Brent's Talk

Brent gave a great talk on Sunday... He of course didn't do it quite word for word but he did a great job! Click here to read it!

Happy Birthday!

Of course we're having Mariska's birthday party while we're in Utah, but we still celebrated yesterday! She had a great day. At church they brought her into primary to sing the happy birthday song to her, she was having a great time walking around the room, until the chorister held her up at the front and the whole room started singing, then she just burst out crying... it was pretty funny actually. Then it was home for a late nap and then when she woke up she came down to her new kitchen! We didn't get pictures of her with her cake, she was pretty afraid of the candles after she couldn't blow them out. But she had the greatest day! She was so happy after we put her to bed we heard her just cracking up for about 20 minutes! Sorry the videos are so dark, our house is like a cave.

Just hangin' out in a box.
This was a hard picture to get... she was so "busy" with her kitchen she would hardly look at us.

Washing her hands with her soap.

today

Some interesting things that happened today... Mariska was able to go to the playground in shorts and a tee shirt. And she also fell out of her crib... she wasn't really hurt, thankfully, I just hope it's not a regular thing from now on.

Lil' update

Well thanksgiving was really nice. We went up to Plano to my aunt's house and enjoyed dinner with about all of my extended family. It was nice to see some I haven't seen in years and even meet some I've never met before! My cousin's daughter Gracyn is about 5 and had a great time showing Mariska around. And Mariska spent most of her time as the dogs shadow.

I'm doing pretty good... I'm just itching to start getting ready for our trip, practically counting down the hours. I've just about gotten all of our Christmas shopping done, I'm having a pretty hard time finding something for my brother Joseph. What do you get for a young guy that can get anything free just by smiling at the right person?! We are just so excited for our trip! And here is a quick "shout out" to my brother Nathan, who just took his LSAT test! We were thinking of you Nate... whether you ACED it or failed miserably we're really proud of you! Doing things like that always gets harder with kids... I really admire how goal oriented you are and all of your achievements.

Brent is doing well. He's pretty busy with work and getting his student's grades all ready for the end of the semester. He's also busier at work with weekly tutoring, but it's also nice because he gets paid extra for that! I'm also proud to announce that as of today, he is now our ward's Executive Secretary. Our ward hasn't had one for about 6 months, so the Bishopric are very excited and he's certainly got work ahead of him. It's a little bit overwhelming but we know we'll be blessed.

Mariska is so excited to be turning 2! She really has no idea what it means, but Brent and I get excited about it and she joins in. We are so excited to set up her gift of a little play kitchen. Earlier this week she found a play fork and plate in our room and they've been her favorite toy all week. We also got her some baby bottles that have actual "milk" and "juice" in them. This last weekend we also put up our Christmas tree... it wasn't the warm fuzzy "feel good" experience you would hope to have with your kids... Mariska hated the idea that she couldn't keep the ornaments and screamed every time one got put up on the tree. But now she loves waking up every morning and pointing out the tree and watching the lights turn on. She's also a big talker now, although I'm sure Brent and I will have to do a lot of translating while we're in Utah.

That's it for us... things are good and we can't wait to see ya'll!!

I'm It...

Ok, Amber "tagged" me on her blog so here I go... 5 things you didn't know about me. This was so hard because I'm a complete open book and have virtually no secrets from anyone so after thinking for a lot longer then I probably should have, here are my 5 things, sorry if you already know these...

1) I HATE, I mean truly deeply HATE bell peppers. Green, red, yellow... all are the nastiest vegetable I've ever tried. I keep retrying them to maybe get a feel for what everyone else enjoys, but no matter how hard I try to like them they continuously disgust me. Not only do they taste retched but they taint the flavor of everything that they touch, inevitably ruining the entire dish.
2) I'm deathly afraid of fish and swimming in natural bodies of water. I don't trust fish, they're slimy and don't blink. I'm scared of and hate the idea of swimming where I can't see what's under and around me. Of course I'm not a fan of swimming anyway, I hate being wet to the point that I resent having to shower everyday and the concept of public pools and spas gross me out. I've seen too many floating band-aids and big ol' wads of hair to think fondly of swimming pools.
3) One of my most memorable youth activities was when I was 14, we went to a show in Long Beach, CA called Pageant of the Masters... The stage would be dark and when the lights finally came on there was a life sized version of a painting or statue. They looked incredible and exactly like the real art works, but they were real people. It was so neat to see how still they all were and how exact they all looked to a painting and it was so fun when one would move.
4) When I was a freshman in high school our entire early morning seminary class ditched the class and went to an IHOP for breakfast. Our seminary teacher found out and went to the IHOP to chew us all out, but when she saw that we were all sitting together as a class she was overjoyed that we all were getting along because that was her goal as a teacher that year.
5) When I was 10, I had a brother who wet the bed. My friend Maxine and I were curious about just how much his "GoodNights" could hold... so we drank a few glasses of water and found out about half an hour later.

