Two Very Special Ladies

Sprint had changed how to send picture mail but I finally conquered it and figured out how to get a very special picture off of my phone.
These two beautiful ladies are very dear to my heart. Melissa is being held by the mother of my dear friend Melissa Brown who passed away 5 years ago. And her daughter Natalie is standing next to her grandmother Kathy. Melissa was such a wonderful example to me of the person I wanted to become. I didn't realize what a wonderful influence she had been in my life until she passed away and I am so grateful that she left behind a beautiful daughter, who is the spitting image of her. Kathy herself is a wonderful lady too! She was diagnosed with breast cancer earlier this year and at the time was going through a round of kemo. She is such a beautiful lady! I love them so much and I am so grateful that I was able to have a daughter of my own.

I'm Coming Home!!!

I am so excited! I will try and limit the use of the word excited but I am!! Melissa and I leave the Fargo airport and 6:30 am! So early I know but they only have 2 flights in and out of Fargo and we either got in at 1:30pm or 10pm and I have stuff to do while out in town that day. Anyways, SOOO EXCITED! I will be in town for the Texas State fair but I will be in Texas for 2 weeks! So I will have lots of time to see friends and family. I am staying out in Greenville so that my mom can watch Melissa for the few days I have to work the fair and other such related things. And as I have stated, I am very excited, but I will miss my hubby. I always get so..excited(couldn't think of a better word) to leave and see family but then I always realize at the last minute that I will miss him! Plus, this time it's even harder because he leaves Friday morning for an ROTC camp thingy and I won't be able to talk to him until Sunday afternoon. In this regard, I am happy I only have to spend one night alone by myself but sad I can't talk to him for 3 days! Well Texas get ready cuz here we come!

Dinner Party

Ok, so it didn't start out as a dinner party but it kind of ended up that way. We invited over a couple from church Amy and Gary Hansen and their cute little girl Hannah. We are trying to expand our group of friends and Jon and Gary happen to have a class together. Anywho, we then invited the Butler's over because well I owe'm one. Jon and I were all excited because we were going to cook our first roast. Jon got up early that morning and put it in added seasoning, etc. and it cooked all day. We left church early because Melissa decided to spit up on me, not once or twice but three times and I was wearing dark brown. 'nough said. So, we came home cleaned, cleaned, and cleaned (we were such slackers on Saturday). The apartment looked so amazing! So, I had a little extra time and I set the table so beautifully! I wish I had taken a picture! I had the dinner plates along with the salad plates AND dinner and salad forks on the table all neatly arranged in order as if you would be eating with royalty! Although, it would have been better had we had nice glass cups but the plastic ones will do for now. It was beautiful! And can I just say what an amazing cook my husband is! He made the roast, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans, remembered dessert, and the salad (although I did help with the salad). He is sooo wonderful! After dinner we played a few games before everyone left, but we had such a wonderful time! So, we will definitely have more dinners to come! We had such a great time having them over and it was so nice to have the space because we didn't have that before! I have already been thinking of a Halloween themed dinner! Oh I am sooo excited!

It's about time...

...I actually wrote on here again. For whatever reason I go through spurts of blogging excitement and then life happens (or doesn't happen) and I don't blog. SO to catch up here is what happened last week.
Bees - So we finally took care of those rotten things. We bought at trap at Lowe's that actually worked. We did put Scentsy in it to help attract them and we caught about 20. We probably need to put more wax in it because we still have them buzzing around outside but there are fewer. Although, we did have one come in the house while I was sitting on the couch and I did NOT freak out. You would be so proud! I calmly pointed it out and Jon went and killed it. I am giving myself a pat on the back for that one, however, I still won't take Maggie out because there are bees outside and Jon got stung by one, on the neck, while he was out there. But progress is progress.

Melissa is still so dang cute! She "talks" even more these days. My favorite is when she is a bit tired and she wants her pacifier in her mouth but wants to talk at the same time. I need to catch it on video! I love her so much! I will posting video of her later when I get a chance to put it on the computer. Now that we are pretty much caught, I will put a slew of posts up to add to the mania! Woohoo!

