Food Storage Goals

I have been wanting to get more food storage and decided to make it a goal this year after I ran across http://funwithfoodstorage.net/. I have looked through it and it a great site with some great contributors! They have tons of ideas and information all in one place! Check it out if you want to get more prepared!

Has It Been That Long

Here are 2 random videos I meant to put on my last post...trying to catch up as I use this as my journal.

Here she is playing with the gingerbread house candy (which has still yet to be completed)

Eating her blue sucker....

Let's start with Shanes birthday. I suprised him like I never have before this year. He got this incredibly snoopy gene and he always knows what he is getting. I decided this year it was going to be a suprise. The first step was paying for it in cash and the second was not letting him know what I really got. There was a remote control car at Costco that he wanted so we went to 5300 S to pick it up, since we couldn't go to his Costco. We got there and the car was about 4x the size I expected. Well, we bought it and as a second though grabbed a bag of swedish fish. We wrapped the fish at my mom's and when he came to pick me up I told him, it was his present. All week long I talked it up and told him we couldn't wait to give it to him. The car was in my parents garage. Well, his birthday came and he opened his fish and let's just say he was pretty disappointed. He kept saying he couldn't believe I talked up a bag of fish. I wasn't going to tell him he had another gist and suprise him that night but he was so disappointed he would have been upset all day. We headed to my mom's for the Christmas Party that night and he was snooping in the garage. I told him where it was and he opened the box and looked at me and said, "You didn't!" Boy was it fun to trick him.

We also attended 2 work parties this month. Costco had theirs at Noah's in Sandy and it was a regular teen party and we did't win a prize and the food was cold. atleast there was still food I guess. The Alpine party was the following weekend and it was a lot of fun. We got dumped on with snow that day but decided to try and make it to Layton anyway. Shane's mom came out to watch Phia and it was nice to get away. They had delicious food! They had salmon and some kind of beef, fruit, mashed potatoes, veggies, a delicious drink, salad but the dessert was disappointing, kinda watered down banana cream pie. They had Nancy Hanson perforn and she brought Aaron Ashton on the violin and the highlight of the night was the bass player Rob Honey who plays with the group Enoch Train. He played a funny song from his CD titled Man Songs called "We Can Talk About Feeling, But Leave On The Game." It was great fun!

2008 Review

What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before? Joined Facebook, learned how to give myself shots for my MS, sewed an advent calendar

Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I didn't really make any resolutions for last year but am planning on making some this year.

Did anyone close to you give birth? Nope, all the family babies were born the end of last year

Did anyone close to you die? No

What countries did you visit? None at all!

What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008? More scrapbooking time, less unexpected expenses

What date from 2007 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? The day I found out I had MS. The day we found out Phia had blounts. Election day.

What was your biggest achievement of the year? I completed 20 of my 56 projects on my project list but I also gave myself a shot for the first time.

What was your biggest failure? Not finishing the Book of Mormon as we had planned as a couple.

Did you suffer illness or injury?! Just being diagnosed with MS.

What was the best thing you bought? Hmmmm.a digital camera after I dropped my old one.

Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Politicians.

Where did most of your money go? Unexpected expenses, various MRI's, medical bills

What did you get really, really, really excited about? Delphia starting to walk and just do all the cute growing up things!

Compared to this time last year, are you: much happier, richer, nicer? Happier yes and hopefully nicer. Definitely not richer financially. but richer in blessings.

What do you wish you'd done more of? Scrapbook, attended the temple

What do you wish you'd done less of? Worry about things that don't matter in the long haul!

How did you spend Christmas? With all sorts of family!

Did you fall in love in 2008? Of course!

What was your favorite TV program? Good Things Utah, Studio 5, Next Food Network Star and Extreme Home Makeovers.

Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year. No.

What was the best book you read this year? Anita Stanisfield new series and Fablehaven

What did you want and get? a diagnosis of MS after wondering what was going on, a calling in the ward, a healthy little girl

What were your favorite films of this year? Not a movie watcher I guess because I can't think of one.....

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? 27, I spent the day with my mom and the weekend with Shane and Phia.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Not worrying so much.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008. Comfortable and tennis shoes after running around after my girl!

