I’m in …looooove with a giirrrrrrrll (I’m … in … love…with…)

Here’s a few reason why I’m in love with my gorgeous Catherine on this Valentine’s Day: (Disclaimer:  The following content may be perceived as mooshy, non-masculine, and may cause high levels of nausea or vomiting)

·         Her Dimples:  When she smiles at me, the left dimple is deeper than her right. I could probably measure how much she loves me on a given day by the depth of that dimple.

·         I love her singing voice:  During my first semester of college before we started dating, Catherine sang a song she wrote on the guitar during Christmas break.  It was a love song and I deep down wished it was about me. (It was probably about one of the other 4 guys she was juggling during that time). It was the first time I had heard her sing. I fell in love with her soft, angelic voice immediately and it played in my head over and over again.  I had to be with her.  

·         When I was about 8 years old, Catherine ran up and kissed me on the cheek. Although it was a childish joke, I had a crush ever since.  She doesn’t remember this actually….but I definitely still do.

·         Her hands:  I don’t know if it’s because of all the years playing impressive music on the piano, or painting amazing pieces of art, her hands are perfect.  Sometimes I just watch her hands as she writes or plays piano.  It’s kind of a weird fetish …I know…but her hands are truly a God given gift and it shows.

·          No one has as good of a heart as Catherine.  She genuinely loves others.  She also has the ability to perfectly empathize with others.  When people she knows experience sadness in their lives, she also physically experiences their pain. I’m way too lucky to be at the center of it.

·         Her fun personality:  When I went to her prom my junior year, she took me to a Rec center and we spent most of the day before the dance playing one-on-one basketball.  How cool is that! (I won’t be including anything about who won or lost...it’s not important) Quick fact:  I might have…kind of broke her nose while playing basketball later when we were engaged……

I am proud of my wife—She has been through so much these past few years and she done an incredible job handling it. I admire her heart and strength.  I hope that today you’ll know that I love you, I’m proud of you, you’re smoking hot… and I can’t help but love you always….

Happy V-Day Sweetheart!

What I've been up to...

So being a stay at home mom can be...difficult...to say the least, but it definately has its perks too!  For example, I had no idea that I loved making things out of feathers and fabric so much!  If I was working all the time outside the home I would've never discovered this talent and obsession!  Anyway, so I've been creating feathery "doodads" (as my dad calls them) and cute toddler/baby clothes! So check it out and tell all your friends!  You can go to www.CatsCranny.etsy.com to see everything and place an order!

Finally....a blog update.

Happy New Years to ALL!

I think we win the 2008 Worst Blog Updaters Award. I say, "Hey Cath, you should update our blog."  She says, "what we have a blog???"  I sadly reply, " I dont even know you anymore!"

I think the real reason was that Catherine was too immersed in chasing Peyton around the house.  During his naps, she was either redecorating my parents house in order to pay for our food and shelter or fully immersed in her crafty projects consisting of feathery hair pins, bracelts, and necklaces that are coming to stores near you.

 

We'll be sure to put "update blog regularly" on our list of resolutions for this year...

So here's the update.  I finished my internship with Goodman Manufacturing and we're back up to Rexburg for my LAST SEMESTER!  It so nice to know that the end is near. The plan is to surivive the bone chilling winter in Rexburg, graduate in April with a degree in Business Finance, and then head back down to warm Texas. I have two unofficial job.....offers....opportunities...not sure what to call them at this point ....with Goodman. I interviewed and I have some promising prospects after I gradute. I am excited about it; although, I will be more excited when somethingis  in writing. Law school is still in the picture but I am waiting to apply until I see how much Goodman would pay for something like a JD/MBA. We have spending the holidays here in Middleton, ID before we head out to Rexburg.  It has been great to eat lots of good food, sleep, and relax. 

Peyton is walking...a lot.  He has made a lot of progress these past few months. Yes, his hair is still red. He's a cute little guy and looks nothing like me. We still have occupational therapists and speech pathologists who work with him regularly.  He makes little "woof woof" sounds when we ask him what a doggie says but he still doesn't understand other easy words and phrases like "No"or "Shhh".  I guess he's just ....mischieviously cute.  I must say though, he goes to bed early, sleeps through the night, and wakes up around 8ish.  Could we ask for more?  

