"Here she is, Miss America"

It's pageant time! Yes the perks of living in Las Vegas are procuring tickets to the Miss America Pageant Preliminaries. Geoff's company audits the Miss America Pageant so he got free tickets. So we rounded up the girls and headed to the pageant.



My sisters April and Monica

Aleena, Rochelle, April, Monica

Here are a few pictures of the contestants. I wish I had written down who was who. I really liked Miss Florida and a few others I don't remember. The best part was at the very beginning the contestants were introducing themselves, the attire was a spaghetti strap tank top and jeans. It was hard not to notice one girl that was wearing a Shade shirt, we new she had to be Miss Utah and she was! I was really proud of her.

This video is of Miss Montana's interview, definitely the funniest of the night. Sorry it shakes so much, we were laughing so hard!

Evening Gowns

The night was ripe with frilly over the top dresses that the contestants felt a need to fan out. I guess that is the only way to get the full effect. A few were very beautiful and not too over done.

Talent

The talent portion was everything cliche to pageants. Super dramatic and over the top. I am sorry that I didn't get a video of the a monologue, very pagentesque! Don't get me wrong they were all very talented girls, just all trying every ploy to "one-up" each other. Overall very entertaining!

Miss Utah is the one on the right.

5 months!

My baby is 5 months old. She is getting so big and not just in size, though she is a whopping 17 pounds and 26.5 inches long. Laila is very sweet and loves to be where the action is. This part poses a problem because even through the night she doesn't want to miss anything. As a result Laila's new room is the Laundry room downstairs. Now she can wake up as much as she wants without waking anyone else in the house. This might sound cruel but believe me, her life is way better now that I am getting more sleep I am a much nicer mom.

I feel so blessed to have two happy and healthy girls.

The best thing that happened today.

The last few weeks have been tough. I am not going to go into details, but it hasn't been pretty. So as I was wallowing in my pessimism, it hit me, nothing was getting better because I had not made a space for it. I have never seen myself as a negative person I am usually pretty upbeat. It hit me, the other day I had a phone call from Geoff and my Mom and I heard myself clearly for the first time. They both asked how my day had been and I went off on how bad everything was. I had become "that person", you know, the one that you put off calling because you feel the dark cloud over your head the whole time your talking to them. Geoff used to call whenever he had a minute and I realized that he rarely called during the day.

How was my life going to get any better if I kept myself stuck in such a negative pattern? I felt trapped in a vicious circle. The more I focused on all the bad things, the more depressed I became. The more depressed I became, the more I focused on what was all wrong in my life.

When I realized that I am the only one that can change my perspective, I turned to Gratitude. This is the best way I know to change behaviors. When I am focusing on the things that I am grateful for, they only multiply and increase leaving no room for the negative.

This is a lesson that I have had to learn many times in my life and I am sure this will not be the last. I am amazed how easy it is to fall into negative patterns and I am equally amazed at the opportunity for personal growth when I come out of it!

So the reason for this post is to share what I am thankful for today. I am thankful for sounds...or the lack thereof. This morning I listened to beautiful church hymns while listening to Aria play "mommy" to her babies. One of my favorite sounds in the world is Laila "talking". She has so much to say and loves to coo. Because I decided that today I am thankful for sounds I really started listening and I never realized that Aria has the most wonderful pitch to her voice, it is the sweetest high pitched melody. I am grateful for the sound of Geoff's voice at the end of the day, his sound is a solid foundation that grounds and stabilizes me.

At this moment, as I write this post, I am thankful for the lack of sound. The girls are in bed the house is picked up and I am feeling overwhelmed at what a wonderful day it has been. I thankful for all the bad things so that the good things are even that much better!

Alta High School Class of 2000!

"Who rocks the house? The Hawks rock the house, and when the Hawks rock the house they rock it all the way down. HUH!"

That's right all you Alta Hawks out there, it is almost time for our 10 year class reunion. I know, I know, it is still more then 2 years away but for attendance and planning purposes it is time to get on the ball.

I have set up an Alta High Class of 2000 blog. I don't know if this is the best way to do it, but for right now this is what I can do. The blog will post any information needed to have an awesome 10 year reunion.

Please visit the blog and make sure that all those that you are still in contact with get the information about the blog as well. We are hoping to make it an unforgettable event. I am hoping to post information monthly so make sure to check often.

altaclass2000.blogspot.com
altaclass2000@gmail.com

Go Hawks!

CAUTION...potty training!

My new years resolution: Stop spending hundreds of dollars a month on diapers!



