I love you, Grandma

On Christmas Eve, we lost an amazing lady. My grandma died at the age of 90 after an amazing life filled with hard work, happiness, and love. I was able to live with her for four years while attending Weber State. During that four years, I realized that she was: extremely humorous, she liked pizza and ice cream, she was an amazing cook and taught me some great recipes, we'd watch movies galore, we'd grocery shop together and she showed me how to pick out produce, she was very intelligent (read 2 newspapers a day), she was very loving and showed compassion to me on numerous occasions, and best of all she was my friend and companion. We shared a very close and special relationship.

For 6 more years (after marrying Scott), I was able to keep that relationship by helping her with many of the duties she was unable to carry out in her older age. We'd take road trips to Logan, trips to doctors, and stop for shakes at artic circle (her favorite was carmel cashew). I'm glad that she was able to meet Paige and form a close relationship with her. I know that there's alot I can teach Paige about her Great-grandma and also all that I learned from her. I loved her and will miss her humor, her concerns, and yes, even the tedious duties I sometimes had to do for her. Thank you, grandma. I love you!!

Carseats and necklaces

Paige has 2 new fascinations: carseats and necklaces. Aunt Ginger was the first one to introduce the necklace. While babysitting, Paige found one of the twins plastic, beaded necklace and took an immediate interest to it. After falling in love with the necklace, grandma and grandpa Armstrong found some mardi gras beads at the dollar store. The first time we tried taking them off, she threw a tissy fit. Needless to say she has them on at all times of the day and no worries to you worrying mothers, I am always around when she has them on so she won't strangle herself!! She also thinks anything with a strap is also a necklace and thinks the camera case is just a big pendant:).

The next fascination is the car seat. She loves to climb in it and try to buckle herself in. The ironic thing about it is that she doesn't like to get in it when we have to go anywhere. Now we have the new front-facing carseat and she loves it. She gets to see us and talk (boy is she a talker) to us all the time. She can also see the cars in front of us and I think she likes the tail lights. It's just as amusing to Scott and I because we can see her too.

Throw-up everywhere

Tonight was a night of mopping up Paige's throw-up. You're probably wondering why I'm sharing the wonderful story of her night throwing up. One simple fact, she's never thrown-up or been really sick before. It's ironic, because everytime we babysit my sisters' kids, they are almost always sick under our care. She's been a little fussy tonight. She didn't want any of her lunch or dinner so we've given her the sippy cup full of milk and left it at that. Then right before bedtime, she crawled over to her toys. She hugged her Care Bear then looked up at me. I knew it was coming and got there right in time to cup my hands under her mouth (like I could catch it, what was I thinking). She then spewed the largest amount of throw- up, for such a tiny person, I have ever seen. The Care Bear didn't have a chance!! Poor thing (Paige, not the Care Bear) was thrown in the tub and proceeded to throw-up in the tub (she was afraid of the bowl I was shoving under her mouth). The sad thing about it is that her mother, the nurse, panicked and called her own mother trying to find out how to help Paige and save her from further retching. Anyway, we finally got her settled and put her to bed when we heard the coughing signaling the repeat performance of being sick to her stomach. After a bunch of dry heaving and sips of water, she is down for the night and hopefully feeling better. Hopefully your stomach is as strong as mine as you read this and kudos to Scott who had to clean up the mess. What a great dad!!

Bowling

Last night, we had our annual Turkey Bowl with some of Scott's old neighborhood friends. Not many people were there but the small group of us had a lot of fun and pretty good games. Scott scored 169 (he says he choked in the "4th quarter"). The only person who didn't have fun was Paige. It was 1 hour past her bedtime and something about the ball going down the lane and hitting the pins scared her. The terrible parents that we are, thought that was a little funny so of course we had to capture the tears on camera. We'll have to get her used to it by going more frequently and give her more of a chance to push the ball down the lane. Maybe that will entice her to like it more.

Happy Thanksgiving

Hello everyone! Hopefully everyone is enjoying their Thanksgiving day. Scott and I have been talking all week about what we're thankful for. We realize just how much Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have been watching out for us. We've got our great marraige and friendship. We have Paige and the gift of eternal families that allow us to see little Keiki again. We have this beautiful home to live during a difficult financial time with Scott in school. We are greatful for the opportunity for Scott to be here in Utah in school. What a blessing. I have a wonderful job which I like very much. We have food, cars, clothes (although I keep thinking I always need a little more). We are both very healthy. We have freedoms galore. We both have amazing parents who are great examples of endurance, charity, love, and friendship. We have great siblings who we love even through good and bad. We have the best friends in the world (and all over the world). We're greatful for all of this and realize what an amazing life we live. Thank you all for being a part of it.

