Our year.

Andrew: At the beginning of the year Andrew worked at Nestle, in March he ended up losing his job. He did little side jobs here and there until August when he was hired at Vivint. In September he decided to get a 2nd job at 5 Buck Pizza so we could have some extra money. In November he lost his job at Vivint but miraculously had accepted the Store Manager Job at 5 Buck Pizza earlier that day. Andrew through all this was also going to school as a full time student and completed his first year of college. And to top that all off his uncle Randy and his family died in August so he was making trips to Idaho back and forth for a few months, while also grieving the loss of his uncle. Andrew says that he has learned that he does not do so well with online classes and he secretly LOVES school.
Starrie: This year was CRAZY for me! But I am proud to say that I completed all but one of my resolutions from last year. I learned a lot from having to go through all the up's and down's of Andrew's work, but in the end it has been worth it. I am grateful that through all of that Andrew supported my decision in continuing to stay at home and my decision to support him in whatever venue he wanted to/needed to take to support our family. I also had the opportunity to watch my sweet little niece Sarah this year for 3 days a week. It has really taught me a lot of things having 2 toddlers in the house. Sarah is such a sweet and well mannered little girl and I am grateful for the blessing she has been to our home.And of course the playmate she has been to Jocelynn. I have had a few health problem's this year, that has been hard because of the fact that I have never really had health problem's before but whatever it's life.
Jocelynn: Our baby knows how to sing, talk, run, be loving , helpful, know's some of her letters and numbers, throw tantrums, say NO when asked to do something, takes care of her babies, be polite, can hold a conversation for a period of time etc. ALL learned from this year. She had a few firsts such as going to the Aquarium, she pet a sting ray, she now has a toddler bed, went rock climbing and hiking, held a lot of babies on her own, went and saw the lights at temple square, turned 2, went to Idaho without mommy etc. She is so sweet and we are so excited to see her learn and grow this next year.

We have learned so much this year and have grown so close as a family. We are excited for the year to come and hopefully for all the good changes!

Christmas!

This year for Christmas it was super relaxed. We woke up opened our presents then headed over to Andrew's dad's house. After we did Christmas there we went to Andrew's mom's house, my grandma's house, Andrew's grandma's house then home. This year we tagged  Andrew's brother Jordan around with us everywhere:) It was pretty fun. We got ALOT of WONDERFUL gifts and we LOVE all of them! This year was an amazing Christmas!

I wanted to share a Christmas present that I gave to Andrew. It is a picture of me holding a picture of some of the reason's why I love Andrew. When he opened it he cried, and it was the most adorable thing ever!

I hope everyone had a very merry Christmas!

Our appreciation for our sweet baby.

Jocelynn is seriously one of the sweetest and most loving little girls we have ever had the pleasure of knowing. We are so grateful that she is ours. She is always concerned with everything that goes on with me and Andrew, and always tell's and show's us how much she values us. We of course do the best we can to show her the same. We never knew how much being parents would bless our lives. We really cannot get over what an amazing, beautiful, kind and energetic little girl she is. We love you Jocey baby.

21st Birthday Extravaganza!

THIS WAS THE BEST BIRTHDAY I HAVE EVER HAD! My Mom bought me the coat I have wanted ever since I laid eyes on it, my grandma, mom and Andrew went in on the She Curler 3 piece curling iron ( Which by the way is pretty much impossible to get! They only ship out 4 at a time!) And Andrew bought me black sparkle TOMS! I have wanted all these things for quite sometime but was not able to afford them. Andrew has been saving money for a few months now.... I am indebted to him and my grandma AND my mom! I also got a gift card for a pedicure at Royal Nail's down in Pleasant Grove from Serena ( Andrew's mom ) And I got some money from Grandma and Grandpa Robins. I feel SO spoiled and am so happy right now. We went to dinner on Monday with my family, and went bowling, to Costa Vida with my friends yesterday then went to my cousin Brooklyn's 7th birthday party (we have the same birthday.) And to top it all off my FB friends were very generous to me! Thank you everyone!

Life...

This is my daughters new obsession... she just threw a fit on the floor because I would not give her a fourth packet to eat for today. And it HAS to be this combo. Any of the fruit kind and she FREAKS!

The Holidays. And Updates.

I actually REALLY love Thanksgiving and Christmas! Although it is extremely stressful and often a lot of money is dumped into these holiday's , I think that it is all worth it! I really like Thanksgiving the most though. My grandma always makes the best food on the planet, so you can imagine how Thanksgiving is :) I am in charge of making yams. I slow cook them at 250* for about 4-5 hours or 200* all night. Then I scoop the meat out of the yams and put them in a separate pan then make a softball caramel and drizzle it all over the top, along with giant marshmallows of course! Then I bake that at 350* till marshmallows are golden! It is really yummy and you should try it!