Here's some pics. 

PuMpKiN PaTcH fUn

Hey everyone! So Jared and Courtney and there kids were here this weekend and I really wanted to take them all to a pumpkin patch. So Courtney found a few and we picked one out and went. It was so much fun! I think I probably had more fun than anyone though because I loved taking pics of the kiddos with the pumpkins. I am getting addicted to photography lately and I love getting good pics and editing them in cute ways. It started with scrapbooking which I got into when Peyton was in the NICU. Now its progressed. I love it and I really wish I could get a nice camera and take some classes. Anyway, I did my best. It was a really cute family run place out in the country part of Houston. Normally the place is an exotic pet farm but during the holidays they add on the pumpkin patch and stuff. It was adorable! They had normal farm animals, goats, horses, etc. and then some not so normal animals like llamas, a pot belly pig, a little tiny deer (i'm not kidding it was tiny like 10 inches and SO CUTE), and some lemur type thing, and (my favorite) a little JOEY (thats a baby kangaroo). The joey just hopped around the patch and would come right up to you and let you feed it and pet it. The kids LOVED it! So did I! I REALLY want one for myself (too bad they grow up...too bad anything grows up!). They also had face painting and pumpkin decorating as well as a scarecrow dress up area. It was really fun. I told Daniel that when we have our little house in the country out there someday I'm definately going to do a pumpkin patch. I got a million pics so I picked a few of my favorites to post on here! Hope you like them!

Park Play

Hey everyone! I know its been a while but what can I say...not much has happened. Daniel continues to enjoy his job (somewhat) and I am just hanging out enjoying the spring-ish weather here in Houston.
Daniel and I have recently taken up tennis which we are both decidedly terrible at. But its fun and we go after Peyton's in bed so its nice to get out.
We also finally took Peyton to the park to "play" for the first time ever! He really didn't know what to do on the equipment but he loved the swing and had a great time playing in the rocks. Anyway, it was probably most fun for me. I took a bunch of cute pictures!
Thats really all for now. I know. Pretty boring. I will try to do something exciting this week to tell y'all about.

Back in Houston

Hello everyone! (This post is for everyone this time). Peyton and I made it back to Houston after being in Idaho for a week and a half visiting my folks. We flew in on Friday, slept, and got back in the car on Saturday to go to SanAntonio to my nephew Jack's blessing. Then we slept at Daniel's brothers apartment and got back in the car Sunday and drove back to Houston. So now...after a VERY long weekend of traveling...we are finally home.
Now to catch you up...Cici and Poppy's (mom and dad Carter) place was so nice. I got to spend a lot more time than usual with my family and got to take Andrew to the MTC which was really sad and exciting at the same time. I hung out and went shopping with my mom and sisters and got to spend some time with one of my best friends Gari. Of course I couldn't get through the visit without everyone hitting me up for some free design consultations! I spent a lot of the time there painting walls, shopping for furniture, and hanging pictures. But it was so much fun and I love doing it. I will post some pics of a few of my "home makeover" projects when I get them. It was also really nice to be away from hurricane Ike cleanup in Houston. My inlaws didn't even get power until the day Peyton and I came home! They went for 2 weeks without it and that was definately long enough. I'm glad we skipped out of most of that hot and humid "camping" experience.
Speaking of Ike, this place still carries the battle wounds. There are still a LOT of trees down all over and lots of tarps over roofs. Its kinda crazy. I guess a lot of people were pretty unprepared which is ridiculous to me considering they had been warning us for a week before it actually hit. The coast is wiped out, houses and land is completely lost in Galveston. We got pretty lucky in our area. We had 95 mph winds but we were on higher ground and didn't get any flooding. Just makes you realize how important it is to have a plan and be prepared for anything.
Enough of that. So I decided I will NEVER travel again with a baby by myself. It was SOOO exhausting and I would rather pay someone to fly with me than do it again. Don't get me wrong, Peyton is generally a really happy easy-going kid but he is now one (adjusted age) and he will NOT sit still for longer than two seconds! Plus, he will NOT sleep in public, hes too busy looking around at everyone and everything. So there I was with my big suitcase, carseat, diaper bag, and a one year old strapped to me, running through the Denver airport trying to catch a flight that was about to leave. Then once we got on the plane, we sat for an hour before it took off due to "weather conditions". Peyton hadn't slept at all since 8 am and it was 6:30 pm. He kept climbing up me to look at the people in the seats behind us. The man next to us had a laptop out and was trying to ignore the fact that Peyton's only goal of the trip was to drool all over it. I kept wishing that the guy would just get a clue and put it away which would've made my job of keeping Peyton from annoying the other passengers significantly easier. But no. He just kept on acting like he didn't see me fighting Peyton's grimy hands away from the glowing screen. It was like a mosquito to a bug zapper. Oh and did I mention that Peyton is in to biting now? Oh yes, he finally got a top tooth in and now when I try to restrain him or take something from him he bites me. Where the heck did he learn that?!! For all the other moms out there, what is the best way to discipline your kids in public without people calling the child protective services on you? I'm serious...I'd really like to know. Or are we supposed to just hide out in a padded room with our children until they turn 10? Anyway, NEVER again.
So I guess I should do something productive now...I'll post more when I have more to post!