The Amazing Bee Killer Returns

We have noticed that since we have moved here no matter what time we go to bed we seem to have a really hard time waking up on time for church. This was the case yesterday, however, instead of waking up late we didn't wake up at all. Church starts at 10 and we rolled out of bed at 9:30. So, instead we spent a lazy, wonderful day as a family. Well all of it was wonderful until we had visitors. We killed 12 yellow jacket bees in our home yesterday! This does not count the previous ones we have killed days before. And it does not count the 5 Jon killed between the door and the screen door, or the ones he sprayed that were buzzing around the windows or the ones that continued to buzz our windows throughout the day. I am usually a calm person, however, when a bee comes in my house I lose all sense of the ward and run around like a crazy person. Luckily my super husband uses his bare hands to swat the little nasty pests to the ground and then steps on them. Although, he was starting to become on edge after awhile when every time you turned around there was another one. It felt like a scene from the killer bees movie where you can hear them buzzing and you have plugged up every hole but somehow they make it inside and begin to eat you! We figured out that they were coming from the windows so we duct taped up all the seams and holes, we thought this solved the problem. We were wrong. Once they figured this out they started flying in through the large crack above the screen door and then they would squeeze their way through the small crack above the main door. It's just so unnerving! In realizing that I would be alone today, without my super bee killer around to protect me, we made the decision to break the sabbath and go purchase a bee trap. I sure hope it works because if I have to fight off 12 bees by myself today, I might just go insane and you will have to come visit me in the mental hospital. So the moral of this story is go to church or face the wrath of lots of bees.
For your viewing pleasure, here is two that Jon killed. Sorry for the shot of our toilet, but at least it's clean!

A Night with The Women

So last night my wonderful husband agreed to watch Melissa so I could go out with some of the ladies I have become friends with in our ward. I had such a great time! We went to this nice little restaurant call Rhombus. It mainly serves specialty pizzas but you can also get a sandwich or pita. We got the T Rex and the Chicken Bacon Ranch pizza. Both were very good and we had plenty of leftovers. It was fun to eat and chat without worrying about keeping your baby happy. We then went to see The Women. I absolutely loved this movie! I do like most movies I see but I actually want to buy this movie! I wanted to see it but I wasn't overly excited to like some movies, but I am so glad we went to see it. There are several hilarious parts throughout the movie which really made for a great show. But when all was said and done I left the theater feeling empowered. I felt good about myself and I wanted to go out and conquer the world. This moving is a great movie to watch, especially when you're feeling low and need a pick me up.

We Finally Got Our Bumbo!

So, almost 2 weeks ago I ordered Melissa a dresser, baby monitor and a bumbo. I had it shipped using Site to Store not realizing how long it would take. It did save me like $50 but it took FOREVER to get here. Anyways, it finally came in and we picked it up on Saturday. We are still waiting on dresser but we did get the monitor and boppy. Can I just say how wonderful it is to finally have a baby monitor!?! It's nice to get up in the morning and not worry about listening for her because I can here her through the monitor! Wonderful! Anywho, Melissa absolutely loves sitting up. She will spend some time on the floor kicking around but only for short periods of time. As soon as I pick her up and stick her in her chair she is happy again. She just loves being able to see what's going on, this is why I was so excited to get the bumbo. She doesn't sit in it quite perfectly yet but she is just shy of 3 months which is the youngest age it says it's for. But for being her age she does very well in it. Here is a few pictures of her being a big girl. I can't believe how big she is already!

Then this afternoon, I laid her on the boppy while I got myself something to eat and she was at an angle trying to hold her head up when I just sat her up she held her head and body up without falling over. I am so proud of her. She is getting so big and so dang cute!

Friday Night Enrichment

Ok, so this post is one of many that I will be doing today, but I need to catch up on what we did this weekend. Friday night we had our quarterly enrichment and I must say that I had a good time. I have never heard of it being on a Friday but we had a great turnout. We sat on the lawn behind the church and ate tin foil dinners and peach cobbler or chocolate cake with ice cream for dessert. We also had a few short lessons that were taught and a sing along at the end. For whatever reason, Melissa was not having a good time and cried for about half of it. It was really odd because that is the most I have ever heard her cry. I got her to go back to sleep and then she woke up crying but wouldn't eat. I finally went inside and calmed her down by stroking her cheek and she finally ate. I don't know what was going on but I felt really bad for her. Then, I took Anna home where my husband ended up at her house. Dusty and he went to Lowe's. I don't know what it is about men and their tools but I think they should make a club for toolholics anonymous. It is nice though to have such great friends that we already know up here. It makes missing home not so bad.

