Happy, Happy Birthday Mommy Dear

It's my mom's birthday today! She's turning 29 again. In my memory, that's all she's ever turned, but we won't worry about it. Let's list 10 things I love about my mom (in no particular order and no promises that they are the "top" things I love).

10. She is absolutely the greatest Grandma ever-very laid back, great at the spoiling thing, and she was nice enough to have a built in friend for Samantha.
9. She always tried to teach by example, she didn't bother telling us to do things when she wasn't trying her hardest to live by the same principles.
8. She actually listens to the lyrics of songs, and starts ranting angrily about how they make no sense.
7. As a teenager she really,truly talked to me. Even if we didn't see eye-to-eye she always tried to see things from my perspective and take my ideas into account.
6. She sings like an angel...or sometimes a viking opera singer
5. She's just so funny
4. She helped me on over 3 billion school projects, homework assignments, ASB projects, and church assignments, usually while I freaked out at least once.
3. She has single-handedly furnished most of my cute clothing and home decor.
2. She lives the gospel and does what's right.
1. I'm secretly her favorite

Happy Birthday Mom!

Eight, Eight, Eight is Great

I was tagged, for real this time. So here's some things you may or may not know about me:

8 Things I’m Passionate About
1) Being a mom
2) My husband
3) The Gospel
4) Preserving Memories (scrapbooking, journals, baby books, memory books, etc)
5) Keeping in touch with people
6) Selling my house
7) House hunting
8) Socializing!

8 Songs I Can Listen to Over and Over Again and Never Get Sick of
1) ANYTHING Samantha sings
2) Anything my mom or sister Erin sings
3) Shake it by Metro Station (terrible song-don't judge me)
4) Yellow by Coldplay
5) Come Thou Font of Every Blessing
6) The Way I Am by Ingrid Michaelsen
7) Hallelujah by Rufus Wainwright
8) O Holy Night (I'm serious, I listen to it in July, I love it)

The Past 8 Books I’ve Read
1) The Book of Mormon
2) Guess How Much I Love You
3) Now One Foot, Now the Other
4) White Lies
5) On the Street Where You Live
6) Conspiracy.com
7) Princess Academy
8) Paper Bag Princess

8 Things I Say Often
1) What do you say? (I'm looking for please)
2) I love you
3) Are you kidding me?!?
4) What's your choice?
5) Hi Mom, it's Emily
6) Are you my baby girl?
7) It could be a baby sister OR a baby brother
8) Everybody calm down, just calm down.

8 Things That Attract Me to a Friend
1) Crazy
2) Likes to come over and invite me over
3) Doesn't take me seriously
4) Listens to my problems and doesn't offer too many solutions
5) Inspires me to be better
6) Likes my kids
7) Loves to talk
8) Loyal

8 Random Things About Me
1) I am incredibly, paralyzingly, irrationally afraid of bees and wasps
2) I took the LSAT and scored quite well (161: 85th %tile)
3) I've never had anyone break up with me.
4) Every mothers day in my career as a mother I've either had a baby within the last 6 weeks (wonderful but hard) or moved across the country within the last week (basically just hard)
5) I hate to fly
6) Even though I get plenty nervous, I actually love to give talks in church
7) I worked for Heritage Halls (BYU residence halls) in 5 different capacities in the 5 years I lived in Provo
8) By the time I have my baby (Sept.) I will have had 3 different babies in three different states.

8 Things I want to Do Before I Die
1) Be a Grandmother
2) Celebrate my 50th wedding anniversary with Tom
3) Serve a mission
4) Get a Master's Degree
5) Finish this Tagg
6) Successfully nurse another child
7) Get really old
8) Go on a fabulous cruise with my husband, children, in-laws, and grandchildren-that we pay for because we are way wealthy

8 Things I’ve Learned This Past Year
1) You just never know, do you?
2) You can have two exceptionally wonderful kids that are still so different it blows your mind
3) I have one-but I'm not telling you
4) Chinese food for dinner and popcorn later just don't mix when you're pregnant
5) I really only have control over myself. Doing things to make people like me won't always work, but I should do what's right regardless and I'll be at peace.
6) Waiting is always the hardest part
7) Kids misbehave more around in-laws.
8) I'm really, really, really blessed

8 People I'm Tagging

Between my friends with this already on their blog and the friends I tagged for my last blog...it ends with me.

"I'm going! I'm going to Disneyland!"

As an early Christmas present my mom bought us passes to Disneyland! It's the coolest ever, we'll go every time we visit. We went, and it was so nice because we did a lot without feeling the pressure to stay all day and "get our money's worth" Plus, the weather was absolutely gorgeous. Samantha had the time of her life and there were several things that Tommy enjoyed too. I took tons of pictures of course. Here are the highlights:

What's a trip to Disneyland without paying for overpriced concessions?