This ones for Tiff...

So I know a bunch of people read this but if you're not Tiff then I give you permission to skip this post...or if you're really bored or just plain curious I guess you can read it. Tiff! I miss you like crazy! I am the most horrible long-distance friend and I am so sorry! We keep playing phone tag so I knew you would check your blog so I thought I would use this as a means to reach my bestest friend. :) Oh my gosh! I was in a freaking hurricane! It was so cool but Daniel wouldn't wake up to come outside with me and I was too scared to go out by myself in case a tree or something landed on me. I really wanted to get a picture and video tape. I tried to get a little on tape but it just sounds like static and you can't really see anything because the power went out and it was the middle of the night. I was bummed about that. Why do natural disasters seem to always happen in the middle of the night? Anyway, we could've had so much fun in a hurricane! I really wish you were there! (People who might be reading this who aren't you are probably like "great friend she is. wanting to drag someone into a hurricane with her." but I know you get me, thats whats so fun about you).
Now I'm in Middleton and you're not here and that really stinks. I tried to get my family to go through Rexburg after we took Andrew to the MTC. They said it was too far out of the way. I wish you were here! Hey, whay aren't you here? You're best friend is within driving distance and you won't even go see her!? Whats that about. I guess I just love you more than you love me. Oh well, I'm leaving to go back down to Jumanji on Monday. Daniel says they STILL don't have power. And it is HOT. Oh well, maybe I can sweat off the last 10 pounds I have to lose.
OK. Really. We need to start formulating our plan here soon. Our husbands are graduating soon (somewhat) and we are going to start needing to break them down so that we end up being neighbors for the rest of our lives. We need to make it happen Tiff. Because seriously, I don't think I can live without you. I am scouting out a nice spot of land in Magnolia...it has our names written all over it...if only we could convince the Daniels...
So you "tagged" me, I didn't even know I was playing, but I guess that means its my turn to answer your questions. Here it is:
1. 3 Joys
Tiffany Dunn
Breyers Rocky Road
Really good kisses (but not from Tiffany Dunn)

2. 3 Fears
That everyone I love will die and go to heaven and I will be left alive and alone.
Going crazy.
Living a boring and unhappy life.

3. Current Goals
Get my hubby graduated
Get my son walking
Get myself together

4. Current Obsessions
Scrapbooking
Interior Decorating
Self-help

5. Random facts about me
I am more fun around Tiffany Dunn than anyone else in the world.
I have a fifth grade picture of myself that looks just like Legolus off of Lord of the Rings.
I secretly wish I was a rockstar and I can't wait to be old so that I have an excuse to act completely ridiculous and wear outrageous hats. (those last two things were oddly unrelated)


There you go Tiff! NOw I guess I'm sposed to tag someone...I tag Aubrey and Lisa! Tiff! I love you and miss you tons! I will be better at ccalling you! I hope you enjoyed your own little post from me to you!