In other new's  Andrew is the Store Manager at 5 Buck Pizza and it will work out really nicely for us in the next few weeks. Andrew is also still going to school full time for Business Management... So 5 Buck should look really good on his resume after college.
I am still watching our niece Sarah Wednesday, Thursday and Friday's. I still stay at home as I plan to always do, which as always means cooking, cleaning, teaching, bathing, doing laundry etc.etc. But I LOVE it. And I like to think that I am good at it haha so it works for me!
Jocey turns 2 next month! Can you believe it?? CRAZY! She can talk in full sentence's, she is extremely helpful, she is very kind to everyone and she now likes me to feed her like a baby with cuppy.... which is weird because she has only ever had like 2 bottles.

Anyways that is a little update on our family!

22 months and Halloween

Jocelynn had her 2nd Halloween this year and it was awesome! She actually got to trick or treat and she got a lot of candy! She was Little Red Riding Hood :) Andrew and I went to Frightmares with my mom and her boyfriend Brent. It was so much fun! I will admit .... I am a wuss when it comes to haunted houses and it did not help that I had never been through one before. I swear those teenagers were just picking on me! Andrew laughed at me pretty much the whole time:(
A couple new things that Jocelynn is doing are:
1. Forming sentences! I love that.
2. She has been EXTREMELY hyper this last month!
3. She acts like she is her cousin Sarah's mentor or something. It is really funny. She is always telling Sarah good job or No No when Jocelynn does not think she should be in something. She also teaches Sarah a lot of words :) I think she is ready to take the big sister role.

2 year anniversary!

We have been "dating" for 4 years, sealed for 1 year and MARRIED for 2 years! Sheesh time sure does fly! We have had SO MANY LEARNING EXPERIENCES..... Most of them good, some of them bad and a select few we dont talk about. I love Andrew and he loves me. It is good.
Andrew surprised me with a massage for our anniversary. He paid for me and Anna to go and get an hour massage at Solace! It was quite delightful and I have never had a professional massage so it was a good experience. Then Andrew and I went to Chefs Table for dinner. We had Filet Mignon with potatoes, broccoli and a dried tomato thing. It was good!

Sloth and Panda poo

Our MySpace anniversary photo. As seen on FB

This is the card Andrew got me. It says," Sorry to hear about your accident... You know... getting yourself stuck with that Panda." In the card he explains that it sure better not have been an accident marrying him.

This is really a good start to the rest of our lives and for the rest of  eternity. I love Andrew more than anyone could know.

Crafts Projects Crafts and MORE PROJECTS!

So I have had a super super busy 2 weeks! Over these weeks I have done the following:
1. Made Anna her wedding veil.
2. Made brides maids clips for Anna's wedding ( With Anna of course)
3. Made super freakishly long sock monkeys with Kelsee.
4. Made Jocey more cute animal magnets. Her and her cousin Sarah LOVE them, so I thought that I would make more.
5. Bought Jocey (and Sarah really...) a little table at IKEA with green chairs. Not my first pick on the color but all they had was green, yellow and white. I think that I made a wise choice.
6. Bought a potty seat for Jocelynn so that we can start introducing her to the idea of the toilet. In Jocelynn's case convincing her it is her friend not a monster.
7. And lastly I had to send Andrew and Jocey off to Idaho this last weekend :( I thought I would be fine, but Andrew and I cried :( Dont make fun of us cause we are sensitive! Haha! But seriously I do not think that we will be doing that anytime again soon.

 Andrew and Jocey on their way back from Idaho!

 The veil I made Anna. I hand sewed each crystal all around the edges.

 IKEA table and chairs.

 The hair clips we made! They are soo cute this picture does not do them justice.

 The new magnets I  made ( sun, fish, flower, elephant, lizard, "J" and the palm tree.) Yes Jocelynn ripped the horses legs and tail off :)

Jocelynn's new potty seat! It is super squishy and super nice for Jocey's bum to sit on. And YES that is my super ugly linoleum floor in my downstairs bathroom.... lets not talk about it.

And one of the sock monkeys we made :)

Holy MOLY !

