San Francisco

Brian was in San Francisco all week for work and I flew there on Friday to meet up with him. It was such a fun trip! It was 78 degrees and so wonderful. Sorry my pictures are so lame, Brian starts to gets annoyed if I take too many. I have to say that no matter how many times I go to San Fran, I never run out of things to see. There is so much to do there. It is just hard to do it in 2 days.

We got tickets to go to Wicked. We saw it 2 years ago in New York and it was just as good, if not better. I love this Broadway. If you have not seen it yet, you have to it is so fabulous. I think the Glinda we saw in NY was the same too! I was so excited because we had 5th row tickets and we got to hang out in the VIP room with free drinks and candy! It was awesome.


This picture makes me laugh. I wanted to take a picture of Brian with the view from our room and the first picture I took I told him he was posing too much so he said, "Oh you want a candid shot." Then he did this. I was laughing. It was a great view though. We got to stay at the Rosewood SandHill Resort that doesn't even open for the public until Friday. It was so nice. I loved the bath so much that I took 2 each night. We definitely got hooked up! Anyway it is beautiful here and the staff was so friendly.

GNO

We had another girls night out with all the girls in my neighborhood. It was so much fun. The past week was so hard because we were all so sick and I really needed this break. I enjoyed it to the fullest....maybe a little too much if you notice my comment during the video =). Anyway we started the night by eating at Biaggi's. Yum I love that place. Afterwards we decided to take a little walk through Gateway and what did we see? Gev from So You Think You Can Dance and his other amazing friends dancing. They were awesome. Here is a little clip of Gev. Sorry it is so dark.

Gev told me that they were going to a movie and decided just to come out and dance instead. They didn't have any music. They just clapped their hands and stopped their feet.

That is me standing next to Gev. I feel so cool.

My new crew posing for the camera.

I love these girls. They all live in my greencourt (well except for Kendra just moved out). L to R: Jenn, Kendra, me and Lori

April, Shannon, & Natalie hanging out in our hotel room.

These were 2 of my first friends in Daybreak. We are still so close.

Kari, Vanessa, & Jenny. Kari is the one who set this all up. Thanks Kari!!!!

Kendra, me, Whitney, Lori, and Jane. I am so excited that Whitney (my sister) got to come.

This is Lori, Whitney, and I getting our feet ready for pedicures. This makes me laugh and will probably make you laugh too because of our faces. I was trying to make a cheesy "Yay we are getting pedicures with the girlfriends" face but it just looks funny. Lori painted flowers on our feet. Thanks, Lori!

I had so much fun and love the girls in my neighborhood.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Danny made this hat at preschool and I thought it was so funny. This morning in Danny's prayer he said, "Dear Heavenly Father, the milk is green and the waffles are green and the fork is green...Oh oops the fork is yellow, not green. Dear Heavenly Father, the fork is yellow, not green. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Look of Excitement

I took these pictures today while the boys were in the bath. I just love the face that Sam is making in this first picture. The first time I saw this face was on Sam's first birthday when I was putting about 10 balloons in the car that I had picked up at the party store. His eyes bulged while making this Oh with his mouth. He was so excited. I didn't really think of how stressful it would be trying to get the boys not to play with the balloons on the way home but only one popped so it wasn't too bad. ANYWAY, every time he sees his sesame street balloon from his birthday (yes it is still inflated, Brian said that I should call the party store and tell them that they have good air...) he makes this face and gets so excited. He was doing it in the bath while he would hold up his ball.

He was enjoying posing for the camera.

Every time that Sam takes a bath, he ends up on his stomach. He loves to act like he is swimming but he always ends up getting a mouthful of water so I sit him back up. We keep on doing this back and forth until I get really frustrated and take him out. Even a few minutes in the bath makes him so happy.

Danny's First Prayer

Yesterday, for the first time, Danny asked me if he could say the prayer all by himself. This is what he said:

"Dear heavenly Father, Thanks for the race cars. Poop in the underpants. Big Boys go potty in the toilet, not in the underpants. Close your eyes and fold your arms, Mom. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

I better explain. Danny always wants to play Mario Kart on the Wii. I don't let him play very often because he is always having accidents in his pants. I don't like him to play it a lot anyway. So yesterday Danny had an accident and I wouldn't let him play. So every morning when I say a prayer, I say, "Please help Danny to go to the bathroom in the toilet and not in his pants because big boys go potty in the toilet and not in their underpants." I am trying a little reverse psychology on him. And I also peeked in the middle if the prayer. Thanks for the spiritual prayer, Danny.

What makes us happy

I just uploaded some new pictures to my laptop and as I was looking through them, I realized how happy we look in the pictures and we really are. Life is great right now and I need to express how lucky we are for that. So here are just some things that have made us happy lately.

Danny loves it when I mix anything in the bosch. He loves to help me bake things. This time I made brownies and he licked the bowl clean. Baking together makes Danny and I happy and not to mention yummy brownies!



