Catch up big time!!

I guess life has been a little chaotic these past couple of months and I've neglected my blog.

PAIGE's BIRTHDAY- I'll start with the first event which was Paige's birthday. She turned two at the end of October and almost instantly had a little bit of the two-year-old attitude. She is as cute as ever and talking constantly. She is into princesses, helicopters, and putting her shoes on and taking them off. She seems so smart to Scott and I and has quite the vocabulary. For her birthday we took her to the pumpkin patch and she got a new coat which she sometimes refuses to take off. She shared a cake and ice cream with her second cousin due to our moving mess. She wouldn't blow out the candles and didn't like the cake. Oh well! Next year we're hoping to celebrate more properly and maybe she'll get into it.




HALLOWEEN- Next was HALLOWEEN. She thought this was especially fun. She dressed as a flower and they had a little party at the babysitter's. She got really mad at me when I attempted to remove her petals off her head. I know, I'm bigger but she won that showdown. Later, we trick-or-treated in Logan so she could go with all of her cousins. She loved running after them from door to door. At the end of the night, she did not want to take off her costume. We had to create a diversion so the flower would come off. Scott also celebrated with his school buddies. He wore the infamous tight police officer outfit. He was a little nervous to bend over or sit down but doesn't he look so sexy in it. OW,OW!!




FUNERAL- Just after that, Dad went downhill pretty quick. He wanted to stick around until Christmas so he wanted to try a pretty powerful Chemo in the hopes it would help give him a little more time. His body wasn't healthy enough to take it and that night his mind seemed to slip away from us. Scott and I were able to be there the whole weekend to help him and take care of him through the nights. Christmas wasn't meant to be. It was very difficult to watch him leave us like that but it was such a gift to have been with him when he passed. It is truly a testimony to me of spirit and body and knowing that although his body is buried, his spirit is living. He was an amazing father and person and I miss him more than I can say. I am doing pretty good. I feel such a peace wash over me when I think of him and where he is. Prayers from everyone have helped so much. My family kept saying that we could feel everyone's prayers and knew that it was helping us through it. I also have an amazing husband (or as my dad told me, "You have yourself a great guy") who was there to help me take care of my dad's personal needs. Not many men could have done that and all of my dad's sons-in-law were very hands on in helping him with it.

The family the night before he died.

TURKEY BOWL- Scott's old work holds a bowling game and last year Paige wasn't real happy with the noise of the pins being knocked down. This year was dramatically different. She loved pushing the ball down the lane and loved watching mom and dad play as well. She was such a happy little thing that night and we were glad that she didn't show any signs of being traumatized from the year before. No, we didn't win.


THANKSGIVING- We thought this holliday would be very difficult for us but once again and surprisingly there was a great amount of peace within our family. We celebrated at my mom's house and everyone pitched in to make it a great success. My mom cooked a yummy turkey and we ate our stomach's out. My mom did really well until it was time to pray and she had to choose someone else to pray when my dad is the usual one to pray. After dinner, it was such a gorgeous day outside, we went outside and hung up my mom's Christmas lights. It was fun to have the nice weather so the kids could run around. We kept cursing our dad and wishing he was putting up the lights instead of us. When that was all done, we all headed to the movie theater to watch Madagascar 2. We laughed so hard that my weak pregnant bladder was leaking a little (I know, TMI). Then back to the house for pie. YUMMY! It was truly a fun day spent celebrating family and the joy of a special holliday that reminds us of all the gifts and blessings the Lord has given to us.

MOVING- Next was our big move. We are so excited about our very own home. We had so many helpers that day and it went so fast. We are finally starting to feel settled and pretty much unpacked. You'll be hearing more about our fun house later on when we can take some pictures. Stay tuned

Now that I've caught up, I just wanted to thank all of you great friends out there for your kind words, letters, cards, emails, prayers, and most of all, friendships. Scott and I are very lucky people to have so many people watching out for us. Heavenly father provides us with Angels in so many ways. Thanks a bunch.

Can't believe you're gone!

I love you, Dad.



