Hank the Hamper

I am sick and tired of getting after the girls about cleaning up their toys. I feel like I spend the entire day, following behind them, cleaning up toys as they go. They move from one toy to another and pretty soon, you can't even SEE the floor in the toy room. SO, I was talking to a good friend of mine back in CO and she told me about Hank. He is a hamper that comes out at night and eats all the toys that are left laying on the floor. So, when I first told the girls about him, they kinda freaked out alittle bit. They started frantically cleaning their play room (yeah-- it's working) But what Mya did next made me fall to the floor laughing. She got this terrified look in her eye, slammed the door shut to the playroom and held it shut! She just said, "I'm gonna hold the door shut so Hank can't get in. You guys keep cleaning!" Wasn't that so sweet of her :) Then she said, "I'm just gonna hide these!" as she threw toys under a blanket. (If Hank can't see them, he won't eat them, right?)
So, later that night, Hank came to visit. Aleah's response, "Are you kidding me mom? That's just a hamper. He's not real!" Man-- I can't fool her, can I? Needless to say, it kinda freaked the girls out that this "Hamper Monster" is going to eat their toys, but it got them to clean up and keep their toys off the ground. Yeah!!!
As of this morning, "Shank" (that's what Mya calls him) is hungry cause he didn't get to eat any toys last night. So, we are going to try to see how long we can keep him hungry. Wish us luck!!!

Escape Artist

We decided that it was time to see how our new found dog friend would do if she was left alone in the house and so we went out for a couple of hours on Saturday night. We closed all the doors in the house and headed out. Well, we come home, open the garage door and she is standing in our garage. She managed to open 2 doors in our house to get out to the garage. Can you believe that? 2 doors!!!!! SO, we can't leave her inside. We decided to see how she does OUTSIDE while we went to church. Now, you have to remember, she is about 100 lbs and so we didn't think that she would be able to jump the fence. But sure enough, she did and ran away. Luckily she had tags on with her other owners phone number on it. Someone found her and she went back with them. Don finally realized that our place now is just not fit for a dog. I have to just really believe that "problems" sometimes solve themselves. But one day, I will have to give in and get a dog. She would have been great for our family if the timing was better. You know what they say about how timing is everything!
Bye bye Mia!!!

New House Guest

Don thought that it would be a great idea for us to get ourselves a dog. Despite the fact that we are renting... he still REALLY wants a dog. A client of his had this dog that needed a good home, someone who could help her lose weight and give her lots of love and attention. So, thoughtfully, Don felt like OUR home would be that place. So, last night he walked in the door with a 100 lb black lab named Mia! Yep-- you heard me right. She has the SAME name as my daughter! So, we are now trying to figure out a new name for her. The girls thought... Trina (that's our fish's name, our doll's names... everything in our house is named Trina), Bella, Sheila, Kia. Who knows! This poor dog is SO confused!

She really is a good dog-- what you see here is all that she does. She is 7 years old so she is already house broken and trained. What more could I ask for.... except that I DON'T WANT A DOG!!!!!! So, IF she stays, we are going to have to figure out a good name for her. The girls love her!! But they have always wanted a dog!

But after walking in on this (Mya reading a book to Mia).... how could I get rid of her?
So, TO BE CONTINUED.....

SOFTBALL

Don plays on a softball team with his work, Community Animal Hospital. He doesn't usually get to play much because he has so

many workers playing.... but last night he got to play alot and it was alot of fun to go watch. The girls love cheering him on. He usually plays catcher and last night he made an amazing out at

home base. We were very proud of him. He also hit really well and made it onto base many times. Even with a pulled hamstring. Way to go daddy!!

A crazy little thing called love

One of the classes that I am taking this semester in school is Acting 1 and let me tell you that I am SO excited to be taking it. And yet surprisingly, I feel out of my comfort-zone. (if you can believe that one) I love the stage! I love the rush you get from stage fright and everything that comes with it. Last night, I was able to attend a play that TMCC is putting on called Weird Romance. And let me just tell you that it was definetly weird! But SO much fun! It has really made me realize that I would LOVE to get back on the stage. Back in CO, I auditioned for a dinner theatre once and was so gun shy about it that I swore I would NEVER do anything like that again. And now I am going to eat my words cause I am thinking about auditioning for TMCC's next show called Hair. It would involve a one minute song and dance audition. I can do that! Come on!!! So, here goes nothing!!!

Mya's Birthday

Mya just had her birthday last week and I am sad to say that my "baby" has just turned 3. It never really bothered me but definelty had my sad moment when I realized it! She had such a good day. "Morty's" Grandma came into town to spend time with her and it made her day. We were able to go to the park with some friends and then came back for cake and ice cream. She is so very blessed to have friends out here that love her and want to make her day special. She was so excited to have a cool Madagascar cake!! Birthdays are SO much fun!!! She had a GREAT ONE!!





