Kidisms!

The other day, the kids and I were driving home from the grocery store and the following conversation ensued:

JEPSON: Mom, I want to be a vegetarian when I grow up!

BREIGH (the ALL-KNOWING older sister): Jepson, do you even KNOW what a vegetarian is?

JEPSON: What?

BREIGH: It's a person who ONLY eats vegetables! Don't you mean a VETERINARIAN? A veterinarian takes care of animals.

JEPSON: Yep! Veterinarian....that's my thing!!!

I had to laugh. Breigh's definition of a vegetarian isn't exactly correct either, but I had to laugh because she just couldn't resist imparting her knowledge on her little brother.

Shortly after this conversation ended, somehow we got onto the subject of money and things we could and could not afford and Jepson turns to me and says: Mom, if daddy cares so much about money, how come he didn't become a doctor?

LOL!! I tell ya, I laugh on a daily basis on the things that come out of this kids mouth. I told Todd this one later on that night and told him he got into the wrong business according to our son!

Family Photos

This is our attempt at Family Photos. I don't have any recent family photos of us and I think these actually turned out pretty good! We just set up the camera and tripod in our backyard and decided to just go for it!

What do you think?

Halloween Pics!

These are our Halloween pictures! This is the first year that I actually got all dressed up. I'm supposed to be a Mardi Gras lady. I didn't get a picture with my mask and gloves, but you get the idea anyways. Breigh was a cheerless leader (gothic cheer leader) and Jepson was a swamp monster. Todd opted not to dress up for Halloween, but Friday night he went as a tourist at our ward trunk-or-treat fall festival, hawaiian shirt, black socks, sandals, straw hat and camera wrapped around him. He was a big hit. I'm just bummed I didn't get a picture :(

Saturday night, Breigh and I went to a haunted house that my friend put together at her house and so Breigh and her BFF, Kaitlyn, got to work in the "cemetery". She had a blast trying to scare people as they walked through. As we were heading home at the end of the night, she said, "Mommy, thanks for dressing up for Halloween. That was really cool!" Enough said!

Fall is here!

It has arrived! My favorite time of the year...FALL!! And FINALLY we are feeling some of that cool weather I've so fondly been awaiting for the past 4 months!

I'm looking forward to getting my Fall baking on with some homemade Apple and Cherry pies to be enjoyed with some good friends this weekend. I've been practicing my homemade crusts several times, and it has been frustrating getting just the right consistency of dough. Who knew pie crusts could be so tempermental? Meanwhile, Todd is more than happy to have me "practicing" my pie dough to perfection.

Wish me luck! I'll post some pictures of the end result!

Demi Lovato Concert!

I just recently found these pictures my friend, Sue, emailed to me and forgot to blog about our fun Girls Night!

July 31st, I took Breigh to a Demi Lovato concert and it was way fun!! Now, if you're wondering who Demi Lovato is, she is the next rising star and currently has a show on the Disney channel called "Sonny with a chance". Breigh loves her and loves her show! It was me, Sue, her daughter, Kaitlyn and Kaitlyn's cousin, Marissa. Kaitlyn and Breigh are best friends and, in fact, we were pregnant at the same time with the girls so, we lovingly refer to them as "belly buddies" because they are almost exactly 1 month apart in age from each other.

Anyways, we heard that Demi Lovato was coming to town and since she is not that well known yet, tickets were cheap so we thought it would be a fun girls night out with our daughters! We actually got pretty good seats too.

I think the best part of the show was the end. Now, that sounded bad. Not that I wanted the concert to be over with, but for the very last song, she sang "Don't Forget", which is one of my favorites. As she started to sing it, she got super emotional and got all choked up and couldn't finish the song. So, she held out the microphone to the crowd, and the audience sang it for her until she got herself together to sing it. It just hit her, right then and there, how she had really "made it" and it was just overwhelming at how awesome her fans are. It was just the coolest to see that. There's nothing like going to a concert and seeing everything live like that. I got Breigh a signed autograph CD (that let me tell ya, I paid a pretty penny for!), but Breigh was SO happy. It was a special mother daughter experience I'll never forget!

I've posted some pictures Sue took on her camera below:


Best buddies enjoying the show!


Demi singing...she's so beautiful!


Full stage view.


She brought this girl up on stage to sing with her. She knew every word to the song. It was priceless!


Oh yeah...and we got to see this guy before Demi came on...David Archuletta (am i spelling that right?!)...he was awesome too! I don't think I've heard more screaming tweens than when he was on stage. Some ear plugs would have come in really handy!


Breigh, Kaitlyn and Marissa (Kaitlyn's cousin). Our seats in relation to the stage weren't too shabby!


Me, Breigh, Kaitlyn and Marissa outside the concert hall.

It's That Time of Year Again!!

Yesterday was the kids 1st day back to school and I couldn't be happier!! They were pretty excited, but nervous at the same time worried about who their classmates will be and worried about what this year will bring. Luckily, they both have excellent teachers and all worries were set to rest when they came home with happy faces telling me they LOVE school! Whew, what a relief that is.

It is also nice for this mama that I can come home from work each afternoon to the house the way I left it, CLEAN! My hubby is especially glad, working from home and all, that he can finally get some actual work done now that he has the house all to himself where he can get some peace and quiet! We joked with each other about having a "back-to-school party" to ring in the happy occasion, but we thought better of it. Here are some pics I took of the kids on their big day!



One excited boy!



Breigh picked out this outfit for her 1st day....my baby's growing up!



The kids together, it's a rare occasion these days that they hug like this.



I totally staged this, but they went along with it anyway. I kept saying "one more, one more!"..lol. They just rolled their eyes at me and played along :)

A whole lot of nothin'!!