Aria is now 2 years 3 months, is it time to potty train yet? I love the Internet but today I hate it! This morning I googled "potty training" and got an overload of conflicting information.

Don't give rewards, give rewards, get a little training toilet, don't get a training toilet, etc, etc! There are also about 2 million potty training books, which is the best?



AHHHH!



I need real advice from people that have actually have done this. What do I do? Where do I start? Does anyone have any good advice that actually worked for you? What is the best book to read? I would love any guidance!

Thank you!

Merry Christmas!

Sorry this post is a little late, but I wanted to remember our Christmas of 2007! It was actually a very wonderful Christmas. Geoff was supposed to work Christmas Eve and the day after Christmas so we couldn't go home to Utah for Christmas. To make a very long story short, he was able to take those days off of work so we packed in the car on Sunday and surprised Geoff's family for a Christmas.

Christmas Eve was spent with Geoff's extended family for a wonderful dinner and a cute program. It was the remaking of "The Grinch that stole Christmas" Geoff was the Grinch-perfect role!

Christmas day was spent with my family in Draper. It was very nice, Aria loved all of her presents that Santa brought to her! Thank you to everyone that made our Christmas so wonderful, we appreciate the generosity!

We are so glad that we actually spent Christmas with both of our families. We realized that we would have been very lonely alone in Las Vegas. It was a Christmas wish come true!

These are Aria and Laila's Christmas dresses! So cute.

4 Years!

Today is our Anniversary. We have been married 4 years! It has been a wonderful 4 years full of lots of fun and a few challenges. I feel very lucky to have married Geoff, he is perfect for me. He is very kind, patient, loyal, aware and funny. I appreciate him more and more as time goes by. As you can see by the pictures below, he is my soul mate. I found someone that loves to dress up just as much as I do.

I am thankful that we have had a wonderful 4 years and I am looking forward to many years that we will have together. I love you Geoff!

Happy Birthday Grandma Joeen

Happy Birthday Grandma Joeen! We are missing you and wish we were there with you to celebrate.

We love love you!

Jingle Bells Batman Smells?

"Jingle Bells" has been Aria's favorite Christmas song to sing. The other day I asked her what song she wanted to sing and she said, "Jingle Bells". I started to sing and she said,"No, Batman smells". Earlier that day she had spent some time with her cousins and the result was the elementary school version of "Jingle Bells". Here she is singing her favorite Christmas song!

Even though the screen is black, press play and it will work.

The Saga Continues...

Thank you to all those that commented and gave advice on Aria's sleep drama. I thought you might like an update on what has been happening.

After the initial night that I posted about, things have gotten better little by little. Because Aria will not be told what to do, for two nights she slept on the floor just inside her room but she still woke up a few times in the night. We finally decided that she couldn't sleep on the floor forever and that was contributing to her waking up at night. So we went back to the fight and made sure that she slept in her bed.

How did we do this you ask? Aria sleeps on the bottom bed of a bunk bed, and it has been since she has been sleeping there that she keeps waking up at night. We decided to just take the mattress off and put it on the floor to see how she would do. We also bought her a brighter night light. That night she did much better. I woke up to feed Laila around 4:00am and Aria was on the floor in her room, but she never came into our room.

The next night we added a heater blowing in her face (thanks Renee) she fell asleep after having to be put in bed 3 times, woke up once during the night but only had to be put in bed 2 times. This is a huge improvement.

Thank you for all posting encouraging comments. The day that we will all be able to sleep through the night is much closer then I would have imagined a week ago.

As an added bonus, since Aria has been sleeping better so has Laila. Laila was waking up every 2 hours to eat during the night, the last 2 nights she has only woken up once to eat! Hurray! I think I can do this. It is amazing how much more I get done in the day because I don't feel like a zombie anymore!

Outnumbered

Today I did a little babysitting. I realized when these 3 boys walked into my house asking for cars and "guys" that I was in trouble. I have 2 girls. I don't need "guys", I need babies and barbies.

I really should get some boy toys. I have noticed that everyone Aria plays with is a boy. All of her cousins that live by us are boys and all of her friends from nursery are boys. Poor thing is outnumbered. Good thing she has a little sister.

Next challenge was that 3 of the 5 kids are 2-years-old. As you can imagine this proved for a lot of fighting and crying. I took this picture within 10 minutes of the kids coming over. I really should have taken an "after" picture.

Overall it was an interesting morning. I learned that the key to a boys heart is food. Thank goodness for granola bars and pretzels.

Iron Will

This post is for the soul purpose of looking back a long time in the future and maybe laughing about this situation.

