Welcome 2012

I am glad that 2012 is here.

I am glad that I can stop and take a moment and look at my life and see if I am pleased with the results of the last year. I am not one to make resolutions. I do like to try a little harder and be a little better in all aspects of my life. Baby steps, right? ;)

As I was going through the last year of my blog, I missed all those things I would have blogged, if I blogged. I wanted to do a highlight post of our year. Sadly, I did not take the time to highlight our year. I plan to be better this year. I am even taking my valuable shower time to blog! Go me! (Oh, and my dishes are not getting done before work, sorry Dustyn!) I hope my plan does not fail. Otherwise, you might want to avoid me for the day. (please go to sleep and nap a little longer today, Gagey-O)

So here we are, the first installment of 2012.

I will do a Christmas 2011 post, but for now, I will tell you what Dustyn got me for Christmas! He got me some perfume and a new way to store my spices!

I wasn't sure how I would like it, but I think it turned out pretty good!

They are all on the side of my fridge. Nice, huh?

Some random things about Gage. He loves ANYTHING truck or cars. Okay, so he may be slightly obsessed. He talks about them all day long. He is quite a talker these days too. He especially loves Grandpa's red truck. And Grandpa. 

Gage has been a lot of fun over the last week. He got over being sick and has just been funny. He cracks me up all day.

 

His shirt says, "I'm the best present ever" and that is definitely the case. He's too cute. I cannot get enough of him.

He loves to give himself facials and rub whatever he is eating all over his head, his face, and everywhere else he can manage to get it. Mostly, it drives me crazy, but every now and again, I find it hilarious. Like this time!

 

Oatmeal facials usually result in a bath! (I think that may be why he does it!) He loves baths! (My other new years "goal" is to get tile up on our bathtub walls! I hope, I hope!)

We have not had a good year when it comes to computers. At all. It's been terrible. My computer battery died back in May/June. I had my iPod. I finally started using Dustyn's computer every now and again, but he needs it to do photos and all the other things that he has to do. I finally bought a battery at the end of October. It worked great for about a month. Gage loves to play with my charger. (unplugged) He sucks on it and whatever else he can do to it until I find him. Well, the little pins started sticking so my charger is no longer in working order. Dustyn took it apart and cleaned it. It worked great for a few days. One day I was working on something and I suddenly noticed how HOT my charger was (the part plugged into the computer). I notice a burning aroma and smoke. I quickly unplugged it and luckily my computer still seems fine. (of course I haven't been able to use it since that day, so who really knows). Our house smelled terrible for hours. Anyway, I am totally off on a HUGE tangent. Long story short, Gage threw a car and broke Dustyn's computer too. He has been going to send it in and get it repaired, but has't yet. So... this is what the computer looks like. There are a few more spots in the screen, but this is the largest at the moment. It's a tad bit annoying.

 

Well, our bad computer luck has not ended there. The other day, I was carrying Dustyn's iPad out to the car with some games. It fell out of my hands. Completely busted up two corners and broke the glass (only in the corners). Gah! Seriously?!?! I just ordered him a case for his iPad and iPhone. NO MORE broken electronics!

Our new church time is at 1:00 p.m. This is proving difficult! Gage usually naps at 11:30 or 12:00 p.m. He'll usually sleep for an hour and a half to two hours. (Of course he is STILL not sleeping now and it's 12:15 p.m. Maybe I will have time for that shower!) Last Sunday, I got him bathed and ready (except for his sweater) and put him down for a nap around 10:30 a.m. He did not fall asleep for over an hour. It seems like he had just fallen asleep as we had to wake him to go. He had good bed head! We got to church barely on time and he was a bear the entire time. Never wake a toddler from sleep! (This is my reminder) We took him plenty of snacks for church since he wouldn't get lunch. He wouldn't eat any. We brought cheese tortillas to church! and he wouldn't eat them! ha ha. So now he is tired, cranky and not wanting to sit still. Luckily he was good in nursery (he was the only one) and I even got to go to my own classes. He finally got to eat at 5:00 p.m. and didn't have a decent nap all day. Is this how ALL Sundays are going to be? :) 

 We have a tradition of going Ice Fishing on new years day. We have done it for years and enjoy it! We didn't go last year because Gage was just too small. This year we decided to go. I was quite nervous, but I figured we'd take our own car in case we needed to go home early. We usually have tents that get nice and toasty (HOT!) but we realized we had forgotten them once we arrived at the lake. Luckily it was a WARM day! I only had a light sweater on and I was warm. Gage was so excited. We got him all dressed and ready and he watched out the window for Grandpa to come get him. HE HAD to ride in Grandpa's truck, of course.

 

Grandpa gave him some overalls for Christmas. They say, "beep, beep" on them, Gage's favorite words.

 

We tried to get him to eat breakfast in the truck. No such luck. The kid isn't much of an eater.

As we started walking out on the lake, Gage was giggling. He thought it was awesome.

Of course he wanted to get down and run. Thank heavens for the stroller!

We tried to get him to hold his fishing pole.

HA! Nope. Luckily Grandpa had a fishing pole holder.  

