So it has been awhile since I have updated my blog. So I will just let you a little of what has been going on with us. Not much really has happened we have been busy just getting ready for Christmas. For awhile I wasn't really in the Christmas Spirit this year, but as the snow has come and it is getting closer I can't wait. Niklas is soooo excited he talks all the time about how Santa is going to bring him toys, and of course he is asking for everything in the world that he sees. I was so pleased this year that when he saw Santa at our Ward Christmas Breakfast this year he was excited to sit on his lap. I was sure that once we got up to see him he wouldn't sit on Santa's lap just like the years before. To my suprise he got right up in Santa's lap and said Santa I want toys and a helmet. Ever since Cory started taking Niklas to the U of U football games Niklas has been asking for a helmet. It was so cute. But stupid me I totally forgot to take the camera so unfortunately there is no picture of the experience. We are so excited to see Niklas expression on Christmas morning. We hope all of you have a good and safe Holiday Season

Fall Family Photographs 2008

So we decided to have our family pictures done this fall. It has been awhile since we had them taken. I asked my dad if he could do the pictures for us this year. I have to say I think they turned out really good. Here are some of my favorites.

Here is Cory and I. This is really my most favorite because Cory is so good lucking. He photographs so well. He doesn't think so but I sure do.

Cory really liked this one of him and Niklas because of how Nik is looking at him.

Isn't this man good looking I am definately getting a print of this one.

We decided to have our pictures taken at the Great Salt Lake at Black rock. It was really fun and they turned out great. Niklas coroporated very well considering he is only 3.

This is my other favorite pic of our little family. Now I get to have the fun of picking the photograph that will be displaying in our home. I must say that isn't going to be an easy decision. I really would like to thank my dad for doing these for us. I also want him to know that we are very pleased and that he did an excellent job considering he was very nervous. We love you dad and thanks again for making these memories for us.

Twilight the Movie

So I went and saw Twilight on Saturday night with Adie. We first went to our favorite place to eat when we go to a movie Chick Fila, they have the best chicken ever. Then we went to the District in South Jordan for the 8:00 pm showing of Twilight. I had talked to my mom earlier in the day to see if she liked Twilight and she told me not to go with any expectations, which I already wasn't planning on doing that because the movies are never as good as the books. I must say that I totally loved it I am actually going with a neighbor on Tuesday to see it for a 2nd time. Yes I am totally a dork. I loved everyone they chose for the parts. I really liked Alice she was everything I expectated of her. The only thing I didn't really like was the way that Edward was dressed I think that could have been a lot better. I will post some pics of our night at the movies as soon as Adie emails them to me because I am totally forgetful and didn't take my camera. Adie and I also wore our shirts that we wore to the Breaking Dawn party. Yes we are dorks like I said before. We had a blast. I can't believe how many cheered during the movie. Oh yeah and I was way excited to see the trailer for Harry Potter can't wait . I can't wait for New Moon to come out in a movie now. I really hope that they will be able to make all the rest of the Twilight series into movies. Anyway So that is about it on the movie. I will just say it one more time I LOVED THE MOVIE TWILIGHT and I will probably see it more than twice.

