Time for some pictures

I'm so excited to have some pictures to share! My blog posts have been pretty bland lately.
When we went to Denver this month, our family ended up crashing my little sister's family photo session! I'd been thinking about getting some family pics taken ASAP, but couldn't get our lives organized enough to just get it done, already. I'm so glad we were able to throw ourselves into this afternoon and let our friend/photographer double her money! Here are some of the results.
All of us:


The boys:


Andy:

Canon:

Charlie:

Me and my sweetie:

And even though there is a lot wrong with this picture, I love it that by some miracle of the camera angle and some well-placed shadows, I'm looking pretty skinny in this one! Haha!:

So, I'm excited to get these printed up so we can hang them on our walls. I'm also excited to spend a little time doing some digital scrapbooking with these as well. I just got Stampin' Up!'s new digital software and it throws an album together in a snap!

Thanks, Merideth! The pictures look great! And thank you, Alisha, for letting us crash your party and for letting us go first. I'm glad your little angel baby was so patient, since I know my little devil-toddler wouldn't have been!

Hello, Moon.

Last night, Charlie and I got back from picking up a pizza. As I was helping him get out of the car, this conversation followed:

Charlie = Oh look, there's the moon!

Me = Yeah, he came back to say, "Hi Charlie!"

Charlie = "Oh...Hi, Moon! This is my mom!"

Just had to grin at that one. I love that he wanted to be sure the moon and I knew each other, too!

Gotta love my little boy!

Growing up so fast!

About a month ago, I mentioned on this blog that I was confused about how I've officially had to 'grow up' now that I'm paying taxes on a monthly basis. Well, I've decided maybe that's not SUCH a bad thing because today, it helped me get a new, cool, grown up phone!

Paul's phone has been acting up in the last 24 hours, making him miss a handful of calls yesterday and not receive some text messages until hours after they were sent. He's been talking about getting a new phone... AND talking to every service provider... AND getting advice about phones from his friends in real life... AND on facebook. When the kid gets an idea, he runs with and won't let it go. So off to the mall we went!

I wasn't sure that we would be walking out with a new phone and contract but we talked to the Verizon guy, and then countered a little with the T-mobile guy, and then went back to Verizon guy and signed the papers. We were able to pick up 2 Blackberry Storm phones for free... which I thought was super cool. I now have internet capability and can get all my email (from all 3 addresses) on my phone!!!

I guess it's okay to be a grown up sometimes... especially if it means cool toys. Now I just can't wait until next Tuesday when we can switch our old numbers to the new phones. Till then, I'm just carrying around both phones!

Need a new alarm clock

A LONG time ago, I bought Paul one of those clocks that sets itself when you plug it in. For the most part, it's been a good little alarm clock. 363 days of the year, it does what it should. But the problem with this alarm clock is that it still hasn't received the memo from congress that daylight savings starts earlier and ends later than it did 7 years ago when we bought it!

So, today (and this has happened before) we woke up at what we thought was 7:00, got ourselves ready, all the while ignoring all the other clocks in the house that said it was 8 or 9 something. I remember thinking, "Why are we the only family walking in to the church right now? We're on time!" Once we got into the church building, we could hear the speaker in sacrament meeting and finally realized our mistake. How ANNOYING!! Ah well, it was an innocent excuse for missing sacrament meeting, which admittedly is one of my top 5 least favorite hours of my week! "Wrestling the tiger" that is keeping Charlie quiet is not super fun. At least we did attend sacrament mtg last sunday with my parents, and then attended the other meetings today.

Whoops... I think it's time for a new clock!

Me, Me, Me, Me, ME!!

I admit it... I like doing these things! So, here's a meme that my cousin, Loralee did and I felt like doing it too. Mostly because I've stunk big-time at blogging lately.

THE ABC’S OF Diana
A – ADVOCATE FOR: People being happy with whom they are… accepting what is good about yourself while being honest about what you know you can do better. I also advocate personal responsibility and accepting the consequences of your decisions. I truly believe in the individual spirit in all of us and know that we ARE more and can DO more than we think we can.

B – BEST FEATURE: I like my lips when they are properly painted with lipstick. I also appreciate having a joyful nature.

C – COULD DO WITHOUT: having to clean my house, whiners, and being pulled in a million directions ALL the time.

D – DREAMS & DESIRES: My ultimate desire is to have a strong marriage and a close family that loves and trusts each other through the course of our lives. I also really want to sing with the Mo-Tab (Mormon Tabernacle Choir) someday. It can happen, but not at this phase of life.

E – ESSENTIAL ITEMS: I look forward to drinking a Diet Carbonated Beverage every day. I feel naked without lipstick, go crazy if I forget my watch, and need good hugs on a regular basis.

F – FAVORITE PAST TIME: I love to read, make cards, watch my 3 favorite shows (biggest loser, SYTYCD, & Glee), and hang out with my girlfriends.

G – GOOD AT: Fixing speech impediments, singing, making pretty cards, kissing my husband, hugging my boys, donating blood, getting over things, and talking to people.

H – HAVE NEVER TRIED: being a vegetarian, snowboarding, jumping out of an airplane or any other extreme sports. I’ve also never tried Zumba, but I want to!

