Revised date

Ok - so after I posted the thing about my pampered chef party, I realized that was Easter weekend. So, I've moved my pampered chef party to the 28th @ 6:30 pm. I'm also doing a Scentsy Candle party (I traded parties to get more jewelry parties) on March 15th at 4:00 pm. If you'd like to see a catalog let me know. If you can come - PLEASE DO! I'm always excited to have people over. I tell Travis I'm making up for all the years we lived in a tiny apartment!!

It's a Boy!

We had our ultrasound today and the technician says it's another brother. Samantha is a bit bummed but I think she'll get over it pretty quick. They say my due date is still right - July 24th - so I guess we'll wait and see! Here are a couple pictures. Samantha still wants to name the baby Sparklie - sister or not!

Doing a pampered chef show!

Hi! So, I know I sent an email out to some of you about two weeks ago telling you that I'm doing a pampered chef show (I traded parties with a girl in my ward). Anyway, my show will be Friday, March 21st and we'll start at 6:30 pm - my place (I'm mailing invites too). I'm doing a cooking show so my pampered chef consultant will be making one or two different things (so come at least a little hungry!) and will let those here use the tools so they can see how they like them. She's offering me a challenge to get at least $200 in outside orders before my show to get a stoneware bar pan for free. If you want to order something (whether you can come or not - but I'd really like to see you here) let me know. Her website is: http://www.pamperedchef.biz/amyskaug?page=home

The kids are doing better already (we LOVE Tamiflu). We get to have our ultrasound tomorrow to find out if it's "a brother or a sister." The kids are really excited to go to that. After our ultrasound we're having Samantha's friend birthday party at the bowling alley (7 kids under the age of 6 - am I crazy?). That should be interesting! And then we get to come home and start packing for our Florida trip! We can't wait to get out of the snow!!

Hope you're having a great week!

The dreaded influenza

Hello family & friends!
I sure hope your winter is going better than how ours seems to be going! I thought we'd be done with illness after Nash's go round in January. It would seem not. Travis came home from work on Thursday after being gone for only an hour and climbed into bed - which is where he stayed until about Friday afternoon when I told him to go shower! I forced him to go to instacare on Friday afternoon and they decided that he had influenza (apparently, there's an incredible outbreak). Well, last night (Sat.) the kids both had fevers by 8 pm! Grrr!! So, now I'm in the process of trying to get instacare to give me tamiflu for both kids (without having to go in there & pay the $60 to see a dr. and another $100 to get 2 more doses of tamiflu just to be told what I already know!) since that's what they gave Travis and he was doing better by last night. What complicates it further? I rescheduled Samantha's friend birthday party (she was supposed to have on it Sat.) for Wed. AND we're supposed to be leaving for our week long trip to Florida on Friday!! Let's hope instacare comes through!!!
Have a better week than we have!

Update: InstaCare finally called me about about 4:30 pm (figures since all the pharmacies close at 6 on Sundays) and said they would not give either one of the kids a perscription for Tamiflu without seeing them (and testing them) first. So, we made it to InstaCare by 5 pm and were lucky enough to get out of there by 6:30 pm. Hey - that's a short wait compared to what I have had before! Anyway, they both tested negative for strep and Nash tested positive for Influenza A. The poor kid had Influenza B last year and he even got his shot last season too! So, since we were lucky enough to see the same dr. that saw Travis on Friday, all 3 of them are now being treated for Influenza with Tamiflu. Yea. Let's just hope that I stay germ free! I did make Travis take a bottle of lysol to everything in the house while I was gone & I stripped all bedding, pillows, towels, etc. and washed them all in hot/hot water. I told Travis, "Spare only the toothbrushes." We'll be buying new ones later this week!

Our regular visitors...

Here are some pictures of the herd of deer we have had visiting us regularly all winter long. There are between 10-15 that show up. They graze on our apple & pear trees and have made quite the beaten path through our backyard. If I could catch a picture of Charlotte chasing them through the yard I would, it's actually quite hilarious. I think she thinks she's a hunting dog!!

Samantha's 5th Birthday!

It's a...

So, I went in to the dr. for my regular check up today (17 weeks & counting). He had a hard time finding the heart beat (happened last month too). So, since Travis and Samantha were there, he got out the portable ultrasound machine. He said, "Either it's a girl, or the boy parts are too little to see still." I told him we were going to go to Florida at the end of February to visit Trav's sister. He said to go ahead and schedule my ultrasound for before we leave so we can take the news with us. I am SO glad! It's killing me to not know!! You'd think that since we have one of each (a boy and a girl) it wouldn't really bother me to not know. Nope, I HAVE to know! I'm a planner. Now I only have to wait 2 more weeks instead of 4 more weeks to find out if it's a boy or a girl. I'm sticking with my prediction of girl and Travis is sticking by his prediction of boy so I guess we'll finally get to find out who's right! As long as the baby cooperates that is!

A Day at the Ranch

We took the kids up to Hardware Ranch today to see all the Elk and go for a sleigh ride. The kids had a lot of fun and it was such a nice day (relatively warm compared to what it has been). The wait to ride was a little bit long but since it was such nice weather it wasn't too bad. We've tried to take the kids up there and go for the ride several times during the last couple of years and it seems like every time we've gone we haven't been able to do the ride for one reason or another. Anyway, here are a couple pix from our adventure!