World's Largest French Fry Feed

Last night Melissa and I went to the world's largest french fry feed at University Park near UND. It's part of a week long celebration in honor of the Potato Bowl which is in it's 43rd year. It's like the Cotton Bowl in Texas. Jon was unable to go due to school but we had a good time non the less. We are only a 20 minute walk from the park and seeing as I didn't have a car we walked. I had to carry Melissa in one of those jumper thingys because the stroller was in the car, although it turned out better that way because there were so many people! I met up with some of our friends from church and we had a great time. The best part was that all of the french fries were free!
They pour them by the bag through this long cooking machine...
And they come out the end where they put them into a bucket and start scooping them out into the bowls.
Here is the tent where you go to pick up your free french fries. They also have free ketchup on tables surrounding the tent.
Here is the end result. They are actually super yummy! Not to greasy. Not to hard. Not to soft. Just right.

They also had visitors like a huge Mr Potato Head, French Fry guy, and Ronald McDonald. He was kind of a weirdo but a nice guy. He was handing out "I met Ronald" stickers and...
And taking pictures. I hadn't planned on it but he suggested it so here's one for the memory book. How many people can say that they had their picture taken with Ronald McDonald? Of course some would be glad by that.
They also had free bounce houses. I thought it was awesome that it was all free and they had about 5 or 6 bounce houses there! That's unheard of where we are from. They also had a few concession stands open where you could purchase snacks, drinks, or hot dogs. The prices were pretty inexpensive as well.
And here is Melissa and me just hangin' out. She did so well! I was a little nervous at how well she would do in the jumper (I honestly don't know the real name to it). She slept most of the time. On our way there she just passed out and then she was awake for a little bit while I had her out and then I put her back in it to walk around and she passed back out again. I kept squeezing her hands to make sure she was still alive. She is just so dang cute!
P.S. After tonight I realized that I want one of those really nice cameras so I can learn how to take amazingly beautiful pictures like Stacie and Missy. I could see it in my mind but my camera just doesn't have the ability. Someday...

The Amazing Bee Killer

So we were minding our own business, just sitting around and enjoying the day when all of a sudden I see a bee flying around my couch. Thankfully I had just gotten up from the couch before it came my way and my wonderful bee killing husband was home. I went downstairs, while he goes to kill it...however, he lost it in the process of hitting it down to the ground with his BARE hands (he does this quite often). I come back upstairs to watch the air while he looks on the ground. After several intense minutes go by he finds the bee hiding under the t.v. stand and finishes off the job. In remembrance of this wonderful bee killing adventure I took a picture. As you can see, Jon doesn't think too highly of this occasion, of course he's not afraid of bees either.

The evil bee. Muahaha. Now he's an evil dead bee!

In Remembrance...

Since I have never really kept a journal I wanted to post where I was seven years ago so as not to forget what happened. I was a junior in high school. We had just switched classes which put in Mrs Jennifer Martin's English class. I think we had just finished a worksheet when our principal came over the intercom to let us know what had happened. Thanks to our wonderful tech program we had tvs in all of our classrooms to see weekly performances put on or channel 1(does anyone remember that show?) so the tech dept got the live feed going onto all of our tvs and we watched in horror as the second plane crashed into the 2nd tower and then we watched as they fell. Everyone around me was crying, panicking, talking, etc. and I just sat there. For some reason I had a feeling of calm, peace about me. All I could think about was the second coming of our Savior and how this was just the beginning but it would only bring us closer to Him. For the next few days we heard about those who were affected. Thankfully, we didn't know anyone who was affected at all, either first hand or because they were stranded somewhere. I can't express enough how deeply sadden I am for those that lost loved ones. I haven't yet had that anguish in my life and can not imagine what it is like. I hope everyone remembers this day and remembers the reason we are at war. Pray for our soldiers everyday. It was only the beginning and someday we will have an end and freedom for those who could not do it alone.

Facebook

Ok, so I have new found addiction...Facebook. I have prolonged my journey to this new and wonderful place and I finally gave in. My poor house, husband, dog, and daughter! I'm addicted. It is so stinkin awesome that I kick my self in the head for not joining sooner! I stayed up late on Tuesday adding to my flair and all I did yesterday was Facebook. I didn't get anything done including taking a shower. It's so terribly awful but wonderful! I finally put the computer down at 6 to give my daughter some much needed attention. I am going to limit my Facebook time but did I say how much I love it? Ok, so for the rest of you facebookers out there look me up and if you haven't joined...you totally should!

Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

I just want to send a shout out to my wonderful parents! They have been married for 16 yrs and sealed for all eternity for 3! I love you both so much! Unfortunately, my mom will most likely be passed out for most of it today. She has had a migraine for the past 9 days and non of the meds that her doctor gave her would work so she got a wonderful narcotic shot right in her arm today. Get better soon mom!

Spoiled Rotten

So, I made a post a few days ago about how Melissa was not sleeping, well I guess I should take it back because I put her to bed about 11:30pm and she is still sleeping! She woke up at about 8:00am to eat and she went back to sleep and pretty soon here I will go wake her up! It's crazy! I put her in pajamas that have feet attached and I think that helped because her feet didn't get cold like the night before last. I just love watching her sleep. She gets into this dreaming mode where her eyes move about and open and close and then her mouth smiles, then frowns, then smiles. Oh I just love her!
I took a picture of her feetsies and her beautiful sleeping position. She is sooo long! We were at Target the other day and they have a size chart to help figure out what size your baby is. Well Melissa is 24 in long (or she was a month ago) and the size chart says she would be a size 6months! Which I have no doubt . Her pajamas I put on her last night we 3/6 months and she doesn't have much growing room left. She has plenty of growing room width wise but length...nope! But she's so dang cute that I don't even care!

I'm Going to Pump You Up!

So I've officially decided to lose the rest of my baby weight. I have been stagnant at my current weight, which is disheartening considering that since Melissa was born I have only lost 15 lbs. and she was 10lbs. I gained 50 lbs (give or take do to the water gain at the very end) so the goal is to lose 10lbs so I can at least fit into my pants. I had a huge wardrobe before getting pregnant. One that I had proudly built since I was a freshman in high school...this being said I have A LOT of clothes and I simply can't afford to go out and buy a whole new set of clothes, especially with winter coming and we will have to buy a ton of new winter items to keep from freezing. So, I started working out yesterday. Thankfully we have stairs that I can utilize to run up and down as well as doing other various exercises to build my abs. I don't have much hope for the abs considering my overwhelming amount of stretch marks but there is hope for my butt. Who knew that it would grow? ;-) I guess in the huge belly growth at the end of my pregnancy I just didn't realize that my backside grew as well. Oh well, I'll do what I can and hope for the best.

Although, it would probably help if I gave up some of the sweets! I have had such a sweet tooth since Melissa was born. I was so desperate once that I ended up eating baking chocolate chips because it was all that we had to choose from. I have been on an Oreo kick lately. Did you know that 2 Oreo cookies is 120 calories! Oh dear! And I ate like 10 of them! I won't go cold Turkey, just lessen how many I eat a day. Who am I kidding?! This is going to be hard!

Recipes for Your Enjoyment

A few have asked for these recipes so here they are! Enjoy!

Chicken & Noodles
Prep Time- 15 Min
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
1/2 C Milk
1/3 C Grated Parmesan Cheese
1/8 tsp Pepper (if desired)
3 C Cooked Medium Egg Noodles (1 1/2 -2 Bags)
2 C Cubed Cooked Chicken (or however much chicken you want) Can also be substituted for hamburger if that's all you have.

In saucepan, combine soup, milk, cheese, and pepper; add noodles and chicken. Over lowheat, heat through, stir often. You can also make the wet mixture and then keep the noodles separate and allow your family to pour on as much as they desire.

Creamy Rice & Meat
Prep Time 15 min
Use 1 can for 2 people in an 8x8 in pan and 2 cans for a family of at least 4.

2 can Cream of Chicken Soup or 1 large family size can
2 cans of water (use can from soup)
2 cans of rice (use can from soup)
Pork Chops or Chicken Breast (however that will fit in your pan, we get the center cut pork chops and 6 of them will fit in the 9x13.

In 9x13 pan put soup and slowly add water, then rice. Mix well. Put pork chops on top of mixture. Cover & seal with foil. Bake for 1 hr at 350 degrees.

Tater Tot Casserole
1 can Green Beans, drained
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
1 C sour cream
Hamburger Cooked - however much is desired.
Tater Tots (to fill the top of the casserole)
Cheese - however much is desired

In 9x9 baking dish, put green beans in bottom. Mix soup, sour cream, & hamburger then put on top of green beans. Next top with tater tots & then cheeses. Bake at 425 degrees for 20 min.

