This year for Halloween we went to a Trunk or Treat then back to Nicolette and Jeremy's for some Rock Band. Here's Mike shredding on the guitar:

This was taken in the dark. They're playing with glow sticks.

Mike was supposed to be a drummer.

Jordan is the bassist.

Gabs is a princess. (She'll be two tomorrow!)

That's Joshua, the freaky guy. He had a lot of fun scaring kids.
I'm the guitarist in our little band.

Baby Tag

1. Where were you when you first found out you when you found out you were pregnant? We were living in my grandparents' house. I probably found out in the bathroom.
2. Who was with you? Joshua
3. What was your first reaction? I was excited!
4. What was your husband's reaction? More excited than I was! (We had just lost one at 16 weeks a few months before so we were DYING to get pregnant again.)
5. Who was the first person you told? Joshua. Then our families.
6. Were the pregnancies planned? Yes
7. Was everyone happy for you? Yes
8. What was the sex? boy
9. Did anyone throw a shower for you? Yep. There was one at Joshua's grandma's house, one with my mom's family, and one with my dad's. That one was a combined one with my cousin's wife, Steph, but Mike was born the day before so I didn't go. My mom brought all the gifts home to me. ha ha.
10. Did you get any outfits you wouldn't use? Yep. Joshua refuses to put his son in Winnie the Pooh.
11. How much weight did you gain? 30 lbs
12. Did you get stretch marks? yes, but they've all faded a lot.
13. Did you crave anything crazy? not that I can remember.
14. Who or what got on your nerves the most? Other people's kids. ha ha. I was like what am I doing?!? But my own kid is a lot better.
15. Where were you when you went into labor? I must have been in labor at home, in bed, but when I got up and walked around it went away and I fell asleep. Then I went to my doctor's appointment the next day (feeling normal) and she said I was dialated to a 5!
16. Did you have any complications? Nope
17. Did your water break? a nurse broke my water at the hospital. I didn't feel a thing 'cause i'd already had my epidural.
18. Who drove you to the hospital? I drove myself partly there. I had to pick up Joshua from work at that time anyway. I called him on the way there, from the doctor's office, saying you're not going to Applebee's (his night job) tonight, you better call in!
19. Did you go early or late? almost 2 weeks early
20. Who was in the room? Landon, Dr. Blackburn, and two or three nurses. I wasn't really paying attention.
21. Did you video tape it? Heck no.
22. Did you have any pain medication? Epidural. It wore off though and I had to get more!
23. Did you have a c-section or natural? natural...with drugs
24. What was your reaction to the birth? 4 hours of pushing, then using the suction thingy is NOT fun at all, but totally and completely worth it.
25. How big was the baby? 6 lbs 13 oz, 21 1/4 inches. Long and skinny.
26. Did your husband cry? not that I was aware of
27. When is the next one coming? well, we're not using any form of birth control and haven't been since mid July, so....whenever!
28. If you could would you do it all over again? Yes. I hope the next one comes out better though!

I tag...Pam (mom of Lilia and Lacey), Brandie (mom of Aiden), Sarah (mom of Kruise and Noah) and Kristin (mom of Tanner and Mylie).

I am FOR Gay Marriage

This post is not meant to attack anyone, or to start a debate. No mean comments please! I've had some people ask me questions and I feel like I need to explain why my opinion is the way it is.

I know, as a member of the church, you're not supposed to be gay. I'm not. But what about other people out there? The non members. They're not allowed to do what they want? It's not hurting anyone...or is it? People are saying it is. I think the only reason it's hurting anyone is because they are letting it hurt themselves.

What is wrong with kids being taught in elementary school that Gay Marriage is acceptable? It is! Or it should be. Of course, a family with a mom and a dad is best. What about single parents? Are we going to make being a single parent illegal next? Isn't having two moms better than just having one and no dad? They already teach in schools that there are different types of families. Some have a mom and a dad, some have just a mom, or just a dad, and some kids live with grandparents, or aunts and uncles, and that's what they call their family. How is adding that some kids have two dads or two moms a problem? Kids need to learn that! It's out there. You can't keep them in your bubble forever. What happens when they meet someone like that? Are they going to make rude comments? Is that how you'd like to raise your child to treat someone?

I don't know this as a fact, but I'm pretty sure most (I'm not saying all, I know everyone's different) people who are gay can't change who they are attracted to. If you told me to start being attracted to women, I'd be disgusted. I can't. I feel bad for those women out there who are married to gay men trying to be straight so that they can be good LDS church members, or just be an accepted part of society. Their own husband isn't physically attracted to them. That's sad. It's also sad that I have friends who can't feel comfortable holding hands with the one they love in public because they'll get strange looks and comments.

In fifty years we're all going to look back and say I can't believe we treated blacks...I mean gays...like that.



Note: I'm not trying to change anyone else's opinion. Please don't try to change mine.

New Hair?

I'm taking a vote. I'm thinking about getting my hair cut like this. What do you think?

My Drummer Boy

Mike was as excited as we were to get our new RockBand 2 drum set on Sunday! He grabs his own little drums sticks, climbs up on the coffee table, and starts drumming away, all by himself. (The game isn't actually on, but he's pretending it is!)

Another cute thing he did today: He gets the sign for "Thank You" and blowing a kiss mixed up. (they're a lot the same, right?)
He pulled me to the fridge and told me to open it, where he picked out a string cheese. I opened it for him and told him to say Thank You. He blew a kiss.