I – IF I HAD A MILLION DOLLARS: Pay cash for a modest (but nice) home, take our boys on actual vacations every year, buy Paul a car so he stops whining about our minivan, invest and be generous with it.

J – JUNKIE FOR: I have a hard time passing up chocolate in any form, and I already mentioned Diet Coke.

K – KINDRED SPIRIT: There are so many that I would HATE to forget someone. I have had at least one bosom friend in every place I’ve lived. You all know who you are!

L – LITTLE KNOWN FACT: Seriously nothing comes to mind… I talk about myself so much that my life is basically an open book.

M – MEMORABLE MOMENT: Some good ones: My first kiss with Paul, giving birth to my 3 boys, starting my own business, receiving apology letters from two painful break-ups. Most crappy one: hearing the news about Spencer’s accident last Marc.

N – NEVER AGAIN WILL I: I’m afraid the answer to this one is: get to have another baby of my own. But that also means that I may also never have to buy a formula or diapers for my own kids again… so you know, silver lining.

O – OCCASIONAL INDULGENCE: spa treatment stuff. I’ve had a gift certificate for a massage and pedicure for 8 months and have been feeling too guilty to use it. I already spend so much time away from my hubby and kids. But when I do indulge… I LOVE IT!

P – PROFESSION: Mom, Wife, Speech-Language Pathologist, Demonstrator for Stampin’ Up!

Q – QUOTE: No, God does not need us to love Him. But oh, how we need to love God! For what we love determines what we seek. What we seek determines what we think and do. What we think and do determines who we are—and who we will become. President Dieter F. Uchdorf

R – REASON TO SMILE: being alive, loving my life, having a loving husband, being the mother of 3 really awesome boys, knowing I helped a child become a better communicator, showing someone a cute card/craft idea, (do you want me to keep going? I’ve got a happy list that’s pushing over 700 things). Something little though… getting comments on my blog posts!

S – SORRY ABOUT: Not being able to give everyone that needs something from me everything they need. I’m sorry that I’m not always home for my boys, sorry I don’t always know how to help a student, sorry I suck at cleaning our house, sorry I hate making dinner, sorry I’ve been too self-absorbed to notice the needs of someone else… lots of stuff.

T -THINGS THAT ARE WORRYING YOU RIGHT NOW: Running into bad weather on our trip to Denver this weekend. I’m worried about Andy’s schooling and if we’re doing enough to help him be as successful as possible. I’m also worried about the aftereffects of a bunch of really crappy trials that some of my loved ones have been dealing with this year.

U – UNINTERESTED IN: the plot lines of the insanely stupid cartoon shows my boys watch. I have no desire to hear about the latest adventures of Pokemon, Bakugon, and Scooby Doo. I always feel a little bad telling my boys, “I really don’t care to hear this story,” but sometimes, it needs to be done.

V – VERY SCARED OF: I’m very superstitious about saying these things out loud. I guess you could say that I’m afraid that admitting my fears will make them come true!

W – WORST HABITS: I pick scabs, stay up too late, don’t clean up after myself, procrastinate, and lose my patience too quickly when helping with homework.

X – X MARKS MY IDEAL VACATION SPOT: I want to see it all. I love history and look forward to touring Europe someday. I also LOOOOOVE going on cruises with Paul and some good couple friends.

Y – YUMMIEST DESSERT: I love pumpkin pie and wish it wasn’t so fattening. I wish I was eating some RIGHT NOW!!!

Z – ZODIAC SIGN: Capricorn. I don’t know anything about it because I just don’t follow this stuff!

WHAT ARE THE ABC’S OF YOU? Leave a comment if you do this one too. I'd love to read yours. Plus, now you know that comments make me smile!

Happy Birthday, Charlie!

Today was my baby's birthday. He's three now and in many ways, we still treat him like a baby. But in many other ways, he and we are also ready for him to be a big boy! We had a great day today with Charlie! It was as if the right vibes were flying through the air that he would be a little sweetheart on his birthday.

Charlie got to spend the morning with Paul and I, and then when school got out, we picked up the big brothers and went to Chuck E Cheeses. Thankfully, we'd all eaten already, so we were able to get by with purchasing 100 tokens and coming home with a handful of cheap crap from our ticket purchases! Plus, it was GREAT that we went during the afternoon so we were practically the only people there! Without a crowd, that place is much more bearable. (Side note: because we'd done it with Canon, we thought we'd try with Charlie to see how he would do wearing underwear for the day... you know, now that he's 3 and a big boy & all! Plus, he's made some great strides this week. We did make it through most of the day, but had a wet accident at C.E.C. We may need to do some more "practicing" before we're really ready to potty train the kid. Or Paul just needs to decide that we're already ready and we should just DO IT! I say Paul because he's the one that's home with Charlie several days a week.)

Paul had a little work to do in the later afternoon, so we came home and played with friends outside. Later, we went to dinner at Chuck a Rama (notice the "Chuck" theme going here!?) so Charlie could drink his weight in chocolate milk. We finished up the night with watching "A Goofy Movie" on the DVR and about a 1000 books (or so it seemed).

I'm so grateful for my little "Chuckles". He's been such a blessing in our home. I love his expressive eyes, his sideways wink, and his 'full-speed ahead' way of approaching life. His intensity can be exhausting, but it's also what we love about him! I'm one lucky mamma.