SHANE ARMSTRONG
May 13th, 1954 - Nov. 10th 2008

Family Bonding

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A couple of weekends ago, our family had a mini-vacation. We decided to stay close to home in Logan and we made sure we had everything planned out. (I made itineraries but they just made fun of me). It started on Friday night with a bar-b-que in the park. We all brought food to contribute to the meal and made sure there was a fun jungle gym close by for the kids to play on. We enjoyed chatting with each other and eating good food. After dinner, we indulged in a little Aggie ice cream. Yummy! That night we stayed at my sister, Angela's, house and played a few games before retiring to bed.
The next morning was breakfast on my mom and dad's deck. My brother-in-law, Eric, made us some dutch oven breakfast burritos. He definitely has some cooking skills. Golf was up next for the boys and the girls went shopping at the mall (naturally). Then time for naps for all the kids. We had thought about taking the kids to the fun center but we ran out of time so instead, we all got babysitters and the adults went to a nice restaurant for dinner. That was really nice to talk to each other without little kids yammering in our ears. We all enjoyed each other's company and we announced to my family that Scott and I are expecting (yep, that's right. We're 9 weeks pregnant). Then off to mom and dad's house for some football on TV.
The next morning we decided to congregate at my parent's ward for sacrament meeting. It's fun to go to church as a family and we were able to hear my dad bear his testimony on the importance of family. What a gift that was for me to hear. After church, we met out at my sister's school where she's an elementary teacher. It had been my mom's birthday earlier that week so of course we wanted to celebrate it. My brother-in law, Trent, had put together a little game of jeopardy. It was called the Armstrong Family Fun Day game. That was a lot of fun although pretty hard. Everyone was able to participate with the Disney category designed for the kids. We were lucky to have my mom on our team. She is trivia champion. What a great weekend that allowed our family a chance to create wonderful memories and build our relationships.

Funny Paige

Gorgeous baby blues
She loves the tub

I think it's time for an update on Paige. She is so funny right now and at a really fun age. She's 22 months and weighs 22 pounds. Although she's a skinny little thing, she does seem to be getting taller. She's not a big eater and definitely picky. She'll eat most vegetables, all fruits, and is a dairy nut but when it comes to any breads or baked items, she'll have nothing to do with it. The only meat she'll eat is chicken nuggets and beef jerkey so I try to get a little creative in the protein department.
Miraculously eating mac 'n cheese

What is really fun is her speech. She has such a vocabulary and can repeat everything we say. Some of the funniest things she'll say is "I'll get it" when retrieving something, or "here she is" when we ask her where someone is. Just tonight, while giving her a bath, I told her I loved her and she said "thank you". So polite. She still doesn't put the phrases together very well but at least we're starting to get an idea of what she wants. Sometimes she'll just get right in our faces, and in a very serious voice, tell us something very important. Wish we knew what she was saying but it only comes out in Paige's jibberish.
Kisses and Loves

After showing interest in my sisters toy baby, grandma Armstrong bought her her very own doll. She rocks the baby, pats the baby, and sometimes pushes the baby in the stroller. She also tosses the baby down the stairs and loves the baby too much if you know what I mean. It's fun to see such a girly side when all we've seen from her is Thomas and choo choo.
Giving baby a bath in the tub
Such a big girl

Paige is also very active and loves "ready, set, go". She doesn't move very fast but her little legs try. Although she's a mover she's also a sitter. Most of you moms are probably tsking me right now but Paige will sit and watch cartoons or a movie. Her favorite of course is baby einstein which she'll have a heart attack over, she's so excited. It really is nice for me because I can shower or cook without her wanting my full attention. She also is a huge reader (just like her mom). I love it when she's sitting in her little chair reading one book after another. I love reading to her and making the stories come alive by showing her all that the pictures show. Her favorite books are Goodnight Moon (she looks for the mouse), The Thomas the train books, anything with a flap, and her church sacrament book that has pictures of the temple (her new favorite building).
We took her down to the temple grounds to walk around and show her what the temple was really like and she just screamed and laughed as if she knew what a special building it was.
She loves her cousin, Breanna
Paige pulling a Steve Erkle

Slip and Slide fun

Scott's elder's quorum put on their annual Elderpalooza. We all meet in our neighbor's backyard to barbque and then they pull out this enormous piece of plastic. The back yard is very long and forms a hill with two bumps in it. We draped the plastic over this long hill and turned on the sprinklers. You can imagine the fun (and damage) we did with this enormous piece of plastic. Here are some fun pics of us sliding down the hill!


Even Paige liked it


That's as far as I got (the 1st time)



Paige kicking back

Las Vegas or Bust

Last week we went on a journey to Las Vegas with my sister, Megan, and her husband, Trent. Talk about good times. We were quite proud that we didn't follow the slogan, "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas". So here I am to talk about it.