The new Nordstrom! Ok that sounds really materialistic. But after really trying to save money, I think I can splurge a little. This is a picture of Me, my Mom, Sophie (my niece), and my sis, Elizabeth. We were so excited for the new Nordstrom to open. It was so beautiful. I know I look drunk but don't worry I wasn't. I think I was just exhausted from trying to shop and eat lunch while trying to keep the boys entertained for 3 hours. Nordstrom makes me happy!






It is a little bit harder to write why Sam is so happy because I just got so stressed out trying to keep him happy during church and he was so miserable. I kept looking around at all of the other kids his age and they were just sitting and playing quietly with toys. I kept thinking it was unfair but then I realized how stupid it was to complain about something like that. Sam is starting to get an attitude which is kind of funny. It really doesn't take much to make him happy. Just tickle him.

A Child's Journey out of Autism

I just finished reading a book that my friend, Leeann Whiffen wrote titled, A Child's Journey out of Autism. I remember calling Leeann on the phone when I had concerns with Danny's communication and social delays. She is one of the kindest people I have ever met. She dropped everything to talk to me for over an hour about her experience with her son who had autism and gave me the greatest advice I could get. She told me to do everything I could to help Danny and get him the help he needs because I wouldn't want to look back later in life and wish I had done something more.
I was so excited that her book had finally come out and I wanted to tell everyone to read it but I decided that I should read it first. The book is about her son, Clay who was diagnosed with Autism. She became so dedicated and worked so hard to save her son that he is now no longer considered autistic. The journey that she takes you through in this book is so incredible. I was crying throughout the entire book because of the struggles and triumphs that they went through. This book made me a better person. Danny was diagnosed with Aspberger's Syndrome over the summer. We have learned that the specialist who diagnosed him tends to overdiagnose children with autism, PDD, or Aspberger's so we are having another specialist look at him. I think he just has a communication disorder but we will see. Anyway while I was reading this book, there were little things that Clay did that I remember Danny doing and it makes me so happy to see that Danny is doing so much better than he use to be.
Clay is so lucky to have Leeann for a mom. Leeann is one of those people that makes you tired just by talking to them because they work so hard. Leeann has been working with our state legislators, trying to get the bill (Clay's Law) passed so that insurance companies will cover autism treatments. Leeann and her husband had to take out a second mortgage to pay for treatments for Clay. He isn't considered autistic anymore and she still works so hard to help everyone else that has to deal with it. Thank you Leeann for sharing your story. Thank you for everything you do for others. You are truly an inspiration. Please everyone read this book. Whether your child has autism or not, this book will make a difference in your life.
For more info, visit www.leeannwhiffen.com

Husband Quiz

Here's a chance to see how well you know your hubby. Copy and paste, fill in YOUR answers, then forward . . . shoot, you know what to do. The real challenge is to send it to your husband to see how right you really are.

1. He's sitting in front of the TV, what is on the screen?
Oh wow. This is hard. Brian loves movies so it is hard to pick which one. I am making him watch Arrested Development so either that, ESPN (Jazz or Utah basketball right now), catching up on Lost, or Transformers on Blu Ray (he just ordered it and yes we already have it on regular DVD).

2. You're out to eat; what kind of dressing does he get on his salad?
Thousand Island

3. What's one food he doesn't like?
He is not very picky but he doesn't like watermelon. I know that because I LOVE IT!

4. What is his favorite movie?
Jurassic Park

5. Where did he go to high school?
Brighton High. He graduated before I was there.

6. What size shoe does he wear?
12-13

7. If he was to collect anything, what would it be?
Movie posters. If you have been in our basement, you have seen some of them.


8. What is his favorite type of sandwich?
Turkey with lettuce, tomatoes, mustard, and I don't know what else on wheat bread with a pickle on the side.


9. What would this person eat every day if he could?
This is hard to say because he does not like leftovers or eating the same thing over and over so I guess I will go with Asian Star

10. What is his favorite cereal?
Shredded Mini Wheats

11. What is something he would never wear?
Silly shorts although most of his friends do.

12. What is his favorite sports team?
University of Utah

13. Who did he vote for?
Obama

14. Who is his best friend?
Me

15. What is something you do that he wishes you wouldn't do?
Probably go on and on with stories that I think are so funny or annoying. I think he just wants me to get straight to the point.

16. What is his favorite sport?
to watch: football, to play: golf and wakeboarding

17. You bake him a cake for his birthday; what kind would it be?
Mint chocolate..maybe. I always order one so I am not sure. He loves cheesecake.

18. What is his favorite vacation?
He went to London for a study abroad and loved it. If that doesn't count I would say Carribbean Cruise or any cruise because he loved Alaska too. We found the #1 rated theme park in the US and went there and he also loved that.

19. What could he spend hours doing?
Playing with electronics or watching movies.

20. What is one unique talent he has?
He is amazing with electronics. He loves to set up t.v.'s, speakers, home theatres, you name it. Every time we go to the parade of homes, he gets so frustrated with the sound systems and the t.v.'s because they are so "low quality" and "could sound so much better" but no one else notices.