What My Kids Think of Me... and More Apologies

Once AGAIN, I feel the need to apologize for not posting recently. And unfortunately, I'm afraid that apology will be coming more frequently these days with how busy my life has gotten! I was put in the Young Women's Presidency a couple weeks ago, and feel like my life has been turned upside down since! Not in a bad way, because I'm really enjoying it, but it's just made my life a whole lot busier than it was before! We had New Beginnings last week, which required a lot of work and preparation, and then the whole Presidency was asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting today! Mix all that with a horrible case of the stomach flu last week, and I feel like life has just gotten really crazy. Hopefully it will slow down once I figure out what I'm doing, but we'll see. :)

Fortunately, nothing too exciting has been going on besides that, so I haven't had much to post about anyway! But I did think it was time to write something, so I don't fall off the horse altogether. :)

I saw this cute questionnaire on my sister Linz's blog, and thought it would be fun to do with my kids. I asked them a bunch of questions about me, and below are their answers. Some are funny and others don't make any sense at all! :) Oh, and I didn't always get an answer out of Ty, so if there isn't a response there for him, you'll know why! Enjoy!

1. What is something mom always says to you? G: You're cute T: Mama
2. What makes mom happy? G: When I don't hit or punch Ty-Ty T: Car
3. What makes mom sad? G: If I hit T: Uh...
4. What does mom do to make you laugh? G: Says funny words like "hoopy doopy" (and actually, that's a word HE made up and says himself!) :) T: Da-da
5. How old is your mom? G: Five T: Two
6. What was your mom like as a child? G: Polar Bear T: Blue
7. How tall is your mom? G: That tall (holding his hand up in the air to show me how tall I am) T: Two
8. What is your mom's favorite thing to do? G: Read scriptures and be quiet (Ha ha, I honestly didn't expect that response out of him.) T: Nap
9. What does mom do when you're not around? G: Put Ty to bed and play piano T: --
10. If your mom became famous, what would it be for? G: I don't know T: --
11. What is your mom really good at? G: Cutting with scissors T: Cars
12. What is your mom not so good at? G: Playing dinosaurs T: --
13. What does your mom do for her job? G: Talk T: Clean
14. What is your mom's favorite food? G: Chicken T: Chicken
15. What makes you proud of your mom? G: When she's nice (am I mean a lot or something?! Ha ha!) T: --
16. If your mom were a cartoon character, what would she be? G: Tasha from Backyardigans T: Bu-Bo (Spongebob)
17. What do you and your mom do together? G: Play T: Play and Bu-Bo (Not sure what that means - maybe watch Spongebob?)
18. How are you and your mom the same? G: We have eyes, teeth, and rooms T: Two
19. How are you and your mom different? G: I have short hair, and she has long hair T: Two
20. How do you know your mom loves you? G: When she's nice to me T: Da-da

Well, there you have it. Apparently, I am much younger than I thought I was, I was a blue polar bear when I was younger, and I talk for a living (so why don't I get paid for that?!). Cute kids - gotta love 'em! :) -Ash

A Fun Day Away

Yes, I know I've been quite the slacker when it comes to blogging lately. I guess after 2 years, I'm a little (maybe, a lot!) blogged out. But I will try to be better since afterall, this is my only current journal! :)

This past Saturday, we headed down to my parents' house for a get-together with my close friends from high school and their husbands. We did this last Christmas and had a blast, so we thought we should do it again! (However, December was a crazy month for everyone this year, so we decided to push it back to January this time - good choice, if you ask me. It made my December that much less stressful!). As I expected, we had such a good time. I was looking forward to some good laughs, and I definitely got them! It is always so much fun to laugh about when we were younger, and the funny things we did. We also exchanged white elephant gifts and got some lovely stuff! :) For our gift, Greg and I received some incredibly creepy thongs (seriously, they had little naked Precious Moments looking kids on them saying things like "Love is Our Secret" - ha ha!). We also had quite a good time with Eric and Lara's gift, which was a pair of GIGANTIC black silk panties. I seriously have no clue what size they were, but I would guess about a 30! Anyway, it was seriously just a great night. I love you gals and am excited for next time! Below are some pics from our fun night:

Dan and Kyla

Lara and Eric

(And I don't have any pictures of Steve and Stacey cuz they left before I got my camera out! Sorry Stace!)

Greg having way too much fun with the black undies. (I was laughing hysterically, if you can't tell from the picture! My husband...)

Lara and Eric BOTH in their lovely gift! I told you they were a huge size! :)

Also, before the party, we spent the afternoon with my parents, just hanging out. My dad told the boys to bring their snow clothes because there was about 18" of snow at their house, and he wanted to build a snow fort with them. And what a snow fort it was! The boys had a blast! Granted, they did NONE of the work (that was all Greg and Poppy's doing - they were quite into it), but they still had a great time playing in it, of course. So thanks Poppy for making your grandsons' day! They're excited to do it again. :)

Starting out...

Ty working hard with Poppy

Peeking through Daddy's handiwork :)

What's work without play?!

Gavin checking out a tunnel.

The final product, decorated with cones and all! :) It had a family room and a bedroom, two different entrances, and even two little chairs carved out of the snow right by the front entrance. Good job, guys!

Well, that's all for now. January is always a lame, boring month, so hopefully I will have anything to write about for the rest of it! (Besides Bachelor and American Idol, of course! But I will try to spare you all of that this time around!). :) -Ash

Happy New Year!

Well, Happy New Year everyone! I wish I had some great post about our fabulous New Year's Eve... but I don't, because Gavin was sick YET AGAIN. Seriously, how is it possible that he came down with a stomach bug right before Thanksgiving, Christmas, and now New Year's?! I'm stumped, but hoping it doesn't happen again.

Anyway, I sincerely hope 2009 is a great year all around. I know 2008 could have been a much worse year for our family than it was, but it definitely wasn't fun and I'm glad to see it behind us. All I can hope is that this year will be better - even with Obama as president! :)

As for my New Year's Resolutions, I franky don't have any this year. I always start them every January, and then forget all about them a month later. So none of those for me! :) But I am hoping over the course of the year to continually become a better parent, and learn how to get better organized. Greg and I made our first attempt at the latter yesterday when we went through all of the boys' toys (scattered throughout the whole house!) and got rid of a ton of stuff! It was definitely hard for me cuz I'm a bit of a packrat (and I associate every little thing with some sort of memory - ha ha), but it felt good to be able to see the floor in our storage room again! :)

Well, Happy '09 to all of you! -Ash