High School Tag

1. DID YOU DATE SOMEONE FROM YOUR SCHOOL? No I dated a guy from another school.
2.WHAT KIND OF CAR DID YOU DRIVE? I drove my dad' s chevy s10 pickup truck which I loved to drive..
3. DID YOU PASS YOUR DRIVER'S LICENSE TEST YOUR FIRST TRY? yes, I did
4. WHERE YOU A PARTY ANIMAL? not really..
5. WERE YOU CONSIDERED A FLIRT? um yeah
6. WERE YOU IN BAND, ORCHESTRA, OR CHOIR? "Choir only for the choir tour though!!!!
7. WERE YOU A NERD? I don't think so
8. WERE YOU ON ANY VARSITY TEAMS? Nope
9. DID YOU EVER GET SUSPENDED/EXPELLED? no
10. CAN YOU STILL SING THE FIGHT SONG? No .
11. WHO WERE YOUR FAVORITE TEACHERS? Mrs Boley and Ms Brown my yearbook advisor
12. WHERE DID YOU SIT FOR LUNCH? In the Cafeteria on the first tables as you walked into Stonehenge.
13. WHAT IS YOUR SCHOOL'S FULL NAME? Granger High School
14. WHAT IS YOUR SCHOOL'S MASCOT AND COLORS? Lancer, Red, Blue, and Grey
15. DID YOU GO TO HOMECOMING AND WITH WHO? soph year no Junior Yeatr I went with a Kid named Mario and Senior I went with a Kid named Colin Goff
16. IF YOU COULD GO BACK AND DO IT AGAIN WOULD YOU? No way
17. WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER MOST ABOUT GRADUATION? Not much I remember that my family was there and then we went to dinner that is about it
18. WHERE DID YOU GO SENIOR SKIP DAY? I don't remember a senior skip day but then again I did skip alot of classes anyway..
19. WERE YOU IN ANY CLUBS? Spirit Club (soph year)
20. HAVE YOU GAINED SOME WEIGHT SINCE THEN? Yes I have and I am currently working on losing it..
21. WHO WAS YOUR PROM DATE? I went my Junior with Richard Sharp and my Senior year with a kid named Craig Chapman from Gunison
22. ARE YOU PLANNING ON GOING TO YOUR 10 YEAR REUNION? I am pretty sure if there is one I will go..
23. DID YOU HAVE A JOB IN HIGH SCHOOL? Yes i worked for ZCMI my senior year it is now Maceys
I tag Adie and Collette and anyone else who wants to do this tag

oh yeah one last thing, if I don't blog in a couple of weeks, we just want to Wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving

So I decided that it was time to blog again. Not much has really been going on with our little family. We had a really good Halloween it was fun to take Nik around the neighborhood and to our wards trunk or treat. We had Brian and Adie over for Halloween, I made broccoli cheese soup and we had bread bowls. It is a tradition that we started I think a year or two ago. Then we watch a scary movie this year we watched Watcher in the Woods why the kids watched the new Tinkerbell Movie. Nik is funny he likes all the princess movies. Maybe it is because all the guys get the girl in the end I don't really know. Anyway we are now excited for the Thanksgiving and Christmas Holidays coming just around the corner. We are way excited for Christmas because as Niklas gets older the more he gets excited. Every time he see an advertisement for a toy he says I want that then he says I will ask Santa. It is way to cute. I am looking forward to next weekend first off because it is the U of U BYU football game. Go U can't wait for that win. Also I am way more excited to go see Twilight. Yes I am one of those fanatics. I was hoping to go to the opening movie but I couldn't get anyone to go with me, so now I will be going Saturday night with Adie. I can't wait!!!!! I am pretty sure I will probably go see that a couple of times just like I saw Hairspray I think like three or four times. I know I am totally crazy. Then the next week we will be going to my Dad and Moms for Thanksgiving with my whole family. I love getting together with all of them. Well hopefully here in the next few days I will be able to post some pictures of Halloween that is if Cory brought home his computer from work.

So I know it has been awhile since my last blog. I must say not much has happened. However I did go to the Angels and Airwaves and the Weezer concert on the 7th of Oct with Adie, and holy cow it was awesome. Of course Angels and Airwaves rocked but I must say that Weezer does an excellent concert. I had such a blast. I will have to post some of the pictures I took. I have decided that Adie and I must look very innocent because it seemed like everybody was getting searched and patted down at the security and we didn't all they did was ask us if we had anything in our pockets and to shake our jackets. The rest of the month has been kind of slow. I do have to announce that my brother and sister in law had there baby and he is way cute this was there second. I am so happy for them. This month we have just been tring to get ready for Halloween which will be really fun this year. Niklas is going to be a pirate which he is so excited about. I of course will blog about Halloween once it is over. That is about all that has happened so far.

1) Name something you have in common with all of your siblings? We all have brownish hair.

2) Do you fold your underwear? yes

3) Do you like to drink the juice out of otter pops? Yep

4) Who is the last person you wrote a letter to on paper? To long to remember

5) What was your first job? Wendys.