Our rental car

Tuesday night: We dropped off Paige to our good friends the Stones to babysit. Then off to the airport. We picked up some Quiznos for dinner and then found a good spot by the window to watch the planes take off. (We're both airplane nerds). Then the desk attendant came on the intercom to anounce that our flight would be delayed due to circumstances in Vegas. One hour and 1/2 later, we were on the flight. Scott had taken his dramamine but I thought I'd be fine. Then we started taxiing down the runway. I'd venture that the pilot may have had a quick taste from the liquor cabinet because we were swaying from side to side just taxiing. Scary but not as scary as takeoff. Roller coaster ride. Everyone around us had out the white throw-up bags. When we reached for ours, they weren't there. I panicked just a little and finally 30 minutes into the flight, we were able to settle our stomachs. Kind of a scary plane ride. When we got to the airport, we claimed our bags really fast. Then our two options were the shuttle at $8 per person and it hit every hotel along the strip, or take a taxi which we didn't know the fare. Scott suggested the taxi and if it cost a lot we would attribute it to a learning experience. $32 later (and a suggestion from the taxi driver to hit the "BITE" nudie show at our hotel) we were at our hotel at the Stratosphere. The heat at 11pm was 85 degrees. Thank goodness for Utah's cooler nights.

Us at the airport terminal

Wednesday: Megan and Trent flew in very early this morning and picked up our spunky little rental car. They drove around for a little bit and then finally called us to see if they could come to our hotel room and shower. We had free breakfast at the hotel buffet and then it was off to Megan's hotel at the Sahara so they could check in. We thought it was very thoughtful for Casablanca to put us up at the two nicest hotels on the Strip. They spared no expenses. (Sense the sarcasm in that statement). We originally had planned to go to the temple but with our luck, we picked the very week they were doing maintanance on it. We decided to head to Primm to do some shopping at the outlet. It was really fun to go shopping and fun for the boys to hit the massage chairs for a break. We were hoping to see a cirque de soleil that night but they were sold out for our ticket range so we ordered tickets for the next night. Next on the list was the Lion habitat at MGM grand and dinner at the Rainforest Cafe. Yummy food and superb company. We had thought to go back to our hotel and play cards but found that we were too tired so we all went our separate ways and conked out again for the night.



Thursday: Our true reason of coming to Vegas was because we got roped into the "free vacation" if we saw a Worldmark presentation. So in the morning, we all headed out to the presentation to be coaxed and prodded over and over again. We practiced saying no over and over again. Yet still we wanted to say yes. Ohh they are good at what they do. In the end our No's ruled and we walked away from the presentation with our gift perks. Then it was off to the Strip. We rode the monorail all day which saved us a lot of walking in the heat. Lunch was the buffett at the Sahara. Free but Yucky!!! One big presentation we (okay, I) wanted to see was the human bodies exhibit. We had both heard wonderful things about it. My sister didn't think she and her husband could stomach seeing dead bodies, so they stayed behind. Such as our luck, the exhibit had moved hotels, and wouldn't start until the day after we left. How sad, huh?? Our next stop was the shark reef. Wow! We had a great time and really enjoyed this informative exhibit. Then down the strip to dinner at Planet Hollywood and seeing shops we'll never be able to shop in:). The Cirque de Soleil's Ka was next and can I tell you, it was phenomenal. Scott and I kept saying who comes up with this stuff. It was so creative and what they can do is unbelievable. Wow. Then home to bed.

Us taking an illegal picture at KA.

Friday: Check out and off to lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. Yummmy. Scott is so great and gave our leftovers to a homeless guy. Cruising the strip with Scott and Trent playing the basketball machine was next. Then off to the airport (much better flight) and home to Paige whom we missed so much. Dave and Candace are great to watch her for us so thank you!!!

What a great vacation and so fun to spend it with my sister and her husband.

Pioneer's Day

Our Pioneer's day was pretty relaxing which was just what we needed. We went to Logan and spent the day with my family. We went to a park for a little fair that North Logan was having. It was definitely geared for the kids. They had face painting, ring toss, blow up slide, and basketball shootout. We met two of my sisters there and got some lunch (hotdogs and nachos!!) then Scott took the clan over to the blow up slide for some sliding fun. I even think he enjoyed it.
Paige was pretty tired at that point so we headed over to my parents for some family naps. AHHH! If anyone knows me, you'll know my great love for a good nap. It was nice to just kick back and relax.
Once everyone was up, the men were off to golf and the women (me, my mom, and two sisters) watched the kids swim at my sisters house. Paige loved swimming with her cousin, Breanna, and jumping on the trampoline. We also made a yummy dinner and had it ready to eat at the time the men came home. Then some street fireworks and home to bed for us. It was such a nice day spent hanging out with my family. It doesn't get much better than that.