This is a little teepee that her Granpa Alan and Angela gave her and Aleah!
Her Grandma and Paka Hemerson gave her a new bike! Now she has one she can actually ride.Thanks Aunna and Senna for the cute cabbage patch doll and book. I love it!!!!!! Her Aunt Jenny gave her this cute little salon chair with hair accessories for her dolls. Her aunt owns her own salon and does hair. Cute huh?

Yeah for all my wonderful friends that came over last minute and made it a great day for her!!

How sad!!!

How sad is this one! Aleah had to go to the dentist yesterday. (Don't tell.... she had to get a cavity filled) But after she got done, her lip was still numb and she bit it. And kept biting it and so now it is completely RAW!!!!!!!! Poor thing! So, my lessons for the day..... make sure that your child doesn't chew on their lip when it is numb. Let's just hope that this doesn't give her the fear of dentists that her mommy has!!! Poor girl!!!

The Paths we choose

You know, despite my terrible past to make decisions in my life based upon what I want, and not consulting anyone else.... especially the Lord.... I have really tried hard lately to change that bad habit. It has gotten me nowhere. So I have been trying REALLY hard to make decisions WITH the Lord. I feel as though I have come to a fork in the road in my life and I don't know which path to go down.
This morning I received a phone call from a friend in the ward. She proceeded to tell me about how she was talking about me to another lady she knew about how much I love to dance and how I should open up a dance studio... even just out of my home. I didn't even know that she knew I loved to dance. I don't ever recall even talking to her about this. My whole life long dream was to teach dance to little kids. A couple of months ago, I was deciding what I should go back to school for. I thought, "Do I be realistic and get a degree that I know I can make money from 'just in case.' OR do I go back to school for something that I love?" I decided to go back to school for something that I love, to be a dance teacher. And as soon as I made that decision I second-guessed myself..... I just kept thinking, "Who needs dance teachers? There is NO demand for this." That day, my brother sent me a message saying that there was a job opening for a dance instructor in Salt Lake. His response, "See Janna! It is needed!" Back to the phone call...... all she kept saying to me was, "There is SUCH a demand for dance teachers out here and we think that you should do it. I can personally tell you about 30 people who are interested!"
So, here's where my road forks. Down one path, I have an amazing opportunity to continue on with school (which I have wanted to do for YEARS) and have a potentially AWESOME opportunity to open a dance studio and to do what I love.
The other path, my family. It's no shock to anyone out here that I have all of the sudden got the baby bug. I haven't wanted another baby in SO long. I have had NO desire to. And then I move to Reno and all that changes. But there is no way to have it all!!!
So, I sit here, at the cross roads, wondering which path to take. Trying with everything I have to trust that the Lord will guide me! Wow! Just when I thought life would finally start to slow down for me... the Lord throws another fork in the road!!

Why a blog?

Well, I wasn't really sure about a blog and then a friend of mine was telling me all about her blog and she got me pretty interested. After seeing hers, (which is darling Natalie) I decided that a blog could be kinda fun! But my next thought was, besides me..... WHO CARES!!!! Who cares what my day is like, what my kids do and say. DUH???????? I just moved away from my entire family. They no longer get to see my kids everyday. They no longer get to watch them grow up and see what they are doing. So, what better way for them to get to stay up on my family than through my blog. Plus, I thought, since I am SO bad at keeping a journal, this could be like my journal. It's definetely more exciting than keeping a written journal. So... let's see how this goes!!!!

Here's us!!

So, here's us! Don and I have been married for 6 years. We were married in the Denver Temple on August 10th. As you can see, we have two daughters, Aleah (4) and Mya (3). We just recently moved to Sparks, NV in May from Colorado. This was an extremely difficult move for us because all of our family is there in CO. Don got a job as a Hospital Administrator for Comminuty Animal Hospital. He loves it!!! He does all the business side to the vet industry and is very good at it. I am blessed to be a stay at home mom for my girls and there is no place I would rather be. They are such a blessing in my life! Aleah is such a passive little girl, but definetly likes things to be in order. She is SO artsy -- must have gotten that from her mommy! She just started Kindergarten this year and is LOVING it! I have seen such a HUGE difference in what she is learning and it just excites me. Mya is definelty the opposite of Aleah. She is by no means passive. She has so much spunk to her that she is sometimes quite a handful. She loves to do anything that her big sister does and is THRILLED that she now gets to go to school (preschool) just like her "sissy" does! These two sweet little girls are the best of friends and I love it! I just hope that it stays that way for a LONG, LONG time! I love being a mom but still feel the need to not lose Janna in the process. I decided to go back to school at TMCC to get my A/A in Music Theatre. My hopes is to one day teach dance, piano or voice lessons! Some day! Some day!! In the meantime, I love to scrapbook and enjoy my time with my family and friends. I am sad to have lost friends back in CO but so excited to continue to gain friends out here in Reno. Looks like we are going to be here a while and I have got to make the best of it! So, our lives move on and our family continues to grow and progress. Who knows what will happen next!!