Mike's New Bed

Mike used to be a great sleeper. Lay him down with Friend, Bink, and Rainforest, and he'd go to sleep himself. This past weekend he started screaming and clinging to me when I'd try to put him to bed. I can't let him cry like that for more than a few minutes, so I always give in and try again later. Well...after staying up until 5 am one night and 3 am the next, I decided something needed to change. So, we changed his crib into a toddler bed. It didn't work. He still hates his bed. So last night I got him a cute Cars toddler bed sheet set. That didn't work either, but I think he looks cute sleeping in it (by the time I give in and cuddle with him in my bed, and get him sleeping deeply enough that he doesn't notice me moving him from my bed to his) so I'm posting the picture anyway. Now the only problem is when he wakes up in the middle of the night instead of turning on Rainforest and going back to sleep, he comes running into our bedroom and we have to start all over again...or, like the past couple of nights, when we've gotten him to his own bed by midnight, he sleeps in our bed from 4 am until morning.

Any other ideas to get him to go to sleep by himself again, we'll probably try them.

BASH

Lisa finally sent me the pictures she took at the BASH! Here they are.

Me and Lisa

She was trying to get a picture of me and Joshua, then Jefferson stuck his head out into the picture.

Date night

Last night we got a babysitter and went on a fun group date. They all (except Chad) work at Applebee's with me. We went to the Gateway Applebee's with Andy and Chad for dinner. (We're cheap and have to go to the place where we get a discount, even though we've tried everything on the menu.) Then Kurt and Brittney met us at Andy's apartment later for some games. Except for the part where I spilled my leftover Three Cheese Chicken Penne in Andy's car, the night went pretty well and we all had a lot of fun!

New Twilight Trailer

Since Sariah stole my post about the soundtrack, I'm stealing hers about the newest trailer. :)

Click Here!

Time Stamp

I just noticed my time stamps are off. I posted that last post at 8:09 pm, not 7:09 pm. Does anyone know how to fix that, if it's possible?

Twilight Movie

Thanks to Nicolette, I got back into reading the Twilight series a couple weeks ago. I read the first one a long time ago and never really got into it. She started reading them and wanted to talk to me about them, so I borrowed her copy of New Moon and started reading. Now, I'm almost done with Breaking Dawn, and am pretty excited for the movie to come out November 21st. I just found the movie soundtrack, which makes me even more excited to see the movie. There are two songs by one of my favorite bands, Paramore, that they wrote just for the movie. Then, there's also my favorite Linkin Park song. Something else that's cool is one is by Robert Pattinson, the guy playing Edward. Awesome. Anyway, here's the list:

1. Muse — Supermassive Black Hole
2. Paramore — Decode
3. The Black Ghosts — Full Moon
4. Linkin Park — Leave Out All The Rest
5. MuteMath — Spotlight (Twilight Mix)
6. Perry Farrell — Going All The Way (Into The Twilight)
7. Collective Soul — Tremble For My Beloved
8. Paramore — I Caught Myself
9. Blue Foundation — Eyes On Fire
10. Rob Pattinson — Never Think
11. Iron & Wine — Flightless Bird, American Mouth
12. Carter Burwell — Bella's Lullaby

(I've never actually heard any of these songs, except for the Linkin Park one. I'll listen to them sometime when I'm not trying to put a baby to bed.)

Bink

I just heard Mike going "eee, eee, eee, eee" from his bedroom. It kind of sounded like he was stuck, so I walk in to see what's going on. He has his head under the crib, but he's not stuck, he's reaching for a bink he found under there. haha. I easily reached the bink, but instead of giving it to him, I put it in the box on the kitchen counter where we keep the binks (when we can find them). He's only allowed to have one at nap time or bed time and right now is neither. He got mad and threw his juice, but forgot about it 2 seconds later.

Ouchie

We went to my parents house for a yummy lunch (beef stew, salad, and rolls) and to watch the afternoon session of conference today. We played a couple of games, and had some fun. Until...my little brother, who is eleven, got a little too rough with Mike. He tried to lift him upside down by his legs, like the adults do all the time, but misjudged it and Mike's face hit the floor. I was in the other room, so I didn't see it happen, I just saw my mom jump up and heard Mike crying. I thought "oh, he just fell again" until I saw the blood and the big gash on the inside of his lip. :( My first thought after that was, "oh crap, not stitches again!" We were lucky though. It only bled for a few seconds. Whew.

That lucky kid got a popsicle, then a slurpee on the way home. He's not acting like it's bugging him too much, so I guess we'll just keep watching it. I would post a picture of his fat, bruised lip, but he's not letting me take one. Maybe later.

Voting

Everywhere I go, I hear, or read, people saying, "Remember to vote!" Then followed by things like "you can't complain if you don't vote", or "I don't care who you vote for, just do it".

I disagree.

I'm not voting. I'm not registered to vote. The biggest reason is because keeping up on politics doesn't interest me. I don't know enough about either candidate to make an educated decision on who would be better for our country. They both have pros and cons, I know that, but I don't know who would be better and I don't care to take time to do all that research. It just doesn't interest me at all. We don't need a whole country of people flipping a coin to see who they're going to vote for. That's not what voting is for. I'll leave those decisions to people who are knowledgeable and can give an expert, or at least smart, vote.

I'm going to take that time, instead of researching politics, to go play with my son. He's getting pretty good at playing catch, for a 16 month old. No matter who becomes president next, the world is still going to be going in the same direction and who knows, maybe the only thing I'll have left in the end is my son. I think I'll be glad for that relationship with him and the fact that we have something fun to do together.

Drinks

Mike loves drinks. He calls everything "juice". When we're eating out somewhere, he demands some of our "juice". Somehow, our refill mugs keep getting bigger and bigger. Here he his with the 100 ouncer. It's so big he has to sit and hug it to drink the Dr Pepper flavored melted ice.