What kept you sane? TSpending time with my mom and sister, blogging and baking!

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin

What political issue stirred you the most? All of it. I found it very intriguing but was glad when it was over.

Who did you miss? My grandma and my brother

Who was the best new person (people) you met? Oh boy! Ladies on my street have been so much fun to get to know now that I am a SAHM.

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008. Blessings come from paying tithing. Life is really what you make of it and that there are a million different ways to deal with the same thing and a lot depends on how you choose to handle it.

What are you most excited for in 2009? Going to Nauvoo in the spring, new Costco opening and Shane possibly getting a supervisor position

What are you least excited for in 2009? Phia having surgery on her legs even though in the end it needs to be done.

Better Post Now Before It Turns Into a Novel

Better Post Now Before It Turns Into a Novel

I always plan on getting things done way before Christmas but then never seem to get around to it! The last couple weeks have been full of busyness and it only seems to continue! I have been really slack in the photo department and need to put my battery in the charger for Christmas morning and Christmas Eve!

Delphia loves to look at her scrapbooks and she does look at them a little but mostly loves to turn the pages and occasionally lay on it and look at it.

We had bought a gingerbread house and were planning on decorating it Sunday evening but it never got done because Phia was tired and not in a very good mood. She managed to tear open a candy pack and spill across the floor. We haven't found a minute to finish our house so it sits on the ledge all put together but without any decoration. Maybe it will have to be our New Years house eh?

Here's a few Phia funnies from the last couple weeks:

1) Shane and I were headed somewhere with Phia and she hadn't pooped all day so when we got to the first stop I turned around and asked her if she pooped and she put her hands on her chest and said, "Meh?" It cracked us up!

2) Shanes mom watched her last Friday while we went to the Alpine party in Layton. Earlier in the week I had asked her if she was going to be good for Grandma Freeman. She grinned so I asked her if she had something up her sleeve and she pointed to her sleeve and repeated the word.

3) My mom was telling me how irritated she was over something one morning while we were over and I looked at Phia and told her Grandma was really irritated. Phia said, "Ear" and pointed to her ear. Smart girl!

4) One night we were waiting for Shane to get home and I thought I had heard the garage door open so I told Phia daddy was home. She got all excited and headed for the door. When I opened it he wasn't there and she was pretty upset.

5) This morning I was wrapping all the presents and she was really good playing with cousin Emma's gift for quite awhile. After she was sick of that she wanted her blocks we got her for Christmas so I opened them up and let her have at it. Boy did she love them. She sat on the floor and played with them for 45 minutes and only stopped because it was the last thing I had to wrap.

6) She loves the advent calendar and thinks she gets a piece of candy everytime she sees it. We generally pull her candy up so she can grab it and she is so delighted when she gets to pull it out. The other day she got Smarties and Shane set her on the couch and was opening them for her and she spread her legs out and patted between them on the couch so he knew where to put them. Anoother day she got swedish fish and then I let her pull Shane mini candy bar out. I told her she had to give one to dad because she thought they were both hers. She very willingly dropped the swedish fish and Shane had to swipe his candy bar later on.

7) We stopped at Maverick to get gas one night and Phia had been asleep about 30 minutes and Shane shut the car off and Phia woke up, pointed at the window and said, "man, man, man" There were snowmen in the window and that's what she calls them. If you ask her to say snow she will say man.

8) We gave her a sucker on the way home in the car and she ate it and then started to cry because her hands were sticky. Shane handed her a wipe and she wiped her hands and face and was happy again.

Other interesting things she has started doing:

1) Loves playing in water of any sort.

2) If you ask her what a cow says she will moo.

3) She walks a lot but her preferred method of movement is still crawling.

4) She knows where her tongue, belly button, ear, toes, arm, and hands are. She knows where other peoples nose and eyes are but she has yet to point to her own.

5) She has discovered her nostrils.

6) She will only walk to you if you hold your hands out to her. If you don't she will put her hands out showing you thats what she wants you to do.

7) She is pretty steady on her feet but loves to stand and fall and have people catch her.