6) Aside from Driver's Ed, who really taught you how to drive? My dad he took me driving for my first time he also taught me how to drive a clutch

7) What's the one thing you love/miss about your Grandma's cooking? Her mashed potatoes and roast

8) What color is your favorite hoodie? Kinda yellow and off white I got it in Disneyland

9) Name a sound that disturbs you? My alarm clock in the mornings.

10) What's your typical ice cream order at Dairy Queen? Just a peanut butter cup blizzard

11) What do you think of when you hear the word cabbage? Corn beef

12) What did you do today? Watched confrence and worked

13) What did you do last night? Made a witch decoration with my friend adie and went to dinner with my husband and his dad after priesthood session.

14) Do you have a cell phone? Yes!

15) Are you emotional? Sometimes especially when watching a sad show or reading a sad book

16) Have you ever had the same dream more than once? I think so but I don't ever remember my dreams

17) Name a song that makes you happy? Mama Mia

18) Do you use chap stick? Sometimes

19) What was the most recent thing you bought? Finishing spray for the craft I made last night.

20) What is on your refrigerator door? Pictures and magnets from Disneyland.

21) Name something you have to do tomorrow? Go to lunch with my aunt and work.

22) What was the last movie you watched? ??? 27 dresses last night.

23) Do you prefer regular or chocolate milk? Cream of Weber chocolate Milk

24) When was the last time you had Starbucks? Never don't drink coffee

25) Can you whistle? Yep

26) Do you have a trampoline at your house? nope

27) What movie do you know every line to? Robinhood Prince of Theives it was my favorite movie when I was a kid!

28) Do you maintain any friendships originating from elementary school? Yep Adie and Ginger mostly.

29) What are you wearing? black yofa pants and my Granger High School sweatshirt.

30) What was the last thing you ate? Chicken, rice and broccolli, and my homemade wheat bread.

31) Do you take pills daily of any sort? Yes pills to try and help me have another baby

32) When was the last time you did the dishes? Friday

33) How much sleep did you get last night? 7 Hours

34) Do you own any band t-shirts? Nope.... but hoping to get and Angels and Airwaves t-shirt Tuesday night at there concert with weezer.

35) Last song you sang out loud? a hymn during confrence can't remember which one

36) When was the last time you slept on the floor? Can't remember

37) Would you chew gum that's already been chewed? No that is gross

38) Who have you talked to today? Cory, Niklas my neighbors the Lanes that is about it kinda a slow day

39) What comes to your mind when I say pumpkins? Halloween and I need to get them so we can carve them

40) Color of your shirt? Gray

41) How old are you? 27

42) What is your background on your computer? My husbands computer is of Niklas on Pirate Island in DisneyLand I only have my work computer and it is a raindrop.

A Girls Night Out

So last night our little neighborhood had a girls night out. It was so much fun. We went to dinner at the Gateway. There were about 10 of us all together. It was a really good way to get to know one another outside of church.
We talked probably about everything from kids to school. It was nice just be away from the kids. We had Sarah, Michelle, Melissa, Leah, Heather, Crystal, Stacy, Shay and Amy and me. I wish more had been able to come. Hopefully if we do this again the ladies who couldn't make this time will be able to come.
I just have to say thank you to Leah and Tammy for throwing this together. I hope everyone else who was there last night had as much fun as I did.
The resturant that we went to and I am sorry but I can't remember what it was called. Was really good. It wasn't very crowded either. That could have been because it was a Tuesday. Which I think are the best days to do things. Our Server was really good.
I can't wait until we have another night out. I think it is good to do these kind of things. Especially for the dads to have to be home with the kids. It is good quality time for them.

