10 years.... 9/11

Well today is the 10 year anniversary of the day the earth stood still. 10 years ago the United States fell under attack as airplanes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York causing the two towers to fall and another plane crash in a Pennsylvania field that was intended for the Pentagon. I still remember this day vividly. I was getting ready for school when my dad called us into his room to watch the news unfold. We came in just in time to see the 2nd plane hit the tower. I remember going to school that day and my first class was chemistry and I remember watching the footage in class. This is a day that will forever be remembered by all and no one will forget where they were when they heard the news.

I had downloaded this song when I was in high school and had completely forgotten about it until I was going through some old CDs. I looked it up on YouTube and found an emotional video to go along with it. Here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtQH7YOVjK0

Here we go again!

I know it has once again been the longest time since I have posted a blog. I keep promising to be better at it and it lasts a few days and then I forget. So from here on out I am no longer promising to post once a week. I am going to try for once  a month and if it happens great! If not, then oh well. :)

This summer has been SO fun though. It has come and gone so quickly but I had a blast with Addy once again and having the opportunity to be a stay at home mom. Addy and I practically lived at the swimming pool. She is quite a little fish and just loves to swim and even know still goes to get her floaties and blows them up and pretends to swim in our apartment. It is adorable.

I have also started a new job at American Preparatory Academy. I was extremely hesitant to take this teaching job but now that I am there and teaching, I LOVE it. It is incredible the results they have with kids and the performance they get out of kindergarteners!!! Because it is a charter school, they are able to get away with teaching things that public schools can't really get away with. For example on Friday I was teaching the history lesson, the history of India and we were discussing Hinduism. Just a brief overview because they are only 2nd graders. But we put together a T-Chart comparing Hinduism to Christianity and words like Jesus, God, Mormons and baptism were talked about and there was no fear that we were going to offend anyone. And no, I didn't preach my religion but it was just an open discussion about how anyone that believed in Jesus were considered Christians... even Mormons :).

I need to cut this short but here is a picture I took of Addy a few weeks ago. The Slacks gave her this princess outfit for her birthday and she refused to wear it till now. She was wearing it and kept saying she was Princess Addy. it was adorable.

SPIDER!!!

Well today we hit another milestone. Addy came across her first spider! And it scared the heck out of her. We were eating dinner and she was in her high chair while I was at the table. We were quietly eating when all of a sudden she starts yelling, "ew! ew!" I don't respond very quickly because she has been saying ew if she gets food on her finger. Well she kept going at it so finally I look and when I turned, I saw a HUGE spider scurrying across her tray. It scared me to death which did not help the situation because I jumped then immedietly Addy jumped and started crying saying "ew!" Well, I killed it and said Addy, that was a spider! Right away she just broke down into tears and was trying to get out of her high chair. I got her out and sat her at the table to let her finish eating. But oh no, she wanted to be a little more of a drama queen and kept making a face where she would stick out her lower lip and jaw and say "pider!!!" and point to her high chair followed by a whinning noise. This went on for about 15 minutes. She could not finish eating and kept walking me over to her high chair saying "pider!! ew!"

Finally I tried to explain to her that the spider went bye bye. Well that triggered something new and she kept going to her chair and waving while saying "bye bye". It was hilarious to see this whole ordeal. She was really traumatized by it and I am sure will have nightmares tonight! Below is a picture of her faces she was making while talking about the spider and then a video of how upset she was.

and the video:

This little girl continues to enterain me on a daily basis. She is also turning out to be quite the drama queen and loves attention! Her love of books continues to grow as we spend almost an hour (or more) everyday reading the same book over and over again. THat is all she wants to do - she doesn't care about TV but it makes her whole day when I sit down to read with her. I love it!!!

Addy is a comedian!

Well Addy thinks she is quite the comedian! She always tries to make me laugh and she seems to only do it when it is the least appropriate such as bedtime. Last night I was holding her trying to get her to sleep and she was about to doze off when all of a sudden she turned her head and buried her face in my armpit then whipped her head up and she scrunched her nose and said "tinky!" I know I shouldn't have but I just cracked up laughing. Bed time seems to be her favorite time to make me laugh and  sometimes I can't help it.

This is my last week at Jordan Valley (helping special needs kids) and I am SO sad about it. The experience I have had while working there has been an indescribable one. Those kids have such a strong, sweet spirit about them and I will miss every single one of them. I have a huge love for kids that are born with so many different problems. One thing I have realized is that most of those kids do not just have one complication. If they have a health issue it is usually followed by MANY problems. One little girl for example has her physical and mental impairments and to top it off has to be closely monitored with what she eats or she gets sick. She can't even drink very much water. It is sad but also has made me appreciate my healthy daughter more and more. She has been such a blessing in my life and even though we have our hard days, I would not trade it for anything in this world!

Here is a picture of Addy today - I got her hair in a side pony tail - my little 80s baby!

Been a rough week

Well this week has been a rough week. Addy has had an upset belly so almost every day this week I have woken up to a mess in her crib. She has learned what stinky means though and calls it "tinky". Almost every morning she was standing in her crib and would say "tinky" as soon as she saw me. It is adorable (the word not the mess). here are a few more pictures from our awesome summer we have had so far!

This last picture is me and my friend Christine at the Tim McGraw concert. an AMAZING show!!

I want to do better at this!

Well I just realized that I have not posted anything for over a year..... starting tomorrow I will make more of an effort to not only update on everything in my life over the last year but to at least post once a week. So much has changed since last year!!

A Happy 4th and a BEAUTIFUL temple open house!

I know these are a little delayed but here are the pictures from Addy's first Fourth of July. I thought that the fireworks would scare her but they didn't at all. She loved them! We did fireworks with Hunter and Chris which was a lot of fun.

Bunny ears!




Me and the munchkin


Trying to take our picture! I love her expression!


Wiped out from the firework fun!



Today Addy and I went to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. The temple is absolutely gorgeous! For the most part Addy did really well through the tour. It gave me the chills though because in the celestial room Addy was talking her normal blubbering then all of a sudden it started to sound like she was saying "hi! hi! hi!" it was so crazy! It gave me the instant chills! But then after we left that room and was walking around, she started scrunching her face and blowing spit bubbles! She is so cute and has such a huge personality already! I love her so much!

We got moved into our new apartment. They are really nice considering the price and I like it, but I HATE apartment living... especially when I am not on the top floor! I Have very noisy neighbors. And the family below me sounds like they are having a party every night. Oh well - I only signed a 6 month lease so if it doesn't get better I can look for something else!

Here are the pictures from the open house. The sun was so bright it was hard to get Addy to open her eyes for a good picture. But they turned out cute still!