This was the result of the sucker in her advent calendar. What a sticky mess but boy did she have a good old time. She had to show me her tongue and her blue mouth. And of course she didn't just eat it, she passed it from hand to hand, set it on the table and put it in her hair. What a girl!

I had a big long post here and Xanga went down and I lost all of it. Next time I post, hopefully tomorrow I will write about work parties, family parties, Shanes birthday, fevers and diarrhea, wrapping presents, colds and all that fun stuff!

What A Week!

Thanksgiving morning Phia needed a snack so I peeled her a Clementine which was completely disgusting so we decided an apple would be good. She wanted to hold the plate the apples were on so I made her sit on the carpet and then she wanted a whole piece of apple with the peel. I figured I would just watch her and make sure she chewed it really well. She did great and was a happy camper because she had her own apple piece!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Shane had to go see 2 patients that morning so we got to my mom's about 7:30 and spent the morning there. Shane got back and we played a game of Ticket to Ride which Phillip won. I think it was beginners luck even though it was his second time playing. Later we started to get dinner ready and Shane was mixing up the drink. It's a concoction of Fresca and white grape juice. My mom didn't know exactly how to make it so we were totally winging it! Shane dumped part of the mixture in a pitcher and started to mix it and it all started to foam up because air was being pushed into it! It was yummy once it was all doctered up though.

Phia wasn't real hungry at turkey time because she had bites of the cottage cheese jello and a whole roll shortly before dinner. She did really like the yams my mom made also. She isn't much of a potato girl, which is very unlike her daddy! She does love anything that is bread though which she gets from Shane.

That evening we went to Emma's first birthday which happened to fall on Thanksgiving this year. It was fun and Phia loved eating the M&M's from the Bingo card. She won a set of markers, after I made Shane let her choose and had him put the candy back that he had chose. We have so much junk at the house the last thing we needed was more candy!

We got up to go shopping the next day at 4:00 am to pick me up some dresses the had at JCPenneys. I love them! I got 3 skirts and 3 tops to match! We also went to JoAnns to get flannel for Christmas pj's for Phia and there were tons of ladies! They had been open 20 minutes when we got there and we were B87. They started at A1-A100. YIKES! Shane had to go see patients so I couldn't wait in line and was disappointed because they had the cutest owl fabric for pj's. Shane got back right before I headed to Tremonton with my dad's family and said he would head to Joannes before he went to work. Apparently he got there and the thing said 81 so he asked what letter they were on and they said B. It had been 3 hours since we were there so he lucked out. People were buying bolts of fabric and had cartfuls.

Saturday Shane was off at Costco so we decided we would go visit his family and then go see the lights at Temple Square. We stopped at Walmart on the way for some buttons and elastic for her pj's. I also got some fabric for her a dress. While we were in line I saw blue fabric with frogs and santa hats and the same fabic in pink. So, I am making pj's for us that match for Christmas Eve! I better get a move on it! We went to Shanes parents and visited for awhile and had dinner there and headed to see the lights. They were beautiful! While we were trying to park there was a fire dancer and Phia got all excited and started to say, "Pretty, pretty!" She had said it the night before when she was looking at her pj pattern. She kept pointing and saying pretty over and over. It was pretty cute!

We stopped at Maverick for hot chocolate which Phia enjoyed! She kept wanting sips of it all evening.

When we were at Shanes parents we kept asking if she was ready to go see the lights and she would look up and point at the light in the living room.

We got home from Temple Square about 10:45 that evening and Phia was out in her carseat! I got out and heard a beeping sound. Shane asked what it was and I told him I didn't know so he went in the house to check while I sat with Phia. He went in and found our CO2 alarm going off. We decided it was just the battery and proceeded to change her and get her in her pj's. I was reading the back of the alarm and it said to call 911 if it went off. I told Shane and he said he would call. I went in to rock Phia and Shane called and they told us to get out of the house. We went outside and sat in the car because it was pretty cold. Phia was still out like a light. A fire truck pulls up and then a Sherriff and an ambulance. They had their spotlights on and Shane had gone in with them to check. They were getting readings and told us we could stay but he wouldn't if he were us. So we called my mom and asked her if we could come spend the night. Shane headed in to pack stuff up and Phia contined to sleep! We got to my mom's about 1:30 Sunday morning and headed to bed. We spent Sunday with them becuase we weren't going to call anyone to out until Monday. Shane went and saw his patients on Monday and the called Neerings. They said they could come out between 10 and noon. Shane ran out to our house and they were waiting but they didn't get any readings anywhere in the house and were thinking maybe the firemen didn't know how to use their machine. Shane came back and went to Costco and we headed home that night.