Tag

I have been tagged so here we go. The rules: each player lists 6 facts or habits about themselves. at the end of the tag the player then tags 6 people and posts their names, then goes to their blog and leaves them a comment letting them know that they have been tagged and asking them to read your blog.
1- I am a huge reader. I read everything including sci-fi, murder mysteries, romance novels, and feel good books. Sometimes I'm so caught up in a book, that I neglect the rest of my life. Scott is so good to just carry on around me when I'm like that.
2- I am an identical twin. My sister, Megan, and I are very close and talk almost everyday.
3- I am so in love with my husband, Scott. We always say what an amazing marraige we have. We balance each other so well. And of course there's Paige who is the greatest gift given to us in our lives.
4- I am obsessive compulsive about balancing my checkbook and will check my accounts every day, sometimes even twice a day.
5- I enjoy cooking but tend to get lazy and want take out too often. I'm on a kick lately, where I've cooked everynight for two weeks (except park city) straight. Yeah!!
6- A habit my husband notices is wrapping my fingers around my thumb while we're driving. To visualize it, think of a fist about to punch someone improperly. :)
Megan, Rebecca, Jenn, Jenny, Liz, Sarah

Park City family vacation

This weekend, Scott had a convention for PT in Park City. We thought it would be nice for the whole family to go up and spend the night. We left Friday morning and dropped Scott off at noon so he could make it to lunch. Then Paige and I ate lunch at McD's and went shopping to the outlets. We started at the top and worked our way down. We didn't get very far before Paige started getting tired. I tried to keep her going by letting her push the stroller. All the salespeople commented on what a big helper she was :). After our shopping trip, it was time to check-in and give Paige a nap. When we got to the hotel at 3:30, our room wasn't ready and wouldn't be until 4. At that time we were both tired and a little cranky so we drove around for a bit. We were finally able to go to the room but I had one small problem. Paige. I needed to unload the car, take in the luggage (on a rolling cart), and go out and park the car all while holding Paige. Very comical. I held Paige and rolled the cart to the room then Paige and I went back to the car and drove 10 feet to park it. I still felt guilty enough to buckle her in that short distance. By then it was close to 5 and Scott was just about done with the conference. Paige and I played in the curtains and watched TV til then. NO NAP!! We had dinner across the street at the Pizza Hut with Scott's old bosses and Paige was a big eater. We then came back to the hotel and went swimming with Scott's old boss' family, who's wife happens to babysit Paige. They had a great time and Paige liked kicking her feet in the water.

The night was interesting since Paige doesn't usually sleep in the same room with us. She cried a couple of times during the night and we were afraid to even go to the bathroom for fear of waking her.

The next morning, Scott had to get up early and go to the conference. So for breakfast Paige had some cereal and I had cold pizza. Then we went back down to the pool. She wasn't as excited about it like she was last night, plus she was really tired. So we went back to the hotel room and had a shower. We got dressed and then Paige went down for a nap. After an hour, she was awake again. So more TV, curtains, books, toy cars, and dancing to pass the time. Then it was home. We had a wonderful time.

Fall leaves

Tonight we attempted to rake the leaves in the backyard. Paige was a little skeptical at first but finally dropped to her knees and crawled through every pile we had made. She thought it was funny and we did too since she looked so cute. We had some great pictures and funny moments with her in the leaves.

Halloween

For Halloween, Paige was a duck. Grandma Armstrong found the costume for her and when she saw it, she thought if fit Paige to a tee. She was right. It was darling on her and so funny to see her crawling in it. We visited great grandma Gaskill, and Paige pushed her walker all over the place. Later that evening, all of us went up to the church for the trunk or treat. She didn't know what was going on but thought it was funny to wear the costume.

Here we go for sure

Already, I don't know how to set up the blog but I'm going to attempt this anyways. I love reading about everyone else and seeing pictures of everyone's families so we're adding our family to it. I thought it was also a good family journal for our history.

Our little Paige just turned 1 on Oct. 24th. We had a family party for her. She loved playing with the cousins but got a little tired towards the end. She loves the chair we gave her although she's not big on sharing with others. It's fun to see all the new things she's doing. She took her first two steps today and we were so excited. She is too little to be walking (weighing only 17lbs and 28inches long) so we have to be careful not to run her over.

Scott is still busy with school and loving it. Definitely a good choice for his career. He hates catching the early morning bus but says its worth the gas we're saving. I always appreciate the quality time he spends with Paige and I, knowing how much he has to get done.

I am still working 3 days a week as a nurse for the endoscopy center and loving the environment. I do miss Paige but she loves the babysitters and playing with their kids.