I seriously cannot believe it has been 1 year since the last time we went and got family pictures done! I cant even believe that it is the end of September..... My very talented aunt Trisa took our pictures. In fact she has taken all of our pictures pretty much. Jocelynn was kinda a poop during the whole thing, but we still got some good ones.
Some things that are a lot different this year from last year are:
1. My hair is Long and Dark! Last year it was all short and reddish.
2. Jocelynn HAS hair! Just a little bit but still.
3. I think we are all happier!
4. I think we all just look a little different.

Anyways I LOVE our pictures! I cant remember the last time I was this happy with pictures actually....

21 months

Just for the record in real life I do NOT go by how many months Jocelynn is, just because I think it is just easier to say a little over a year and a half and things like that. I mostly do it so I can have a reference for my future children.
Jocelynn is such a talker! This last month she has really been challenging herself with punctuation and having more diction in her speech. I cant even think of all words she says, all I know is that Andrew and I tried counting them one day and got close to 100 and that was just what we could remember.
Jocelynn is extremely kind. She really is just so gentle with EVERYONE and I still have yet to see or hear from someone that she has hit anyone or bit anyone. She give everyone kisses and hugs. Always asks people if they are Ok and always tries to help.
Jocelynn is CRAZY!!! This is very true, although she is very kind she is super obnoxious sometimes. She thinks everyone is trying to play a game with her. If you are walking behind her at any given point she thinks that you are " chasing" her and so she runs and screams until she is too tired to do it anymore.

We love Jocelynn more than anything. She has been a wonderful first baby/ toddler. And we hope that she gets out of her SHY stage soon so everyone else can see it too!

Jocelynn

This is our baby...... We love her.

Updates

 So I just realized that we have had a lot going on and I really have not said much about it. So Andrew currently now has 2 Jobs, one in the morning at VIVINT security systems as a inside sales rep and the other at  5 BUCK PIZZA where he is the night manager, driver and advertisement specialist. I am currently still a stay at home mommy because I love it, although my on and off job at the school asks me to come back every year I just cant get enough of my baby. I still substitute when I can because I honestly just love being with the kids. I am babysitting my niece Sarah to earn a little extra money too, she comes over wednesdays, thursdays and fridays. We are using the extra money from babysitting and pizza place for a shload of reasons but mostly to get a good savings account and prepare for  our future.
 Some other things that I will be working on is a whole bunch of awesome sewing projects! I love love love sewing sooo much and my goal is to make a ton of clothes for myself and Jocelynn now that it is getting colder. One thing that I am about to start is Jocelynn's halloween costume. LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD! I am so excited to make it for her!
 Anyways that is just a finger tip of of our lives and I love reading other peoples blogs to get ideas on projects or activities to do! So thanks for that!

Our little 20 month old :)

new words:

1. Lets go

2. Friday

3. Monday

4. Fish

5. More ( She says MIN)

6. All done

7. Please and Thank You ( At the correct times and never misses)

8. Shoes

9. Pretty 
10. Juice
11. Drink

new motor skills:

1. Walks up and down stairs, most the time without holding on to a railing.

2. Climbs up on chairs and on to the table.

3. Lots of running

4. Can go down the slide by herself.

5. Wipes her own face.

6. Always uses utensils.

cute things:

1. She always sings to me.

2. She sings ," Its Friday Friday... Partying partying Yeah!" ( throws her hand in the air)

3. Tries to do her makeup like mommy :)

4. Always runs her fingers through my hair and goes," Preeetty."  

Anyways she is getting huge and I am so happy that she is alll MINE! Well Andrews too but thats a given. She is our bestest friend ever and loves us unconditionally even when we make mistakes. You are so pretty Jocey and we love you!

In Remembrance

As you may have heard Andrew's uncle Randy, wife Vicky, and kids MacLean and Brittany Whittle were all killed in a plane crash in Burley, Idaho. I just wanted to write a post on my blog expressing gratitude to Randy, specifically, for reaching out to Andrew over the last year. Andrew was so excited to pick Randy and his family up from the Provo airport and I was excited to meet them for the first time. I am so glad that Andrew and Randy were on good terms and that there is no regret. I am thankful for our Heavenly Father's plan of salvation, it really gives us comfort to know that all of this was part of  His amazing plan. There was a great reunion with each other and other members of the family that have passed before. I am also so grateful that no one from their immediate family was left behind, that is a true blessing in itself. We are grateful that they were doing what they loved and that they were united while doing it. It will be hard for extended family to mourn the loss of an entire family, so I ask that you keep all of them in your prayers.

4 years in the making

So Andrew and I have been dating for 4 years on July 15, 2011. Married for 2 this coming up October. That seems like such a long time. Let me give you a short timeline of our relationship.