Play Group at Kangaroo Zoo

So yesterday was our play group with our ward, and once a month we do one big activity and this month we all went to Kagaroo Zoo in North Salt Lake. Kangaroo Zoo is a place full of the blow up slides and bouncy rooms. We had so much fun playing with all of Niklas' friends. We went on all of the slides and played on the bouncy one.
Niklas had no fear he went from one to the other without hesitation. Needles to say we most likely will be going back as a family. Niklas really wants to take daddy.
Niklas loved climbing up the ladders to the slides and he had no problem. He and his friend James were totally unseperatable. If one would go someplace the other would follow and they would chase each other through the mazes and up the ladders.
Niklas and I can't wait to go back. Yes it is even fun for the adults to. Because we get to play on the slides. We love Kangaroo Zoo.

Which Disney Princess Are You?
	You are Cinderella. You are hard-working and never complain, however, your trust is sometimes misplaced and people sometimes take advantage of you. Still, you are beautiful inside and out, and one day you will realize it and find true love.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

Which Disney Character Are You?
	You are part Mickey Mouse. You are a born leader. You make most of the decisions and have most of the ideas. This is mainly because you are a great problem solver and aren't afraid to take the lead.
	You are part Minnie Mouse. You are a sweet, caring person. You are there when your friends need you and, because you care, you aren't afraid to correct your friends...sometimes harshly.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

TAG Your It

3 names you go by: Amanda, Mandy, Mom
3 things you are wearing right now: my pajamas, my glasses and my watch
3 resturants I love: Olive Garden, Italian Village and The Roof
3 Favorite things to do: Scrap book, read books and be with my family
3 trips you plan on this year: Disneyland Disneyland and did I already say Disneyland
3 things you want badly: Fall to finally come, My family to always be happy, learn to sew
3 people who will do this: I have no idea
3 pets you have/had: a dog names snuffles, a dog named teddy and our current dog oreo
3 things you did yesterday: went to lunch with my aunt, took Nik jacket back, and cleaned my house
3 things you ate today: Macaroni and Cheese, Spagetti, and Ice Cream
3 Goals: Be more patient, go walking on my days off can't think of a third
3 Fears: don't really know
3 things you plan on doing today: Maybe make more bread, have my cabinet repaired, and maybe take a nap
3 things you plan on doing tomorrow: Go to my bowling league, Clean my house and do laundry
3 Favorite Holidays: Christmas, Thanksgiving and of course Halloween
3 favorite beverage: Diet Coke, Water and Milk

My anniversary

I totally forgot to blog about my anniversary. Can you believe it Cory and I celebrated our 7th anniversary this month. I can't believe it has been so long. Were does the time go. Our anniversary happened to be on a Sunday this year so we didn't go out until the Monday, I do have to give alot of thanks to my parents for watching Nik for us so that we could go to dinner. Cory took Monday off and we decided to take Niklas to the zoo. It was really fun. We then took Nik to my mom and dads. Cory and I decided then that we would go to Tepanyaki Japanese Steak house. If you haven't been it is really good. Usually Cory and I go to the roof, but this year was a little crazy. So we ended up going to dinner just the two of us which doesn't happen very often. We had so much fun. It is good to have some adult time. Unfortunately though as the night went on I did get sick. So as soon as we were done with dinner we headed straight to my parents to pick up Niklas. I felt horrid. Cory and I then went home and I went right to bed. What a way to end a great day and night with my two favorite guys. I know Niklas had a blast and his grandparents because it was really hard to get him to leave. Also the next day all he could talk about was how much he loves grandpa and grandma, which is a first considering he won't even tell us that he loves us very often. Every time we ask him if he loves us and his grandparents he usually says no I love my Hayley. ( For those of you who don't know who Hayley is she is my friend Adie's daughter who is 2 months older than Nik) of course how can you be affended by that, especially when is so sweet about it.

Putting in our Yard Yea! About time

So for some of you, you already know that we have our yard in. But for the rest this is new to you. We are so excited to have our yard in. It was alot of work for Cory. Especially when you have a little helper. Niklas had a blast helping Cory with the yard from putting the dirt into the wheel barrel. It was fun. Cory then decided to go and rent a little bobcat. It was way to funny to watch him actually drive it.
But what can I say it made all the difference in the world. We were able to move that dirt in half the time. We also let Niklas have a ride in the bobcat. Unfortunately I forgot to get the camera for that. But he had a blast. He loved to watch Cory move the dirt in the bobcat.
Until we got our sod, this is how Niklas always looked when he was helping. Lets just say that Niklas got really sick of baths. But isn't he so cute. Especially when he has dirt all over his face.

