along than i am. Okay, i am serious. No jokes here. I mean, i already look 4 months along and i am only 2 1/2 months. I am not showing right now, i am just really bloated, and so i look pregnant. Sickening i know. So, as the months go on try your best to not STARE at me all the time. I feel fat enough as it is. Anyway, just wanted to get that out. Some people have noticed my floating baby so i figured i would announce it. :)
And we got rid of Bentley, our little dog. We got Bentley to help get rid of our baby urge. Well, that didn't work. When we found out we were pregnant, it was either the baby or Bentley. The baby won of course. Bentley went to a very good home though.

Our drive to Minnesota...

Well, whenever we go out of town we ALWAYS get sick. BUT i didn't think that it would hit us this time around since we were driving and hadn't been around people. Well, so far i have been right, BUT it hit us in a different way on our DRIVE to Minnesota! As soon as we got to Chicago Tanner decides to puke. Not once, not twice, not three times, but four. Now, you guys i get car sick if i don't look out the window. Turning around and reading books make me sick! I was thinking Tanner couldn't be sick with the flu. He must just have car sickness. Luckily that was the case, but we never experienced that with him before. Poor thing. That is the worst. Well, i had to climb in the back to clean up the puke, and the whole time i am gagging. I started getting very nauseated. It was freezing outside, but i NEEDED AIR, so Shane rolled down all the windows. We froze quickly, but he had to do that for me like ten times so that i wouldn't puke myself. Well, Tanner decided to puke a second time, luckily that time i was there to catch the puke in a bag. I was still gagging. Then later he puked a third and fourth time. The entire rest of the drive, which was 5 hours, i felt sooooo sick trying so hard to keep from puking myself. Luckily Tanner was fine as soon as he got out of the car. Me on the other-hand, i was so nauseated the rest of the day, as well as the whole next day. I have been fine since then, but i am definitely not looking forward to the drive on the way home and neither is Tanner. I will have to drive and let Shane clean up the vomit for a change. :) Oh, anybody have good ideas about how to help Tanner with car sickness? Sooo much for my great idea of building good memories while traveling. I mean, these are definitely memories...definitely something to remember as well as something that we will be glad is over with. Maybe when they get a bit older that is when it will be more fun. :)

Memories and soon to be memories...

I have been slacking some on writing posts lately. :) Everything is going good around this household. We are very much anxious to leave in the morning. We are headed to Minnesota, where my family lives, for Thanksgiving. I cannot wait to eat Turkey, mashed potatoes, rolls, stuffing and all the other good stuff that goes with it. Oh yum. We are excited to get out of Ohio. All i can say is that vacations for us always seem to come right at the time we need them! Thank goodness for that. And it isn't necessarily OHIO that we want to get away from...we just want to get out of our usual routine. We need a change, a little mix up. It gets tiring having the same routine everyday. After awhile it is like, oh my goodness i need a change of pace. We are excited to see my parent's and my big brother. They CANNOT WAIT to see Gavin and Tanner. It is exciting to hear how excited they are to see them. AND it is exciting to hear how excited Gavin and Tanner get when they know they are going to see them. Plus, just that feeling of being home away from our home here. It is comforting.

We have a long 11-12 hour drive ahead of us tomorrow. We bought plenty of food and snacks so that we don't have to stop and buy anything. We will just stop to pee and fill up the car. We are heading out bright and early at 5:00 a.m. It reminds me of growing up. We drove EVERYWAY when we went on vacation. We never flew. Our most popular drives were drives to San Diego, California to see my Grandma and Grandpa Bates and the drive to Quincy, Illinois to see my Grandma and Grandpa Seifert. As a kid, those rides were the best memory makers i could have had. It was fun. Our longest trip was from South Carolina to California, driving. Yup. Very long, but so fun. I look back now and i could talk someone's ear off about all the memories. Anyway, i am sorry. I am in a very memorable mood right now. A little home sick. :) I hope that we can build memories like that with our kids...traveling memories.