Today and I am sitting here relishing my Saturday morning, something I have been looking forward to doing all week... a day chalk full of a whole lot of nothin'!!

The entire month of July seems to have been packed full of things to do, birthdays, holidays and vacation and literally no time spent at home.

I just came back from 10 day vacation in Washington visiting family, which really was nice, except for the a little virus I contracted while at my sister's house. Yeah, SO not fun, for me or her I assume. Just 4 days prior, she was dealing with a sick little 3-year-old boy and I'm sure she didn't sign up for her baby sister to get sick at her house as well, but luckily it was was only a 24-hour thing, so I was able to salvage and enjoy what I had left of my vacation, house hunting being one of the highlights (yay!).

Then, the very next week my mother-in-law bought a new condo and so we headed off to Ft. Pierce to help her paint and put together furniture so that she could enjoy her new pad before she goes back to work.

This is the first Saturday where we have absolutely nothing planned and I have been enjoying every morsel of it!!

Jepson's Baptism!

3 posts in one day! WHEW, I'm whooped!...lol.

My baby boy was baptized on Sunday and it is such a milestone for me! Our Branch President said at the baptism "It's kind of sad, Jepson, because your Mom and Dad won't have any more children to get baptized since you're the last one!". Ok, I wouldn't have put it like that, as this is a HAPPY occasion, not a SAD one, but I know what he meant. It did hit me that both of my children are accountable now and growing up before my very eyes. Before I know it, he'll be passing the sacrament, going on a mission and getting married! But for now, I'm going to enjoy the moment.

I am very proud of Jepson. He is the my sweet boy who doesn't see faults in anyone. He is such a happy go lucky kid who loves life and wants to be everyone's friend! He still likes to cuddle with his mama once in a while :) I hope never loses site what's important and stays my sweet little innocent boy.

My Mom, Dad and little brother, Joey, (little brother that reminds me he can whoop my butt!) were able to fly out for the blessed event. It was wonderful to see them have them participate in this fun time with us. Here are some pictures!



Jepson in his brand new suit!



Jepson with his Great Grandmother, Penny and Great, Great Aunt, Ruth.



Jepson and I.



Jepson with Grandma and Grandpa Galloway.

Jepson's Birthday!

For Jepson's 8th birthday, my sister-in-law, Allison, wanted to make Jepson a cool "Transformers" cake from scratch. We thought it would be really fun and knew it was something Jepson would love, since "Transformers" are his latest obsession.

So, Todd and I were thinking she'd bake a rectangular shaped cake and cut out a transformers mask outline and make the cake that way. Not so, she had made this cake 7 layers high and decided she was going to be "Ace of Cakes" and just start going to town carving this thing. As you can probably imagine, it didn't go so well. I think she had the idea better in her head than it actually turned out, but who were we to say anything. She went to a lot of work to plan this thing out, this was her project and when she sets her mind on something, dang it, she's going to accomplish it!!

As she was carving the cake, it started to fall apart and it just wasn't turning out. So she put some blue frosting on it and when she frosted it, Todd looked at it and said "Ya know...it kind of looks like that blue blob from that Monsters Vs. Aliens movie, let's just go with that and hope Jepson recognizes the character!". So, the next morning, Jepson woke up and said "Cool! My cake looks just like "Bob the Blob"! We all sighed a sound of relief! So, it wasn't the cake she set out to make, but all in all, the cake definitely "Transformed"...lol!

Bush Gardens surprise trip!

As I was downloading pictures off of my camera to put on my blog, I came across some pictures from a trip to Busch Gardens back in February, I believe, and I had to share this funny story.

We surprised the kids with a trip to Busch Gardens. We're fortunate enough to live about 30 minutes from the amusement park, so off we went one morning. The kicker is, we told the kids that they needed to hurry up and get ready for school, or they would be late. Todd told them that he needed to drop me off at work, as they usually take the bus and I am usually gone before they get up and ready for school in the morning and since I work right across the street from the kids' school, this was a very plausible excuse!. Now, their school is only 5 minutes away, they didn't realize we weren't going to school until about 20 minutes into the trip. This is how the conversation went while in the car:

Jepson: Uh....Dad? Aren't we going the wrong way?
Breigh: Yeah, Dad...you need to turn around! We are SO going the wrong way.
Todd: Oh, I guess you're right. Well, there's so much traffic this morning, I'll see if there's a spot up ahead where I can turn around.

10 minutes later.

Breigh: Dad!!! We're going to be SOOO late and I'm going to get in trouble! We have to turn around NOW!!
Jepson: Oh, no! I don't want to be late for school!!
Todd: I know, I know...I think there's a place up here I can turn around.

We then enter the parking lot for Busch Gardens.

Breigh: OH GREAT!!!! We've gone way too far now... now we're at Busch Gardens!!! We'll never get to school now!

At this point, Todd and I were trying SO hard not to laugh. They truly did not clue in on our little detour. Finally, we got out of the car and they realized, "OH, this was all a trick wasn't it?! Very funny guys!"..lol! It was classic. Hopefully one moment they will always remember :) Here are some pictures.



Me and the hub chillin'



Breigh and Jepson in the front entrance being silly!



These are "tree people". There is a new area in Busch Gardens called "jungala" where the tree people live. They were really nice, a bit strange looking, though I have to admit.

Laundry....done!!

This is the latest craze at the Williams' household!! I had my eye on this little beauty for a few months and decided to breakdown and dish out the $50. Let me just tell you, it is money well spent! It has helped me keep all the laundry organized in one neat place in my laundry room, so half the work is already done for me. Novel concept eh? My kids are actually begging to sort their dirty laundry.... "can we sort, mommy, can we sort, please" they tell me! You don't have to twist my arm. Who knew it could be so much fun! Now if I can just get some help folding the mounds of clean laundry, I could be set free from Laundryland!