But again Niklas can't stop helping. He tried to so hard to lift the sod off the palets and lay it with the older boys. We had lots of neighbors come and help and we appreciated it so much. Even one of Cory's 11 year old scouts came and helped. I guess he really wanted the service credit. We are so happy to finally have it all finished. I have to say that Cory did way more work in the yard than I did. But it has now cut down on the dirt in our house. We can now let Oreo out and not have to worry about mud. Which is wonderful. Pretty soon we will have the rest of our yard finished.

Bottling Peaches and making bread

It has a been a long time since I haved blogged I am sorry. But here it goes. So I decided to try and save us some money and I am now making my own whole wheat bread. My first time making the bread wasn't that great the bread was really over done but sweet Cory said that it tasted really good and seems to be really supportive of my attempt. Then I decided that I was going to buy some peaches this year from a lady in our ward. I didn't want to make freezer jam considering that I still have plenty if anyone wants any from last year. So I decided to learn how to bottle. My Aunt came over and taught me how. So now I have 11 bottles of peaches. They are pretty good I must say so myself.
My next attempt at bottling is going to be making my own dill pickles. I hope I can handle that. But with how prices are going up I am trying to become more of a home maker. i am hoping that next year I will be able to get my garden planted then I will grow some of the vegetables that I want. I do have to say though I do have tomatoe plants and all of my tomatoes are starting to turn red. They are really good. So I hope you all enjoy my experience of bottling my peaches and making bread.

Ok Ok Ok finally after all the complaining about not having the disneyland pics posted here are the ones that I think are the cutest. Yes Niklas was the only boy.
I think this is the only one that all three were finally looking at us to take the picture. It took about three tries.
and here we are with eeyore and winnie the pooh these are unfortunately the only characters we have pictures of this time because it was so busy as I said before never again am I going in the summer to disneyland.
and here are the kids again driving a car in toon towne of course Niklas thinks that he has to always be the one driving. I hope all of you are now happy that I have pictures on my blog.

I decided that I need to blog about my sons 3rd birthday. Yes can you believe it Niklas is 3 years old. Where does the time go. Niklas had a great birthday we invited everyone to his party it seems. We had most of our family and friends at our house to celebrate with us. We also had some of Niks friends there as well. It was kind of a crazy day to start out. I had my cousin Karie's bridal shower that morning which was really fun to see my extended family. And Cory had Nik at a Father and Sons camp out. Which from what I get they had a blast. After the shower I had to hurry home to get ready for Nik's party. But before I could go home I had to stop and get the balloons and also the cute cake, that I let Niklas pick out.

Then I had to finish wrapping all of Niks gifts from me and Cory. Needless to say it still all turned out ok. Niklas had a blast with all of his friends and family here. He got lots of toys and clothes. His grandpa and grandma Johnson got him his bedding for his new big boy bed that Cory and I got him for his birthday. I have to say that his favorite gifts that he got are the Cozy Coupe Car that his grandma and grandpa Hill gave him. He wanted nothing else after opening that gift. He even cried when I made him open the rest of the gifts.

We then sang happy birthday to him after all the gifts were open and had cake and ice cream. After everyone was gone we took Niklas out to dinner at Wingers with our friends Adie and Brian and of course Nik's friend and their daughter Hayley. After dinner we came back to our house and watched a movie while the kids played with all of Niks new toys. I hope they had fun because I know that we sure did.


I want to thank everyone who was able to come I know it meant alot to our little family. Mindi I know you would have been here. But you needed to be at your Grandpas 80th birthday. Which I consider very important. We will get together soon. I still can't believe that my baby is 3 it makes me sad to think that in 2-3 years he will be starting Kindergarten. I have to say that scares me to death. But I guess I will get used to the idea. Ok maybe not.