Any questions?

ZOO DAY

Mariska had a good time at the zoo today! She especially liked all the different monkeys and the lion that we got to see and hear roar a bunch! The picture of this monkey was neat to us because he was really active and swinging around all over the place.

more fun stuff

Just thought these were fun...

Too cute

As most of you know, my child is unbelievably adorable... Here is a side ways (sorry) video of her "Buzzing" as a bumble bee on Halloween. She's also been so funny standing on her head! I couldn't believe she did it the first time I saw it and now she does it all the time. And the other day we were all in the same room, Brent was getting ready to go some where, when Mariska says, "Where's Daddy?"... I'm thinking, 'why is she saying that, he's right there'... then suddenly she says, "There he is!!"... I laughed so hard as I realized Brent had changed shirts and she was saying "where's daddy?" as he was pulling it over his head, and she exclaimed "there he is!" once it was off his head... just like we do when she's putting a shirt on!!

SMARTY PANTS!

Today we got Brent's certification test scores back! He had to take 2 different tests and pass by August in order to get his permanent Texas teaching license. Each test was about 5 hours... and there isn't to much you can do to study for them because all of the questions are so random. Many people have to retake them multiple times. So, with no studying Brent passed both of them the first time he took them! The first test he passed with 90% and the second he passed with 91%!! We are so proud of him! Of course those scores aren't nearly good enough for Brent to feel proud, anything less then perfect just will not do... but I'M proud of him! Good job Brent!!

Library Party

Today was Mariska's first story time at the library. She's a little bit young to get the point, but she had a good time playing with markers, watching the video and "trick or treating" at the different stations. She wore a cute little dress my sister Sarah made her... no one could get over how cute it was! You can't tell from the pictures just how poofy the tutu was!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Tonight was our ward Halloween Party!! It was a lot of fun! Mariska loved running around with all of the other kids. She didn't like her costume at first, then she noticed all the attention she was getting and got pretty comfortable in it! She was a little to young for most of the games, but we had her try some. We really need to work on the concept of "turns"... then she went "trunk or treating" and got her pumpkin about 1/3 full, not bad for a first timer!

Mariska "bowling"... the pirate is actually in Brent's 5th grade class... and yes, I know the dates are wrong.

The classic Bean Bag Toss. Or for her more like the, "carefully put your hand in the hole and let go of the bean bag" game.

"Buzz buzz buzz"

There, happy now!?

I DID IT!! Thank you for being an inspiration in my life... my stove is now clean. I even took out the little trays and cleaned out from under them as well. Now you can see why I hate Amy so much too... Yay to being a "follower"!

help!

Does anyone have any advise on how to stop an almost 2 year old from ripping their diaper off in the middle of the night?! I'm tired of changing sheets!!

Mariska makes me laugh

So many people who "don't want kids" just have no idea how many laughs they are missing out on. Today was my last exam and I've gotten the ok to go back to normal life. I had to give one last urine sample... of course Mariska is in there with me and as I finish up and put my cup on the counter she gets really excited and exclaims, "Juice!"... I laughed pretty hard.