Yesterday Phia had her 15 month appointment with Dr Erickson. She weighs 21.08 lbs, she put on a pound from her 12 month. She is 28.5 inches and grew almost 1 1/2 inches and her head stayed the same size. She usually doesn't cry until they have given her shots but she immediately started to cry when we layed her on the table and continued to cry the whole time the MA was in the room off and on.

When we were at the MD I was telling him she wasn't walking. She was walking and then starting on Thanksgiving she wouldn't walk. You would put her down and she would lean back or sit. He wasn't real concerned but told us if we were that there were things they could do and just to give him a call. Today she just starts walking when she need to get somewhere and she just goes! I guess she just has to want to do it herself!

She had fun playing in her chair at Grandma's. My mom has gotten puzzles out and we have had fun working on them. On Monday we got one out and Phia wanted up. She turned around and saw the puzzle and said, "WOW!"

We went birthday shopping for Shane and we can't wait to give him his present on Monday.

This morning Shane had to see patients and then had the day off. He is usually home by 10:30. He called from the office at 11 and said he was just leaving. By 12 he wasn't home and then the phone rang. He had gotten a flat tire on the freeway and it blew the sidewall out and then after he put the spare on the car overheated so he stopped to let it cool. I guess if it's not one thing it's another! Luckily he got his patients covered for tomorrow. His mom is going to follow us up in the morning and then we will just hang out at my mom's till the car is fixed. We were planning on getting a ton of stuff done and Christmas stuff put up but it took almost until 4:30 to get everything worked out for tomorrow. All I can say is that it's a good thing days like this are rare!

Phia loved her mac & cheese at lunch and enjoyed feeding herself even though she had a hard time getting it on the spoon. She didn't want any help so we let her do most of it herself. I stood on the chair to get a picture and bonked my head on the light so she was looking at the swinging light.

Shane and I decided to get Phia a cat for Christmas. The cat is actually one that Shanes mom found and has had since late June. We are excited and I am excited to have a pet around again!

We got tickets to the temple open house in Draper for February 23rd at 4:40. I am really excited to go! I thught it was weird though because on the site it says that you meet at a church and watch a movie and you the are bused to the temple and bused back for light refreshments and to ask further questions. Kind of different from other open houses I have been to.

Last night we stopped at the library to get some books and Phia was out but she still helped Shane pull books off the kid shelves while he tried to keep up with putting them back. We got home and she was asleep, in a deep sleep. I held her while Shane put stuff away in her room. When he opened the drawer to put her books away she was wide away and started saying book so we read 2 books and then she started crying when she had to get in bed.

Last Friday she fell down my mom's stairs and scraped her littlr nose up but within minutes she was back to the stairs going up and down. It's only the second time she has fallen and the first time it was only down a couple stairs and she caught herself. Today she has been silly and is acting afraid of the stairs. She will go down 1 step and then fuss and head back up and then attempt going down again.

Christmas stuff that is put up so far.....

What Have You Done

Here is a list of things to do. Those ones in bold are the ones I have done. Just a little about me to share:

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check [not on purpose]
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

Girl of Few Words...

This is my favorite picture to date of my Phia girl! Love her to pieces!

Last week we had waffles for dinner and she let us feed her 3/4 of one before she decided that she wanted to feed it to herself. We gave her a fork and the plate and let her have at it. She tried for quite awhile to stab the waffle but didn't have success. We stabbed it for her but she wanted to do it herself. I guess she finally decided that the only way she was going to be able to feed herself was eating it right off the plate and going utensilis! She was all sticky but she was happy so we weren't going to stop her. We were laughing to hard and were actually probably encouraging her!