Cute Teacup photo op. The kids went on the actual ride (minus Tommy who was napping) and it was definitely their favorite. Made me sick, but they loved it!

This was at the Princess Coronation. It was getting late, so Samantha was kind of cranky by this point, but she eventually really enjoyed it. They had some of the Disney Princesses teach them a dance, and then they did a maypole dance that was interactive. They also passed out crowns which was so cool for the girls!

The May Pole Dance. Very fun!

The last thing we did on the way out was to visit Ariel's Grotto and it was the highlight of Samantha's little life. She was thrilled to be meeting a Princess. We were lucky too, the line for the other Princesses was an hour and 10 minutes long! We only waited 10 for Ariel, but it got longer after us.

In front of California Adventure. We went back on Thursday to go to that park, but it was raining so hard by the time we got there we decided against it. Next time!

This was the funniest part. You can sort of see in this picture the pure terror in Samantha's eyes when we met the Evil Queen (from Snow White). She was sooooo afraid. She wouldn't even look at her or get down from my arms. If I was a nice mom I would have had sympathy, but mostly it was just funny to me.

The carousel. Tommy loved this!

In the tiki, tiki, tiki, tiki room, all the birds sing words and the flowers croon. This was Tommy's favorite!

Before and After

I've been talking about it for weeks (months) and I finally went through with it! It's been so hot and we're doing tons of swimming etc. so I cut Samantha's hair. I love it! It does make me a little sad, because she looks SO grown up. She was very excited and after she had it cut she pranced around the salon. She was pleased as punch to have a new haircut. I sort of miss her long hair but it's been a lot less straggly and easier to take care of.

Oh, pick me, pick me!!

I was "tagged". Okay, actually the real story is that I asked to be tagged because I wanted to have something to write about. So I got the "Husband Tagg" from my friend Delee. It's a cute one so here goes:

Hubby Tagg
What is his name? Thomas, goes by Tom, called Tommy by his family.
How old is he? 27
How long have we been married? Almost 5 years
How long did we date? Well, we dated either 3 months or 4 months depending on how you count. We went on our first date in September but then it was 6 weeks more until we went on another date. He was just biding his time I guess.
Who said I love you first? He did, but I followed right away!
Who is taller? Tom, by a good 6 or more inches.
Who sings better? Him!
Who is smarter? He is, for sure. I have my areas of expertise, but he's smarter.
Whose temper is worse? Mine is way worse.
Who pays the bills? I do mostly.
Who does the laundry? Me! Tom helps a lot, but as far as laundry goes...I'm not sure he know's how to use our washing machine.
Who cooks dinner? That really depends. I mostly cook during the week, he cooks a big Sunday dinner. He'd rather do that then watch the kids :)
Who drives when we are together? He does, unless it's after 10 PM, then I do for safety.
Who is more stubborn? That's a tough call. Most people would say me, but when Tom really wants something, he usually gets his way.
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Probably him, this tagg isn't making me look very good.
Whose family do you see more? It's a close call, but his.
Who has more friends? I guess I do. We just moved, so right now we've only got each other! (At least in terms of proximate friends)
Who wears the pants in the family? I make a good show of it, but really it's him.
Who eats more sweets? Candy: Me Baked goods: Him
Who mows the lawn? He does, I never have while married.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Facing the bed, he does.
Who asked who out first? He asked me out, but only because I emailed him first.
Who kissed who first? He did, but I was very encouraging.
What is my favorite thing about him? So many things, but my very favorite has ALWAYS been that he is always, always nice. He never says or does anything intentionally cruel and he makes me want to be such a better, kinder person as a result.

People to Tagg:
Alison
Tiffany
Julie
Amy
Timille

I remember it, I do! It's there, I know it is, because when I look at you, I can feel it. And-and I look at you, and I... I'm home!

Well, I've started my blog. I hope I'm not one of those that does one post and then leaves it forever. I don't think my friends would let me live it down, because I'm really only doing this because of their peer pressure. I'm sorry for the slightly melancholy feel of my first post, I promise it won't happen again.