We will get their right around dinner time. Ohhhh the house will smell of homecooked food- lasagna and broccoli. And the house will be warm and cozy, very much unlike our 60 degree house. There will be Christmas music playing, and the lighting in the house will be perfect. I know, that is a weird thing probably to some people, but there are so many different lights in the house and the way they choose to turn on certain lights helps bring in a more cozy atmosphere. There will be Salt City candles lit and the scent of the candles is so inviting... warm, christmas smells that fill up the entire upstairs of the house. That is what i know my parent's home as. Homie, warm, comforting, and spacious. Madison, my mom and dad's dog will be there to happily greet us at the door. She jumps all over and gets so excited. Eeww, i can't wait. By the way, did i tell you i (we) am excited to go to see my family. :) jk. Unfortunately, Holly and Brion won't be there. Holly can't leave her work here for that long and Brion is in Europe, sooooo we won't have the whole family together. More food for me. :) haha.

Then the day we have to leave will be a sad one. BUT it helps me keep going knowing that a few weeks from then we will be headed to Idaho to spend Christmas with Shane's family. That is a whole other story i will talk about before we head there. :)

Aaaahhhh, life is good.

Gavin is so funny. Every evening he gets a lot of gas and toots a lot. Well, if you know me, farts make me laugh. I can't help it. They just do. It may be gross, but for some reason i get a good laugh out of one. Unless someone does it more than a few times within a few minutes, then i get grossed out. Well, that is what happened with Gavin. Sometimes when he does it i laugh...honestly i try not to laugh b/c i don't want to teach him bad manners. BUT there are times where the situation is just too funny and i can't help but laugh. For example, Gavin and Shane were having a bonding moment. Gavin said the sweetest thing, "I am going to be just like Daddy!" One second after that he toots. It was too fitting so i had to laugh. Anyway, you get the picture. Well, the the other night it was becoming too much. I was ignoring it and finally i couldn't take hearing it anymore. I said, "Gavin, if you are gonna do that then go in the other room where i don't have to hear it." He said, "But i am Gavin, i am a boy. But mom, everybody does it(toots)." He is too smart for his own good. Where did he learn that?

DIDDO on the Happy 5th

Well this post won't be nearly as good as Ashlee's was but this will be my attempt at posting something. Ash, I would just make a card with all your scrapbooking stuff, but the last time I did that, SOME people decided to question my manliness because scrapbooking is for "girls". (you know who you are people.....uh hum......Andy) So I will try posting instead.

Well let's get right to it...no reason to waste any time....they say the eyes are the window to the soul...what are these eyes telling you?

Well sorry folks that's about the only partially embarrassing one I could find. Not much I know. This girl knows how to bury all her secrets. So Ash I will just take a few minutes to say how much I love you and post a few pictures that remind me of the great times we have had.

Remember these pictures...I was at COT and missing her like crazy so I had her send some pictures of her that I could look at during the down time. I hated being away from her but these two photos helped make me feel like she wasn't that far away.

Ashlee really likes to run...and so she wanted me to be her photographer. I should have paid the entrance fee for the race...I ended up running almost as much as she did that day. Such a cutie! It was one of those "hate to see you go but I love you watch you leave" kind of things. So I would just run after her so I could watch her longer.

Well the scooter didn't last long but it was fun while we had it.

Cleveland isn't the most beautiful or safest places in the world to live...but it has been a place where I accomplished a lot of my firsts. First time to a Major League Baseball game, and NFL game. Both were awesome, but the Browns game was by FAR the more exciting game to watch.

These next two pictures were from our engagement photo album. It seems like we have been married forever, but at the same time it seems like we were getting those pictures taken such a short time ago. Time has gone by soooo fast....