Lasagna
Prep time 45 - 60 min (can premake the night before)

1 lb hamburger
chopped onion (it's with the spices)
minced garlice (with the spices too)
1 16 oz can tomatoes
1 8 oz can tomato sauce
1 6 oz can tomato paste
2 tsp Dried basil, crushed (spices - I only point this out because I didn't know where to find it)
8 oz Lasagna Noodles
2 eggs
2 1/2 C Cottage Cheese
3/4 C Parmesan Cheese
2 tsp Dried Parsley Flakes (spices)
1 lb Mozzarella Cheese, shredded

Cook meat, onion, and garlic until meat is browned. Drain. Stir in tomatoes, sauce, paste, basil, and salt (if desired). Cover; simmer 15 minutes stirring often.
Cook noodles in salted water. 1 tbsp cooking oil (i.e. vegetable oil - it helps the noodles to NOT stick together when cooking).
Beat eggs; add cottage cheese, 1/2 C Parmesan, parsley, salt & pepper (if desired)
Layer half noodles, half cheese mixture, half mozzarella, & half meat sauce. Repeat.
Sprinkle remaining Parmesan on top. Bake at 375 degrees fir 30-35 min. Let Stand for 10 min

Enchiladas

Ground Beef
1 can Enchilada Sauce (or you can use the packet where you add the sauce, I think it tastes better that way, but the premade can is faster)
Shredded Cheese
6 Flour Tortillas

Heat over to 375 degrees
Brown hamburger, drain. Stir in 1/3 can of enchilada sauce & 1/2 c cheese
Spoon filling into tortillas, roll up and place seam side down in greased baking dish.
Pour remaining sauce over top; sprinkle with cheese (We have found that the more sauce and cheese you have the better it tastes).
Bake for 15-20 min.

Roast A La King
3/4 C Milk
1 can Cream of Chicken Soup
Cut of Cooked Meat
3/4 C Shredded Cheddar Cheese
1 pkg of Medium Egg Noodles

Put soup and milk in sauce pan. Blend well. Stir in meat & cheese. Cook until heated through. Cook noodles according to package. Serve sauce over noodles.

ENJOY!

Farmers Market

So this morning we went to the Grand Forks Farmers Market which runs from June - September. We had a little bit of fun. We saw our friends, Anna & Dusty, which was fun to hang with them. Other than that, it's not too exciting but I love living in a small town and going to things of this nature. Anywho, they only allow those with homemade products so the majority of it is homemade crafts rather than food, however, Jon did buy a German pastry which he says they did a great job making it because it was like the real thing. I found this little booth that had the most amazingly cute embroidered outfits so of course I had to get something! But the best part was that they were really inexpensive! For $10 I got this cute little hat and a pair of socks for Melissa.

The socks won't fit her until next year but I didn't want to get socks that she would grow out of right away. The lady was really nice and I even gave her one of my Scentsy catalogs. I am getting braver! The only downside to the market is the amount of awful bees swarming around. They are EVERYWHERE! I feel like I was in the movie about killer bees because everywhere you turn there they are!! This lead to the stinging of my poor husband. He's not a woosy man by any means when it comes to the pesky things. He swats at them with his bare hands and then kills them! He's a maniac. However, one got him today and my super man realized that he isn't as invincible as he thought he was. Although, he is still braver than anyone I know.

After the market we went to a little store called Pamida in East Grand Forks, MN. My mom and I used to shop there as a kid when I lived in Nebraska. Jon thought it would be a little more exciting than it actually was but it was still fun exploring. Next week we will go back to the market and actually buy some food than walk around downtown to see what little shops we can find. All in all, we are enjoying are life here in Grand Forks.

No Sleep

Well it's almost 10:30pm which I know isn't late, however, my baby girl is WIDE AWAKE! Which means that maybe in an about an hour she will go to bed. I have tried putting her down twice, both times she was completely sound asleep, and each time some weird thing has happened and she has woken up. It's not that I mind staying up but it's the fact that I had already resolved myself to the fact that I was about to go to bed. I was so ready to put my head down on that pillow and snuggle up in my covers. But for now my sweet pillow will have to wait for my head. Oh how I miss my pillow and the time I used to spend with it.