The quote for the title is from Finding Nemo, a great film. Tom made fun of me because it's too long. I thought it was appropriate because it references both remembering and home. We just moved from southeast VA to Arizona. I miss it already. We didn't spend a long time there (not nearly the time I thought we would), but it was a happy time filled with lots of life events, good memories and wonderful people. Lately, I've been worried about a lot of things regarding the move, but I'm really afraid of forgetting. I learned a lot about myself as a person, about how to be a family, the kind of friends I want and more. I'm worried that I'll forget some of these things. I worried that I'll forget all the beautiful places I love there. I'm worried I'll forget Virginia. Sometimes, in our church, we get people who are traveling area authorities coming back to a region they used to live. They have so many stories, so many memories to share. I used to wonder why it was still so fresh in their mind, why it mattered after all those years. Now I know. The memories might get a little hazy, but I won't forget Virginia. These 2 short years are ingrained in me. I don't think I'll forget the landscape, the events, and the life lessons. I definitely will NOT forget the people. I will really like Arizona, I'm excited for a new adventure, but I love Virginia. I have a few of my favorite things to share with you via pictures:

Above is the Norfolk skyline. I thought this was a gorgeous site. The water was one of the first things I saw when I moved there, overwhelmed and nervous about a place I'd never been. I loved it then and I love it now. It always carries with it the promise of something exciting to come.

Below I have my cute family (which is definitely one of my favorite sites but I get to take them with me to anywhere I live). The beautiful VA site is the trees behind them. The tree's make some people feel claustrophobic, but I love them. I actually like driving on the freeways because of the rows and rows of trees. You can't even tell what's behind them.

A house is just a building, but I sure did love mine. We only lived there a year and half but it was definitely home. I loved working on it, I loved coming home to it, and so many wonderful events happened while we lived there. Now if only I could get RID of it-can't you people find someone wanting a 3 bdrm, 2 bathroom, gorgeous all-brick colonial in VA?!? And you call yourselves friends!

And my favorite sight of all! My friends and my children's friends. There was nothing I loved more than being with all these people. All of us were away from family so we became each other's family. I already miss you, but I hope we always stay in touch. And to reprise my quote and achieve a 10+ on the cheesiness scale " I look at you, and I... I'm home!"

My List of Movies

Cartoon:
Bolt: * * *

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs: * * * *

How to Train Your Dragon: * * * * *

Ice Age-Dawn of the Dinosaurs: * * *

Igor: * *
Madagascar 2: * *
Monsters Vs. Aliens: * * * *
(The) Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: *

(The) Princess and the Frog: * * * * *

Toy Story 3: * * * *
UP: * * * * *

Children and Family

Alvin and the Chipmunks-the Squeaksquel: * *

Bedtime Stories: * * * *
(The) Blind Side: * * * *

City of Ember: * * *
Ella Enchanted: * * * *
Enchanted: * * * * *
Hook: * * * *
Journey to the Center of the Earth: * * * *
Longshots: * * *

Nanny Macphee: * * * *

Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian: * * *

Nim's Island: * * *
Penelope: * *
The Princess Bride: * * * * *

Princess Diaries: * * *'
(The) Sandlot: * * * * *

Space Chimps: * * * *
Spiderwick Chronicles: * * * *

Comedy:
Date Night: * * * *

Empire Records: * * * * *

Welcome to Mooseport: * * *

Comic Book/Super-hero Movie:
Iron Man: * * *

Iron Man 2: * * * *

Wolverine: * * *

X-Men 1 &2: * * * *

Drama:
Kite Runner: * * * *
Traitor: * * *

Heist:

Armored: * *

Italian Job: * * * *

Holiday

Babes in Toyland: * * *

National Lampoons Christmas Vacation: * * *

Horror/Scary:
Knowing: * *

The Uninvited: * * * *

Musicals:
Josie and the Pussycats: * * * *

Mamma Mia: * * (But the music gets 5 stars)

That Thing You Do: * * * *

Romantic (Comedy)
10 Things I Hate About You: * * * * *

17 Again: * * *

50 First Dates: * * * *

500 Days (of Summer): * * * *

He's Just Not That Into You: * * *
Last Chance Harvey: * * *

Leap Year: * * *

(The) Proposal: * * *

Romantic (other):

Australia: * *

Last Song: * * *
New Moon: * * *

North and South: * * * * *

Pride and Prejudice (Colin Firth): * * * * *

Pride and Prejudice (Keira Knightly): * * * *

Sense and Sensibility: * * * *

Twilight: * * *

Sci-Fi and Fantasy:
Alice in Wonderland (Tim Burton): * * *

Avatar: * * *

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (4): * * *

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (6): * * * * *

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix: * * *

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (3): * * * *

Inception (It WASN'T a dream): * * * * *
Serenity: * * * *

Star Trek: * * * * *

Surrogates: * *

Thriller:
2012: * *

Angels and Demons: * *

Cloverfield: *

(The) Echelon Conspiracy: * * *
(The) Fugitive: * * * *
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull: * *

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark: * * * *
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom: * *
(The) Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emporer: * *

Salt: * * *
Sherlock Holmes: * * * * *

Taken: * * * *