Going to Cedar Pointe was the first thing we did when I got back to COT. Fortunately, Holly watched the kids for us and allowed us to reconnect for a few hours after such a LONG time being away from each other. You've got to understand...I love love love being around Ashlee. She is my better half, and I just feel at peace when she is with me. I came into this marriage with a l0t to learn and a lot of expectations that she quickly broke me of. First off, I grew up getting 3 cooked meals a day usually, and Ashlee grew up almost the opposite...they got dinner cooked but they were on their own for breakfast and lunch. So you can imagine what happened when those two worlds collided. She won...I eat a heaping bowl of cold cereal with blueberries in the morning and a PB and J sandwich for lunch. Unless there are leftovers to eat from the night before. There still is a lot to learn but we make adjustments everyday to improve our relationship. I have truly enjoyed every second of our lives together Ash (except a couple, but usually those were my fault ... except for the 2 days of heck that you caused me ... now that was all you). Thanks for everything and I look forward to another 5 years and eternities more. Love you!!

Every artist has their masterpiece...well this is as close as it gets for me...I love this picture. I took this with some coaching from Ashlee as she was telling me what settings to change here and what buttons to push there. She is absolutely GORGEOUS...always has been...and always will!!!

HaPpY 5 YeArS HuNnY...

Here are silly pictures that never made it to the blog. Normally i wouldn't put these up, but it shows a little of our personalities together. Just a little. :) When we first got our camera we took pics together and took a few of one another. Here are a couple. Shane took this of me and i can't just look normal at the camera. I always have to act like i am contemplating, have to make a funny face, or put on a diva look.

Isn't he just so cute and good looking! :) This is a picture i took of him. :)

We decided to try out the timer on our new camera so here we are! :)

Here we are again trying out the timer. :) haha.

And again. Wow, i look so bad in these pictures.

Aaaahhh, Riviera Maya together. What a good time for us to reconnect. :)

He is going to kill me for posting this picture, but I LOVE it. It shows his funny side. Always making funny faces and being dramatic. :) haha. This is when we were at Bear Lake. Taking more pics of ourselves. :)

We don't really have very many pictures of just the two of us. But i wanted to put these up even though i look like crud and shane will probably kill me for putting these up! :) I love you hunny! :)

Shane and I have been married 5 years tomorrow. Honestly, i feel like we have been married for double that. 5 years is a long time, but doesn't seem so long considering everything we've done and seen together. Shane and I were led to each other by our Heavenly Father. I know that without a doubt. We have been through hard times, trying times, sad times , difficult times, joyous times, content times, the best of times, etc. We have been through it all. I say that now and 5 years down the road i will say it again, i am sure. :) Through each of these times we have grown closer and closer. I am so blessed to have him as mine. So blessed. He has been a great source of strength for me in my life. You know, i realize i could write a novel about him and who he is. :) Simply put, he is the best. He is my favorite person in the whole world. He is my best friend. I love you hun! Happy Anniversary! :) Just a little about us...

Places we have been to together:

1. Mount Rushmore

2. Crazy Horse

3. San Diego Zoo and Sea World in California

4. Cruise through the Caribbean.

5. Resort in Riviera Maya

6. Disney World, Florida

7. Niagara Falls

8. Palmyra, New York

9. Traveled a few times from Idaho to Minnesota and from Minnesota to Ohio and back.

Things i can't forget about us...

1. Managing an 80 unit apt. complex. ugh.

2. Traveling from Idaho to Minnesota for our first Thanksgiving at my parents house and running into a blizzard. It was frightening.