She loves to play on furniture and any kind of furniture at that! She crawls from one of our bed to the other and steps right off the edge (you really have to watch her!) She loves to plat in her rocking chair and is getting to be quite the dare devil. She will stand up and rock and is so proud of herself. She really has to concentrate as you can tell by her tongue hanging out of her mouth!

She is so wiggly it is hard to get a good picture of her. She goes from sitting to standing to laying and then to hanging over dofferent sides of the chair! busy, busy!

She has known where her belly button is for quite some time but come to find out she knows some other body parts also. I just thought I'd ask her if she knew where a few things where last week and the one that surprised me the most was that she knew where her ear was. I asked where her ear was and she pointed to it and said, "Ea" I was amazed as the only reference she has really had to her ears is to stop digging in them. She also knows where her toes, nose, teeth, tongue, hands and hair are.

She is still my little book bee! She loves books and loves to look at them and pretend to read them. She really likes books that have flaps to lift or textures that she can touch. My mom just picked up two that light up and she really liked those also.

Once again she was doing gymnastics on the couch. She knows how to get off the couch but I am always worried she is going to jump off! What goes better together than gymnastics and reading!

She liked this book because it was touch and feel but the story was kinda dumb.

I whipped this crayon roll up during her nap today and it was really fun and simple! So much easier than having to put crayons back in a box. I think I should have made the spaces bigger because her crayons are jumbo crayons.

I also ran across this wall hanging today and found I have the scraps to make it so on the list of projects it goes. It's off http://www.allpeoplequilt.com/.

Phia has started saying more words. She has said a few off and on lately. Last week I was bathing her and she pointed at the wall and said "clock" and I was amazed she knew what it was. I asked her to say it a couple more times. She then the next day woke from her nap and was pointing at her dresser going, "uh,uh,uh" and I knew she wanted the clock but I told her I didn't know what she wanted. I was wondering if she would put a name to it. Sure enough she pointed again and said "clock". Some other words she can say are: bread, bear, apple "ap", happy "app with a little y on the end", ear "ea", please she signs this and thank you along with milk, cat, dog, pig and pen. She will try to imitate other things that you say and quite often she says okay and what soundslike, "What did you say?" She is a smart little thing, almost too smart!

Phia loves animals and we are actually thinking about getting her a cat for Christmas. Everytime she sees an animal she has the funniest reaction! There were some dogs on the Today show this morning doing tricks and I had to video her. She gets so excited. She is groowling and hitting her leg which is the sign for dog.

Tonight I was making dinner and I got out her alphabet magnets for her to play with. She was tired and fussy but had fun until it was time to pick up. I asked her to pick them up and I was helping her and she picked up a few within her reach and then stopped. I asked her to pick some more up and she just bent over and reached as far as she could and looked at me as if to tell me she couldn't reach. I told her to crawl over to them and she did and picked up one and then threw the other. It took awhile to get them picked up.

Last week we picking up lids that she had dumped out and a couple had fuzzies/hair on them and I tapped it on the ground and blew it off and so then she had to do the same to every lid she picked up.

She loves to give kisses and it cracks us up. She likes to give them right on the lips. Well she is awfully slobbery and so last week she was giving me kisses and I wiped the slobber off my face and she saw me. Next thing I know she kisses me and then wipes my face off!

Last Thursday I went to a tax/payroll class at the Larry H Miller campus so I can keep my dad's books and do payroll. Shane took the day off and watched Phia. It was nice to get out of the house and socialize but I sure missed my girl!

Tomorrow I need to make pumpkin cake, magic bars, a jello salad and get a dip tray ready. I might get ambitious and make bread also. Busy day and Shane works late so hopefully Phia is in a good mood! I am going to Tremonton with my parents on Friday. Shane has to work but my dads family is having a Thanksgiving get together so I decided to go.

She has her 15 month appointment next week. I think she is growing like a weed and she is a wild liittle thing. She has 12 teeth and is just thinning right out. She loves bread and apples and really enjoyed part of an Eggnog Fat Boy last night at Grandmas.