July 9, 2007: Official GF and BF
July 15, 2009: Still dating and SURPRISE I am 15 weeks pregnant. That is seriously how it went aaand I totally did not realize it was almost exactly 2 years after we started dating until just now.
October 22, 2009: 7 months pregnant, courthouse wedding! Yay we get to move in together!
December 28, 2009: Jocelynn is born!
October 22-23: 1 year anniversary and TEMPLE SEALING!
July 9, 2011: 4 years together!

This all came to my mind because I was looking through some old photos while we were dating :)
And yes that is a random picture of me with my grandmas cat. WE ARE FREAKS! Oh and I am so glad Andrew has new hair:)

19 MONTHS!

Lets see here..... well right at this very moment Jocelynn is throwing a fit.

Things that are annoying:

1. Random pointless fits ( Hey! Like RIGHT NOW)

2. Fake crying

Things that Jocelynn thinks are helpful:

1. Trying to brush my hair.

2. Taking Q- Tips and trying to stick them in my ear.

Things that Jocelynn does that are actually helpful:

1. Picking up her toys.

2. Throwing trash away.

Sentences Jocelynn says:

1. " Stinky Baby"

2. " I poop?"

3. " Mama Na Night!"

4. " Ah brush my teef"

5. " Ah VVVV" ( v noise means food)

6. " Uh thats mine"

7. " No No No" (Worst one ever )

8. " All Done!" ( Throws her hands up in the air )

9. " Ok Bah bye"

Everything else is pretty much Jibberish.

other things:

1. Jocelynn runs around like crazy.

2. And Jocelynn can say almost every word if you ask her to say it.

We love her and she is AWESOME!

18 Months = 1 year and 1/2

Our baby is 18 Months! Shhh she still feels like a newborn in my mind. She is at this point in her life where she wants to always feel like she is contributing to her surroundings. Here are some things she has learned.

1. She knows certain peoples names " Didgy" (aunt Idgy), " Bump- pa" (Great Grandpa), " Mah-Ma" (Grandma), "Na-Na" ( Great Grandma).
2. She says " Ah throw away?"
3. She LOVES the word LIGHT.
4. She says " Thank you" after anything she receives ( Unless around too many people)
5. She says " Arrf Arrf " For dog and " Meow" For cat.
6. Oh and every little kids name is baby.
7. She is an AMAZING listener.
8. She ALWAYS wants to throw away her own diaper.
9. If we forget our wedding rings or anything that belongs to me or Andrew she notices and retrieves it immediately. ( And gives the rings and anything else to the correct person)
10. She will not eat anything but home cooked meals if I am anywhere to be seen.
11. She is very helpful with little babies. She pets them softly, tries to give them binkies when they are crying and kisses them as much as she can. Surprisingly I am never worried that she is going to hurt them, just that she may wake them up.
12. She also has to walk EVERYWHERE even if it means hiking up a mountain. No assistance for her.

We love our baby and I really hope that she knows it :)

Looking forward.

So the last month for me has been all about looking forward and growing to become a better person for my family. And for me. Sometimes it is really difficult, but when you want to change your heart you stick with it no matter what. I have reflected back on myself and have decided what I am going to do to make me as happy and healthy as I can be.
1. I will do something (hiking, rock climbing, walking, swimming, going to the park etc. ) outside for 2-3 hours a week.
2. I will open all the windows in my house everyday ( sounds weird but people are happier with more sunlight in their houses )
3. I will willingly show 3 acts of kindness towards Andrew everyday ( we have been doing this the last month and it has really changed how we feel about each other )
4. I will not shy away from friends or family who want to do things.
5. I will not have negative comments towards something that was positive to begin with.

Cool! I have been doing these things for the last month and I am so much happier.

AND WERE BACK!

Hey guys sorry about the temporary leave! Andrew and I had some stuff to work out and now we are back! This month we have done an abundance of super cool things.
1. Rock climbing and repelling:) SOOOO much fun!
2. Hiked the "Y".... I dry heaved and almost died trying to do it. Do not eat meat sandwiches before hiking... CHECK!
3. Went to 7 Peaks and the SCERA pool! SO much fun now that Jocey is older.
4. Went to Discovery Park in Lindon.
5. Our little nephew Jackson Kade Ritter was born. End of May.... but still within a month.
6. Our adoptive nephew Thor Aurelius Clark was born. To Sage and Jd Clark.... Some of my bestest friends EVER!
7. And it was Andrew's 2nd Fathers Day :)

Sorry no pictures. But hey at least I made a post finally! Thanks Paige for helping me out again :)