3. When we found out we were pregnant with Gavin...surprise.

4. The day we got married.

5. Our first night married...i got food poisoning. yup.

6. The delivery of our first son.

7. Applying for Dental school.

8. Looking for our first home in Ohio. My mom was with us and it was such a fun trip.

9. When you cut open your foot and HOW you did it.

10. How we would fight over(playfully) who had to answer the door or the phone when we were managing. You would open the door up while i am just sitting there in the chair. You would hide behind the door when opening it and so the people couldn't see you. And it probably looked really WEIRD having a door open on its own. You punk. :) OR someone would ask you a question that you KNEW, BUT you would say to me, "I don't know...my wife does this more than me, lets ask her." That is how he got out of helping people and sneakily passing it onto me. eewwww. Double punk. :)

11. Shane's overflowing bowl of cereal every morning. He fills it the the very top, then piles on blueberries so it is actually higher than the bowl. THen when he tries eating the blueberries fall out.

12. Camping in South Dakota with my family. The winds picked up one night so bad that our tent literally flattened out with each gust of wind.

13. The way you act when you get excited or stressed out. :)

14. Our first Thanksgiving in our own home with our friends, Erik and Camille.

15. Our first kiss.

16. Our first date. My skirt completely ripped from top to bottom on the left side. Embarrassing.

17. Our second date. I fell flat on my face in the field.

18. Talking about marriage a few weeks after we met. :)

19. Your randomness.

20. Moving from Idaho to Ohio. Your wonderful idea(being sarcastic) to sell EVERYTHING...literally EVERYTHING that we owned. AND how packed we were in our little Maxima traveling from Idaho to Minnesota, and then living with my parents for 6 weeks and then traveling again from Minnesota to Ohio.

21.There are so many things, but these are just a few things i thought of right now.

Sherrie Tagged Me....

Husband TagHere are the rules: At the end of this tag, you tag 4 people and post their name, then go to their blogs and let them know they have been tagged.

What is your husbands name? Shane Alan
How long have you been married? 5 years on saturday
How long did you date? one month then got engaged and then married 2 months later. :)
How old is he? 28
Who eats sweets? We both do, but i NEVER ate them as much as i do now. I married him and he turned me into a sweets person. BUT he still eats more sweets than i do.
Who said I Love you first? Shane
Who is taller? Shane of course
Who can sing best? Shane, but i think i am catching up to him. :)
Who is smarter? Shane is definitely smarter when it comes to book smarts. :)
Who does laundry? Shane. He is wonderful about doing laundry. I do it sometimes, but he is the main laundry boy. :)
Who pays the bills? Shane. Except i pay off my own credit card. Yes, i have my own. :)
Who sleeps on the right side? When laying down, i sleep on the right side.
Who mows the lawn? Shane. I mowed the lawn all growing up, but it is easier to have shane do it. :)
Who cooks dinner? ME.
Who drives? Shane is always the driver when we're together. It is weird for me to drive with him in the car. Backseat driver.
Who's first to admit when you are wrong? Shane. He is good at that. I am working on it. :)
Who kissed who first? He went in for it, but i kissed him back. :)
Who asked who out first? Shane asked me out.
Who wears the pants? Well, we both do. We work pretty well together. One day i wear the pants and the next day he does. It is a good trade. :)

I tag whoever has not done this yet. :) Audrey. Anna J. Skye. And Ashley Jenks. :)

{Life}

Something to think about: I am reading "The Last Lecture". In it Randy Pausch just described a moment when he was a kid in football and his coach just gave him a really hard time during practice and this is how it proceeds, "When i was finally dismissed, one of the assistant coaches came over to reassure me. 'Coach Graham rode you pretty hard, didn't he?' I could barely muster a 'yeah.' 'That's a good thing,' the assistant told me. 'When you're screwing up and nobody says anything to you anymore, that means they've given up on you.' That lesson has stuck with me my whole life. When you see yourself doing something badly and nobody's bothering to tell you anymore, that's a bad place to be. You may not want to hear it, but your critics are often the ones telling you they still love you and care about you, and want to make you better."
Just thought i would share this. I really liked it and it made me ponder my life situations when i've had family always there to push me and who never gave up on me. :)

{The things my boys do and say}

Last night i was talking to Tanner and was trying to teach him how to answer when people ask him his name and his age. We worked on his age first and he eventually got it. Then i asked him, "What is your name?" He said in this deep, scary voice, "Batman"...it was hilarious. Gavin started cracking up, it made me laugh too. :) I don't know where he learned about Batman either. He has never seen a Batman show or cartoon or anything. Tanner is our little funny man. He can always make Gavin laugh, and he loves making us laugh. He doesn't have to try either, he just is funny. :)

Next thing, i think it is hilarious that Tanner knows who Barack Obama is. Anytime he see's him he says, "bock Obama". It is really cute.