Help!

Ok, I know it's a bit early, but I'm a planner. Travis and I were talking about baby names again tonight. He had said before that he liked the name Caleb for a boy (which has finally started to grow on me). Tonight he tells me he really wants to name a boy Travis Jr. and call him TJ. I'm totally serious! I DO NOT like the name. I told him he can give him the name Travis as a first or middle name and then put something with it and we'd call him that (remember, we don't even know if the baby is a boy or a girl yet!). No, he is broken hearted that I dislike TJ so much. Now I feel bad because I, of course, have no other suggestions for boy names and he says he doesn't like Caleb as much any more. Any suggestions for boy names would be GREATLY appreciated at this point because according to Travis it's either going to be TJ for Travis Jr. or Anheiser (yes, the beer - and no, I don't find that funny).

Another great idea from Heather!

Ok, I'm stealing another idea from Heather's blog (where does she find such creative people anyway?)

What I was doing 10 years ago:
I was the ripe old age of 16 and would start dating my future husband next month!! I was a sophmore in high school and trying to avoid all the tragedies that go along with that joyful time. Since I failed my driver's test the first time, I didn't have my license yet and wouldn't until April! I was in AP European History and loved doing Mock UN. In fact, I would go back and do it again the next 2 years (even though I transfered to another high school). I was also taking French and trying not to get too lost and confused.


5 things on my to-do list today:
1. Make phone calls to compare rates for Samantha's bowling birthday party.
2. Do laundry (does it ever end???)
3. Get ready for cub scouts.
4. Call multiple people about Lia Sophia stuff.
5. Take Samantha to school.

Snacks I enjoy:
Chocolate, ice cream, does pasta count as a snack? Lately a good salad sounds good at all hours of the day too.

Things I would do if I were a billionaire:
1. Pay off my house, student loans, and credit card debt (that alone feels like it's going to take a billion dollars!).
2. Buy a vehicle with 4 wheel drive so I could quit getting stuck!
3. Buy a snow blower & hire someone else to use it!!!
4. Go on vacation where it's nice and warm (there are too many places to list - I want to go everywhere and Travis wants to stay home!)
5. Finish the basement so Samantha & Nash could each have their own rooms and I could go all out decorating them the way I want to!
6. Buy a bigger bed and one that I won't keep getting stuck in when I try to get up (waterbeds & pregnancy don't go so well together!).


3 of my bad habits:
1. I nag - just ask my family!
2. My official title is The Cleaning Nazi
3. Ironing - I just don't do it!

5 places I have lived:
1. New Mexico - I was born there.
2. Hyrum
3. Ephraim/Manti
4. Logan
5. I'm back in Hyrum!

5 jobs I have had:
1. Deli worker at the grocery store - 1st job
2. Clerk at a scrapbook store
3. Cashier at Wal*Mart
4. Library worker
5. Waitress

5 things people don't know about me:
1. I read the celebrity gossip online.
2. I read Psychic Sylvia Brown's books.
3. I can't go to bed with dirty dishes in the sink unless they can go in the dishwasher but the dishwasher is full so it's running & I'll have another load to put in when it stops- it makes me crazy!
4. I like the smell of dirt.
5. Needles don't bother me.

Snow Day

Happy SuperBowl Sunday! We got quite another snow storm today & anticipate more tomorrow. The kids sure are enjoying all of the winter fun but we're sick and tired of shoveling (not to mention driving through) all the white stuff! Here's some new pics. For those of you in warmer places, I'm still wishing I was there with you (despite all the cute pictures of my kids!)!!

The new snowman at our house. Samantha started rolling the body while Travis was shoveling the driveway this morning. Once the driveway was clear she got some help from her dad & brother in finishing the project.


The ever growing man-made snow pile next to our front door. I think it's actually taller than both Travis & I now!


Travis' Aunt Lori & Uncle Brad & their kids + one other cousin (Bailey) came up for the annual SuperBowl party. The boys were quite the babysitters when it came to Samantha. Besides going ice skating they played outside in the snow almost all day Sunday. In Travis' parents' backyard they dug this tunnel. It goes the entire distance of the snow pile. Samantha thought it was great!


You can see Samantha down at one end & the other end is to the far right.


16 weeks & still counting! We go to the dr. on Feb. 13th & will get to schedule our ultra sound after that appointment.


Hope you have a great week!

My Little Stamper

Happy February!

Well, it seems we're starting February off with a bang this year. Yesterday it started to snow at about 3 pm and then when our power went out at 10:30 pm, Travis decided that would be the oportune time to go out & shovel the 4-5 inches off the driveway in order to make things easier for him in the morning (it was still snowing mind you). This morning there was another 2 inches on the ground but he only had time to scrape his side of the driveway. Since my car is such a low rider, I didn't get to leave the house today because I knew I'd get stuck between the driveway & the street. At about 5 I started to wonder when Travis would be getting home & if he was planning to shovel the rest of the driveway (and from the driveway to the street). What would you know, I look out the window and there he is. It seems we now require heavy machinery to move snow. Our snow piles are too high to get the snow shovel up over the top of!


Here's looking at my neighbor's house from my front porch:


Here's looking at our house from across the street!!


Here's the snow removal crew:


It's times like these that I wish I lived further south!! Hope you aren't running out of places to put your snow!