Happiness

Is it a choice? Is it a consequence? Is it a gift? Is it perspective? I have to admit, I’ve always basically thought it was a choice. And, I’ve read in the scriptures that it is also a consequence of righteous living. But is it that simple? Over my MANY years (hee hee) I’ve come to think that maybe it’s not. I’ve met so many good people who struggle with being happy. . .and it’s never seemed to be that hard for me. . .which leads me to believe now that maybe it’s a gift too. We are told that we can and should be happy in this life, and obviously NOT only when life is easy, because it never is! So why is it so hard for so many people? I don’t know the answer. I’m curious to hear what you all think. All I do know is that I’ll continue to consider my happiness as one of my gifts or blessings, and thank Heavenly Father for it every day!

and the bedrooms. . .

Since we found out we are having a boy before we painted, we got to paint a cute blue in the soon-to-be nursery! It goes well with the girl's bedding until then too! I love the walls being tan and having one accent wall so I can change a room easily by just painting one wall if I ever want to. :)

Remodel COMPLETE!!!

We're finished! Boy, what a ride, but SO worth it! We LOVE our new floors (carpet, slate, and travertine), fireplace mantle, bathroom counters (tile), couches, and paint (in bedrooms and bathrooms). We've lived in a bunch of dust, mess, and disorganization for the past month and now we get to put it all back together and see the finished product. BEAUTIFUL. Here are some befores and afters:

100 Days To Go!!!!

Thanks to Christina who noted her 100 day mark, I thought it would be fun to see when I only had 100 days left until our little guy is due to be born. Today is the day, and I can't believe it. I'm SO excited to be pregnant again, and to think that we'll have another little one in our family in so short a time. I can't wait. The kids love to give him kisses and whisper secrets to him already. :) What a joy it is in our family just anticipating his arrival!

The SEALED Envelope!

So, Dave and I decided we were not going to find out what our baby was this time. We didn't find out with Mark or Darci and we did find out with Kyra. I loved both ways, but Dave liked NOT knowing more, thus our decision. So, last month we had our first ultrasound and we did not find out the sex. Everything looked great, but the baby wouldn't turn enough to see the mouth perfectly, so we asked if we could have another just to be sure. . . . Last week was our second ultrasound. When we got in the room the tech confirmed that we didn't want to know the sex, when Dave said "Weeeeeeeeelllllll, maybe we should have you write it down and put it in an envelope, then we can decide if/when we want to find out." I was shocked! "Really?" I thought that was a brilliant idea, I mean, who could have it in an envelope and NOT decide to open it?! I had to stay for my apt., so Dave took the envelope and went home. We didn't even really mention it for a few days as our lives are in a bit of disarray while we are getting our flooring updated. But, each time I thought about it I got more and more excited to open that sealed envelope. I asked Dave where it was and he would only reply that he wasn't sure where he put it. . .ya, right! But, he wasn't ready to open it yet. He wanted to come up with a fun way to do it. We talked about waiting until we were in Disneyland, going out for a romantic dinner, letting the kids open it and tell us, etc. On Sunday the kids finally got excited enough about it that they started bugging us to let them open it. We decided it would be fun to let Mark read it and tell Kyra, who then could tell Darci, who got to tell Dave, who then got to tell me. . ."IT'S A BOY!!!" It was pretty fun. Kyra and I were shocked. I knew I was having another girl!! :) Here's a pic of me holding the ultrasound picture that says "it's a boy":

I'm 26 weeks--just entering the third trimester--and feeling great. We've been discussing names, and when I mentioned one that Darci didn't like she said, "Well, it still might be a girl, so she won't have that name." I told her that we KNEW it was a boy because they took a picture of it in my tummy and could see that it was a boy. I asked her if she knew HOW they could know it was a boy. She replied that it probably had boy (short) hair. I told her that ALL babies had short hair and that they STILL knew it was a boy. She was confused, so as I tried to get her to figure it out on her own, we continued to have a very funny conversation: "How do you know that Breanna is a girl and Reed is a boy?" "Well, Breanna's feet aren't as big as Reed's and Breanna has girl eyes." "OK, well, some babies are just big, and they all have pretty eyes, what else can you think of?" "ummm. . ." "Well, what about when you change their diapers, is there anything different?"  "OH!!! Ya! Breanna's diapers have yellow ducks and Reed's have green frogs!" OK, forget it, I didn't want to jeopardize her innocence so we just left the conversation at that! :)

Dave is intrigued

It's Dave, I am intrigued that I am just now finding out my family has a blog.  I soon will have Jedi powers and actually know how to post as me.  Sad, as I am a computer guy.

What happens when you're MY Valentine!

Julie, Evelyn (my sister-in-laws) and I surprised our husbands for Valentine's and took them snowmobiling in Heber. We had a really great time, with the exception of a few minor incidents. . .

(Sorry, since I can't seem to figure out how to get writing between the pictures without screwing everything up, I'll give you the story first and then you can see the pics.)

We had some white-out conditions that aided us in getting lost for a little while! :) We got stuck a few times and had to crawl around in the snow--because when we tried to walk we would sink to our middles! It was actually pretty hilarious crawling, and watching the others crawl around in the snow! lol Julie took a jump and landed harder than she expected, causing her to nearly fly over the handlebars, luckily she wasn't hurt! Dave took a jump he didn't see, and smashed his face into the windshield of the snowmobile. When he tasted blood he wondered if he'd broken his nose or knocked out his front teeth, but luckily it wasn't as bad as either of those scenarios. It split open under his lip and above his teeth, losing his frenulum, which left a deep/large hole. After getting back to the lodge and evaluating the injury we all decided we better skip dinner in Park City and head home so Dave could have it looked at. . .not to mention we were worried that if he ate anything he would probably get food in the opening! So we dropped everyone off at home and headed for the instacare. When they saw the hole they turned us away and said it was a job for the ER! DANG!!! Two hours later Dave got three stitches and antibiotics and was finally sent home. We picked up a Jumba Juice and Kneaders sandwich to top off the night. Over all, we had a great day together! :)