Since Aria decided to sleep in a "big girl" bed, sleeping has been a nightmare. It takes 1 hour to get her to go to sleep and then she wakes up 4-6 times during the night, which requires 15-45 minutes to get her back to sleep.

I decided I have had enough! I was headed straight to the hadware store buy a lock for her door. Well Geoff and my mom said I had to try absolutly everything before I resorted to locking her in her room. I found a book called "Healthy Sleep Habbits, Happy Child"and I decided to implement its ideas.

The first idea was to make a poster of sleep rules and have her help me make it and make sure she understood the rules.

Next idea was to do the usual bedtime routine give her a kiss and leave the room. If she got out of bed we needed to put her back to bed without talking to her. Putting her back in bed as many times as she got out of bed.

BAD IDEA! We left her in her room and she immediatly got out. At first she was sad about it then it became a fun game. She would come into our room and stand there with a big smile on her face. Back to bed. Come into our room. Smile and dance around. Back to bed. This went on for a while before Geoff and I had had enough. Time for spanking!

It was a sad, very stressful couple of hours of putting Aria to bed. This girl has a will of iron. She will not be controled. Are you wondering how many times we put her back to bed? I lost count at 150 times, yes 150 times. She finally stoped leaving her room. She would get out of her bed then open the door and lay on the floor just inside her room.

At least she relized we were not going to let her get out of her room. We let her fall asleep on the floor then transfered her to her bed.

The story does not end there. She woke up around 2:30 am and it was another test of wills. It was Geoff's night for the fight and I am sad to say that he never really got to go back to sleep.

I know my parents will be reading this laughing and thinking that I am getting what I deserve, a child with a will similar to my own.

The book recomends trying this for 4 nights. If she isn't sleeping in her bed after 4 nights, I am sorry mom and Geoff, she will be locked in her room!

A Cactus Wonderland

Tonight was a wonderful night with the McGiven family. We started the night off with dinner at our house. It was pretty crazy with Aria freaking out anytime one of the twins touched any of her stuff, so basically she was freaking out the entire time. Then we went to Henderson's version of Temple Square. It is the Cactus Gardens at the Ethel M. Chocolate Factory. It was awesome. There were so many lights all over the Cactus, Cholla, Yucca and more. The weather also felt like Temple Square, we bundled up for the chilly 50 degrees :)

Then for the gourmet hot chocolate. We couldn't leave a chocolate factory without getting any hot chocolate. Funny thing was that Geoff didn't even like the gourmet $4 hot chocolate. Luckily Aria loved it.

Delicious!

The girls chit chatting over hot chocolate.

We are so glad that the McGiven's invited us to go. It made the Holidays seem a little more real.

Laila's Stocking

Did anyone know that Geoff is a seamstress, wait, maybe a semester? Yes he is! When Aria was brand new, he was out of school for the semester so he made her a stocking. Little did he know that he would start a tradition.

This is Santa Geoff sewing Laila's stocking. He actually enjoys doing this. I think he likes to shock people when he tells them that he sews.

Here is the finished product. I think he did a fabulous job!

A Night in Bethlehem

For our ward party this year we did "A Night in Bethlehem". We dressed in biblical outfits and headed to the ward party where we would be taxed with a food donation then feast. The feast was a bunch of booths that sold different parts of the feast, a butcher, fruit stand, farmers market etc. The night ended with a wonderful depiction of the birth of our Savior.

The sad part was that we spent a 30 minutes dressing up and didn't even where our costumes. When we drove up to the Stake Center we didn't see anyone enter in biblical costume. Geoff refused to be the only one dressed up so we took everything off. There were actually plenty of people dressed up we would have fit right in. Oh well.

This party was a wonderful way to kick off the Christmas season. I get so caught up in buying presents, decorating, baking that I hardly put any thought or energy in what the season is really about. The birth of Jesus Christ, our Savior. What are some spiritual based traditions that you have?

Mary and Joseph

Laila was too big for her swaddling clothes.

3 months old

My sweet darling baby is already 3 months old. Laila is so wonderful. She is always happy, she laughs and smiles all of the time. She rarely makes any unhappy sound. She is such a joy to have around. Her Auntie Sarah often says that she is so good that you forget that she is here. She is, in fact, so good that she often gets over shadowed by her sister. So this post is only about Laila and how happy that we are to have her in our family.

Laila is so fun to make smile, she will smile at anything. I can often get her to smile while she is crying. The last 3 weeks she has started to laugh, it is the sweetest sound I have ever heard. Laila loves her big sister. When Aria is around Laila will intently follow all of her movements and loves to smile and laugh at her.

I love you!