Goings on

Today was fun. We took Mariska to a cute little Mom and Pop produce store today to pick out a pumpkin. Of course she didn't do the picking out, she hasn't learned that concept yet. But she enjoyed looking at all of them. We went inside and she saw all sorts of fruits and veggies and enjoyed pointing out the ones she knew and learning the ones she didn't. Then we went to a great little place and got some frozen custard. She's strange though and seemed to enjoy the ice in our waters more than the custard. At least she's easy to please.
This week is going to be both exciting and challenging... I get to start exercising again!! It's always very hard for me to get back into a good work out routine after taking some time off, but once I do it's so great! I sleep better, I control my food cravings better and I have more energy.
This coming Saturday is also our ward Halloween party. We have Mariska's costume ordered and are really hoping she'll have a lot of fun.
On Halloween night we are going to stay home and carve our pumpkin, since Mariska is still a little small for Trick or Treating.

Mariska Being Silly

Dinner Time!

This was too cute! Mariska decided her bear was hungry.

Latest News

The last couple weeks have been pretty crazy. We're sorry we haven't gotten any pictures up for you all to see, we are going to be working on getting them up soon. We got a little side tracked... we've had a miscarriage and I've been in the hospital for a few days. I would have only had to be in the hospital for a few hours, but I lost about 1 1/2 liters of blood during my D&C. So I had to stay over night to make sure I was stable. Then after being home about 36 hours, I got a fever of 101 and had to go back and stay on IV antibiotics for 48 hours. It was bittersweet being away from home. I'm glad Brent took such good care of Mariska while I was gone. I'm home now and we're trying to get back into our usual routine. We're doing okay when it comes to the miscarriage. It was pretty hard for the first week we knew. We had been pretty excited for this pregnancy. We've had just over two weeks to deal with it and we're pretty ready to move on and try again soon. As sad and disappointing as it's been, we realize that we didn't have it nearly as hard as many parents. We are so thankful we hadn't gone any further into the pregnancy or heard or seen a heartbeat and a moving baby. We're trying to keep all of that in mind whenever we get a little upset.
That's it for us. We are planning on taking some family outings soon and we'll certainly put pictures up then! We also hope to hear from all of you!

Tissue

Hey There,

I just had to share this, because it was so sweet! Sunday morning, I REALLY hurt my lower back. I bent over to pick something up and BAM, I can't move. So I make it to the bed and start screaming for Brent to come help me... as he and Mariska come into the room I can't help but start bawling, out of pain and frustration. So I'm sitting there crying and Brent is digging through the closet for our rice bag to heat in the microwave, Mariska notices my tears and says, "Tissue", or more like "dizshew"... she takes off and comes running back with a wad of toilet paper, pulls off a few small pieces and hand them to me over and over. What a sweet helper, right? It was just too cute.
Luckily that night we had a visit from a couple in our ward and he and Brent were able to give me a blessing. I was blessed to be able to sleep and I'm still hurting pretty good today, but I can move well enough to take care of Mariska.

Pictures

Hi Everyone,

I know people want to see more pictures. We've got some things going on this week that are making it a little hard. We're going to work on getting pictures up by next weekend... I need the goal to get my mind off some things. Hope you check back soon!

Hello from down south

Hi Everyone,

Thanks for visiting! People keep asking for pictures and news from our new place... so this is a good way to make sure everyone can see anything new.

Brent is teaching at Frank Moates Elementary in Glenn Heights, TX. He is teaching 5th grade math and science. He's pretty swamped with paper work right now, but once he's plowed through it all things will go much smoother.

I am working on sticking to our grocery budget. I don't think $300 a month is unrealistic for diapers, toothpaste and all our food. We only have 3 people and none of us each outlandish portions. But even so I can't seem to stick to it. This month it looks like I've gone over by about 20 dollars... so I'm improving. I need to record all the cheapest prices at Walmart so that I know a deal on the sales when I see it and stock up. We bought our freezer for that reason. I'm also working on getting on top of our scrap booking. I haven't even started Mariska's book yet!

Mariska is the perfect child. She sleeps a lot and entertains herself very easily. Sometimes it's almost as though I'm in her way. Her favorite snack is Goldfish crackers, although we substitute with the generic Whales, she seems not to notice. She's also hooked on Barney. She almost knows all of the sounds animals make. Her favorites are the tiger, monkey and dog.

Well, I hope you all check on us every now and then and even share your thoughts.

Sites

Well we've been here for a little while. We've seen a couple of things... these are pictures from outside the 6th Floor Museum at the Dallas Book Depository where JFK was killed. This is also a picture of the new Cowboys stadium being built in Arlington.