We were watching a video on our television of the boys which was a recording from the camcorder. When Gavin saw himself up on the television he started cracking up so hard. I have never seen him laugh so hard in my life. It is the most hilarious thing i have seen.

I love how sweet Gavin is to me in the morning and evening. He just loves me and i love it. This morning i walked out in the front room and he was just coming down the stairs. He saw me and said so sweetly and excitedly, "Hi mommy!" Then he came over and gave me a hug and a sweet little kiss on the cheek. I hope he always loves me like that. :)

Your Inner Color is Blue

Your Personality: Your natural warmth and intuition nurtures those around you. You are accepting and always follow your heart. You in Love: Relationships are your top priority, and this includes love. You are most happy when you are serious with someone. Your Career: You need to help others in your job to feel satisfied. You would be a great nurse, psychologist, or counselor.

What's" Your Inner Color?

Crazy Eights TAG

Crazy Eights TAG
I am tagging myself b/c i feel like doing a survey. I tag Lauri, Mandi, Amanda and Alison H.

8 TV shows I LOVE to watch:
1. LOST
2. 20/20
3. Dateline
4. Dancing with the Stars
5. The Today Show
6. So You Think You Can Dance
7. Ellen
8. The View

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1. Cheesecake Factory
2. Outback Steakhouse
3. Cafe Rio
4. Applebee's
5. Texas Roadhouse
6. Olive Garden
7. Gosh, i can't think of the name. That chinese place that is soooo good.
8. Well, i obviously can't think right now, BUT Tulsa was the city of restaurants. They had everything and they were all sooooo good! This one place that was Mexican was sooooo good. I can't believe i am having such a brain fart right now!

8 Things that happened yesterday:
1. We had thunderstorms
2. Watched Television
3. I ran
4. I cleaned
5. Watched TRANSFORMERS
6. Got upset
7. Cooked dinner
8. Thought about yummy Thanksgiving food.

8 Things I am looking forward to:
1. Thankgiving and seeing my family.
2. Christmas break and seeing Shane's family.
3. Twilight movie
4. Christmas decorations, music, goodies
5. Saving money so i can buy some dang clothes
6. Next summer's vacations.
7. Tonight's coverage of the election and seeing who our next president will be.
8. When LOST starts again.

8 Things on my wish list:
1. Clothes
2. Vacation
3. shoes
4. Be a doctor or nurse
5. hhhmmm...
6. Become a REAL professional photographer
7. Have my own studio with tons of backdrops.
8. Ohhhh, to be able to decorate my house one day exactly the way i want it. :)

Halloween and the day before...

We had lots of fun raking leaves, throwing the leaves into the wagon and then pulling them to the front yard and putting them where the city can clean them up. We also made caramel apples. They helped me take the wrapper off the caramel...well, Gavin did. Tanner just ate the candy. I didn't take any pictures on Halloween day. Sad, i know. It was tons of fun though. We walked down the same street we did last year. Our street is great for trick or treating. The boys filled their pumpkins about 3/4 full of candy. They got tons and it will last until christmas or later!!! The boys loved trick or treating. We came home and Gavin poored his candy out onto the floor and sifted through it all to see what he got.
Gosh, my pictures feel so naked when i don't throw them into photoshop. Here are my straight out of the camera shots. Hope you enjoy. It is about time i post some pictures from Halloween.