I decided that I need to blog about my trip to Disneyland this week. It was so much fun. I went with just a whole bunch of girls and 3 of us had kids so we of course had to take them with us. It was great just being with the girls for once and no husbands. We left on Tuesday morning and went straight to Disneyland. I finally got my annual pass there so that I don't have to buy park hopper passes any longer which is great. We first went over to California Adventures and rode the I think it is called the Bear River and Tower of Terror. We saw Mr Incredible and Elastic Girl or Mrs Incredible in California Adventures unfortunately I didn't get any pics of them. We then went to our hotel and then went back to Disneyland and had dinner at a pretty good resturant in Disneyland we got a lot of food for a pretty good price, then I took Niklas on the rocket ships and then of course the Buzz Lightyear Ride which is his favorite. We also saw a little bit of Fantasia show that evening after getting off the Haunted mansion. We then went and rode Space mountain. I have to say I really love the parent swap option that they give you at Disneyland. I will however probably never go to Disneyland again during the summer. It was so crowded that I had a really hard time even pushing my stroller through the crowds and I am totally not one for the big crowds. I would rather go during the off season when hardly anyone else goes. I don't even care if I go when it is raining. I actually prefered the rainy season because people stay away. But I will admit that even though it was crowded I did have a blast. As soon as I can get my pics downloaded I will add them to the blog so you all can see Nik having a fun. I can't wait to go again. We got home on Thursday morning and I was very glad to be home. I was extremely tired and so was Niklas we slept most of the day. We are so happy to be home.

So I have decided that I need to blog about the BD party at Barnes and Noble. If you are confused by the BD it was the Breaking Dawn release party Friday night. I have to say it was so much fun. Stupid me though I forgot my camera to take pics. Hopefully one of my friends will send them to me. HINT HINT Mindi or Adrian. Then I can post them. We had about a group of 10-15 women and teenagers in our group and we all wore the same Shirts. The shirts were the best ever. Once I get a pic of them I will post. We first went to Mr C's in Jordan Landing around 7:30 pm and we ate lots of samples it was fun. Then we went to Deseret Book to add one person to our already prepaid books. That was at 8:00 pm, then we went over to Barnes and Nobles for the BD Party. What a mad house. It was so crowded but it was a total blast. I would totally do that again. We tried to get on the Fox 13 news but they didn't show are shirts. However everyone loved our shirts. We had twilightmoms.com take pics of our shirts. Also 101.9 the end. I think instead of having a prom dress contast they should have had a T-Shirt contast. I think that our shirts would have totally won. We did leave the party to go get some food. We went over to Jordan Landing got some food. Then around 11:00 we headed back to Barnes and Noble to find the rest of our group. By that time they had kicked everyone out of the store. It was crazy how many people were there. I thought it was great that some of the younger teenagers had their dads there. Then about 11:30 we headed over to Deseret Book so we could get in line. How wonderful is that we went with some teenagers who didn't mind getting in line for us. It was so much fun. We all got our books and then of course raced home so that we could start reading them. I got home around 1:00 in the morning and went straight to my room and started reading the book. Unfortunately my husband then came to bed after playing the XBox around 2:00 a.m and told me that I need to put the book away so that I could get some sleep before I worked at 4:00 a.m. So I finished the chapter I was on and went to bed. I did read all day on Saturday and then finally at 11:00 in the morning on Sunday I had finished the book. I have to say this is my Favorite out of the 4 books that she wrote. Don't get me wrong I really like all of them. For heaven sake I got alot of my other friends to read them and now they are addicts like me. But I really liked how this one just flowed and never stopped. I can't wait for the movie to come in December. And yes I will be one of those crazy people in my awesome T-Shirt at the 12:00 am showing. Hopefully others will want to come to. I think that about sums up my Friday- Sunday morning. I had a blast. I hope everyone else we were with did as well.

Cory and I have been married 7 years this September. We have one little boy who can you believe is going to be 3 years old on August 23rd. We sold our home in West Jordan over 2 years ago and built a home in Stansbury Park. We have lived in our new home now for almost a year. We moved in on our anniversary last year. I think that is a great anniversary gift. We love our new home and are making great friends out here.