Every time Grandpa handed Gage his fishing pole, (or anything else) 

He threw it on the hole. He is a good aim. He hit the hole every time. Grandpa had to save a few things out of the hole.

 

We knew he wouldn't want to fish for long, so we brought the iPad. Ice Fishing with an iPad, who knew? Seems silly to me! Ha ha. But, he watched his favorite movie (Meet the Robinson's) while we fished. I don't even know if he could see the screen but he was completely content.

I caught the one fish of the day. (dinner tonight!) Gage was completely entertained by the fish. He giggled and giggled.

 

We were about read to go, so I decided to let Gage run around for a minute. I knew that if he got wet or cold, we could change his clothes and get him warm quick. He loved it.

It was SO slick though. He couldn't stand up. He did not want to hold our hands!

Uncle Chet found a sled to pull him in.

I think he would have sat there all day being pulled around. We decided it was time to go. Of course Gage did not want to go. He wanted to walk. So, Dustyn put him in the chair and pushed him back to shore. 

Once we got to shore, he got to get into Grandpa's truck so everything was a-okay! This is how he felt about being home.

 

Getting the word out.

We decided to follow in Ron and Jessica's lead.

I went and got my mom's cricut last night and made some vinyl cutouts for my truck and Dustyn's car.  We could only find black vinyl at the moment so you can't really see it on the car window, but good enough.  It was kinda fun and kinda monotonous.  Hope it catches a few people's attention.  If anything, you'll know it's me when you see my truck.  :)  Sadly, I didn't leave enough room for www.  I put it on there and it looked silly.  So I will have to try something else.  (Now I am just hoping and praying it comes off when I decide to take it off!  :)  But it should.)

Time Flies

As I was thinking about the date today, I realized that 4 years ago today, Decker Lake Youth Center called and offered me a job. Of course, I accepted it. My first real job. A state job! That was on a Tuesday.

On Wednesday, my dad took me to Provo. We were looking for a new truck! I mean I had just got a new job... of course I needed a new truck! So we came home with my brand new 2003 Toyota Tacoma. It had 13 miles on it. Being the nice daughter that I am... I let my dad drive half of the way home. While we were doing the financing... a boy called me on my cell phone. I had no idea who it was and didn't recognize the number. So I answered and quickly handed the phone to my dad thinking that it was Jared (JaKell's husband at the time). Well come to find out... it was Dustyn. We had talked at Family Home Evening on Monday and he had FINALLY asked me out. It took him long enough to even notice me at all. But our date was planned for Thursday. He was calling to make sure that things were still on. (really he missed me... he just didn't know it yet).

On Thursday, Dustyn picked me up and we drove up to American Fork to go to the Haunted Forest. Of course he took me to a haunted house.. hmm.... why else do boys take dates to Haunted Houses? It was a great time! And of course his plan worked. When things kept jumping out of me of course I latched on to his arm! I mean what's a girl to do? We drove home hand in hand afraid to let go (ha ha! Don't you love that feeling?) He took me home and kissed me! From there the rest is history!

On Friday, Dustyn and I drove to St, George to attend Matt's football game. Of course HE drove. He put more miles on my truck than I did! I still think he married me for my truck! Ha ha! Well it turned out that we showed up on the wrong day for Matt's game. So we had dinner at Cafe Rio and turned around and came home.

On Saturday and Sunday we hung out all day. The bishop asked me what was up... and I told him that Dustyn just might be the one!! :)

On Monday morning bright and early, I moved to SLC, and started my job at Decker! We talked on the phone every night for 2-3 hours. I came home on the weekends and put about 8,000 miles on my truck in the first three month I had it.

A couple weeks later, we decided to get married. We went ring shopping. I was so nervous. It was so funny. At one point, I just had to sit down and breathe. It was all so fast and crazy, but so right and good!

On November 7th, Dustyn took me up Monrovian Canyon and proposed. It was now official. After working at Decker Lake for 5 weeks or so, I quit and moved back home to be with Dustyn. The people there thought I was crazy... and maybe I am. It was hard to tell them that I was quitting after I just finished training, but it was worth it! I moved home the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We spent Thanksgiving at Dustyn's mom's house. (She still thinks that we had been dating for months and months. I am not sure if we have convinced her yet...even today).

We were married on January 10, 2004 in the Manti, Utah Temple. It was a day that I will never forget! From there we headed to Jackson Hole. Who goes to Jackson Hole in January? Only crazy people, I guess.

I can't believe it has almost been 4 years. I can't believe that the time has past so quickly. There have been so many great events in the past four years. Here are some of the major life changing ones.

*Our baby Hannah
*Buying a house
*Remodeling our House
*Kamie's Elk Hunt
*Dustyn getting his Master's
*Adoption

But most of all we just love spending time together. It's all the little things that make our life great. All the day to day things and time that we are able to spend together. I love subbing because I get to see him more and we are able to have Lunch together quite often!

This is and will always be a special month to me. Especially this week! Four years ago, it was one of the best weeks of my life. When I finally convinced Dustyn that he loved me!