To add a quick update...She fell asleep around 11pm. Then after I had fallen into a sound sleep, she woke back up at 11:30. I almost had her asleep until the pitter patter of Maggie's paws officially woke her up. I will spare you the part where I had a nervous break down. Finally, after waking Jon up and saying a few more prayers she was back in bed around 12:30am. She then woke up at 4:30am to eat (like normal) but then she pooped her pants (which isn't that early in the morning) which made for her not sleeping very well until I finally woke up enough to realize that I needed to change them and here we are. Here's hoping for a nap this afternoon.

Jon is My Hero!

He is so amazing! He is doing exactly what he wants, and in some ways it is scary, but I am so proud of him! He is working hard and doing well for our family! He passed his PT test for the ROTC and today he went up in an airplane and did a wonderful job! You can read about it here. He teaches me something everyday and what can I say...I love him and all that he has done, is doing, and will continue to do! Your my hero babe and I love you!

Closet 2, Jon 1

So I won't even big to list the items that are wrong with our home. Now don't get me wrong I am so grateful to have a roof over my head and to have the space that we do but the work that they do up here is less than what it should be. I only have a knowledge of home repair due to the many jobs that my wonderful husband has helped with during his families home remodels. That being said the first day we moved in (and the re-modelers were still in the house) the closet shelf/bar holding all of our clothes, that I so neatly had just finished hanging up came crashing down to the ground. Thankfully no one was in the room at the time to get pierced by the wooden rod that broke into 3 pieces. So my wonderfully smart husband went to Lowe's and bought lead anchors to put in the walls because the other smart repair men put in plastic anchors into a cement wall that would only hold a 30lb picture. That being said we thought it's been two weeks...hey it's still up and all of our clothes are still there....we won the war! Last night before I went to bed I had a feeling to close the closet doors and boy am I glad that I did! At 7am this morning I had just fallen back asleep from feeding Melissa when BOOM!! CRASH!! BANG!! AHH! WHAT THE....UGH! My side of the closet had fallen down and now the doors are bursting at the seems from a stockpile of clothing. We haven't looked at what may have caused the fall this time but we will figure it out or switch to all dressers. It may have one the battle...again, but it has not won the war!

Armadillidiidae

Armadillidiidae is a family of woodlice, a terrestrialcrustacean group in the order Isopoda. Unlike members of the family Porcellionidae, members of this family can roll into a ball, giving them their common name of "pill bug", "potato bug", "doodlebug", or the more recent and increasingly popularized term, "roly-poly", which has been used regionally as early as 1968. Uncited references also date use of the term in Texas as early as 1925. ^[1]

The best known species in the family is Armadillidium vulgare, the common pill bug. These arthropods commonly feed on decaying vegetation and are found under logs, garbage pails or any other place where moisture can be found. Moisture is essential to pill bugs due to their breathing organs, which are like gills. Pill bugs, although often thriving in damp areas, have often been known to live in dry beds. These pill bugs have no specialized predators, though they play host to specialized parasitoids in the fly family Rhinophoridae.

Well now that you know about our special friends you will be happy to know that we coexist with them. They are everywhere downstairs. I looked up this definition on Wikipedia to try and understand why it is that we have sooo many. We believe that somewhere in time the laundry room or bathroom flooded and now some of the wood is rotting (which you can see at the bottom of the door frames). It could definitely be worse, like they could be roaches, but it's still gross knowing that when you go down there in bare feet it's a good possibility that you could step on one. For whatever reason it really creeps me out.

Our New Apartment

So our apartment is finally clean enough where we aren't embarrassed to actually show it. We are guessing that it is around 1000 sq ft or so. Up here in ND they aren't too keen on the specifics. We are in a four plex which means no real yard bit it's only four steps from the door to the side walk so it's fine with me. We do have a garage but we are just waiting on the door. When I finally get all of the pics up and the garage is fixed then we will post new pics. Until then enjoy this video.

Melissa's 3rd Laugh

So this past Thursday we got her ti laugh but since then we haven't been able to catch it on camera because she will only do it once. So last night while I was getting her ready for bed she seemed in a somewhat playful mood and we finally captured it. So for you viewing pleasure...here she is!

I'm coming to town!!!

Well it's official! I am now a Star Director! And with such title comes perks like a pay raise! Which allows me to come to Texas for a visit! The main reason for the visit is business. My team and I are working the Texas State Fair but I get to spend time with my family! Woohoo! I am so excited! It will just be Melissa and me but it will be great to spent time with everyone. My tentative stay will be from Sept 23 - Oct. 13. May be less time but I haven't bought plane tickets yet so it is bound to change. See everyone very soon!