Catch Up

Fourth of July - We had a great time on the 4th which for us started on the third! Scott and I had our last softball game that night so we played in that (winning of course) and then took off to Logan with Paige in tow. Logan has their fireworks on the 3rd every year so they to don't interfere with anyone else. They put on a great show and in the past, we've been able to see them from our back yard. With the trees a lot bigger in our back yard, we now congregate on the lawn of a nearby church. We bring treats, let the kids run around, and just enjoy each others company. We met up with my family that night and got caught up with everyones lives (my dad had just shaved his head due to the hairloss from chemo. It still surprises me). We were worried about Paige and the big show but when the time came she was too tired to react. She spent most of the time lying on grandma's shoulder and gazing at the sky. Then home to bed for all of us and up early the next morning for a yummy breakfast at my parents then to the HYRUM parade. My philosophy is you've seen one parade, you've seen them all. We had a good time with lots of candy being thrown and Paige almost dead asleep. After the parade, we visited with my aunt and uncle who had come down to see my dad and then it was back to Ogden for the Roberts side of the reunion. We had his whole family over to our back yard for a bar b que It's great to have that kind of space and a covered patio so everyone's comfortable. Then we spent the rest of the night having a nertz compitition. Close to ten was the fireworks all around Ogden, so the family left. It was a great holiday spent with family!


Service - Scott and I have had a great opportunity to perform some service very close to home. Both of our parents are in need of some help with the upkeep of their homes so we both decided to devote a lot of our time this summer to helping them out. First off was my family's house. My parents have had the worst luck with sheds. The two sheds they've had have collapsed on them so we decided to get them a sturdier shed. Scott and my brother-in-law, Eric, stayed up most of the night getting it put up. Along with the help of my brother-in-law, Trent and his friend Rusty, they finished it early the next morning. Then we (my sisters and I) cleared everything out of the garage and organized both it and the shed. It was an all day project but lots of fun time spent with my family. I think when you are truly serving someone with a happy heart, the lord blesses you and I feel that especially with my family. The next project was Scott's parent's basement. The boys are finally going to finish it. It was fun to go over and spend some time with the men while they mudded, sanded, taped, and talked. I got to put in a little of my talent by priming and painting. So much got done and Scott's dad couldn't stop saying thank you for all the hard work they did. After everyone had left, we took Paige with us into the backyard to clean up the paint brushes. Paige really liked the hose and was soaking wet by the time we were done! We had such a great time with our families and love the relationships that we share with them. Scott and talk all the time about how wonderful our parents are and how we'd do anything to help them. We were grateful for the opportunity to serve back.


The ZOO - Last year we kind of started the tradition of going to the zoo with a couple of my sisters and my mom. My mom has to go down to SLC every month for a medical transfusion and we usually take turns going down with her. This time, we loaded up all the kids and headed to SLC. We started with a tour around the zoo. Then off to lunch at Hires Big H (one of our favorites. Next we took mom off to the dr.'s. Then it was back to the zoo for a full afternoon of seeing the animals. I tried to prep Paige by pulling out all her zoo books about animals. She was mesmerized by a lot of the animals and loved the elephants, monkeys, and mountain cats the best. We finished up with a ride on the carosel and a trip on the choo choo. Paige loves her cousins and enjoyed the time they spent together.

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Miss you already!

Scott and I hate saying goodbye to anyone. Last night was especially difficult because our good friends, the Crofts are moving. (They're the ones who got into the June Ensign P.65 instead of us. We got cut out :( ) They are headed to the hot and sunny state of Arizona (Mesa, specifically). They are the greatest people and we have so much in common with them. Hilary is a nurse and she and I just talk about everything under the sun together. Then of course is the relationship between Scott and Zeb (whom he calls his bff). They golf, play basketball, work together, and most importantly talk Jazz. They are true Jazz fans. They are surrogate parents to Paige and we love them and will miss them greatly. (Zeb, Scott's tears were real. He already misses you!) Thanks for being amazing friends and we look forward to next summer when Scott stays with you for his internship. We can't wait!!!

How can I be?

Scott's new favorite song for the message and the ukelele!

Reunions

We have celebrated some great family reunions this summer. Every year over father's days is the Armstrong family reunion. My dad was too ill to go up so we all went up and enjoyed the company of my dad's siblings. They were all very concerned for him so it hard trying to answer all of their questions. But we had a great time. The next weekend was the Roberts family reunion. Scott's parents have time share with trendwest so we headed up to Wolf Creek for a three day weekend of good times with the Roberts. We: ate really well, swam, played games, and just enjoyed one anothers company.. We are blessed to come from some great families!!

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Forever Friends

Scott and I have been blessed to have the greatest of friends as you can see by our blog list (including those who don't post!!). We have a group of friends that we have known for about 6 years, since our days in the student married ward. We try to get together once or twice a year which can be hard with everyone all spread out. A couple of our friends were going to be in ogden for one night and it just worked out with almost all of the couples to meet that night. (Missed you Whelans!!) We gathered up in Huntsville and the amazing home of our friend, Brody's parents. They were so generous to let us come up. Paige jumped on the tramp for the first time and found it fascinating. We then pulled out the slip and slide with some pretty brave kids going down it. Next was the bar-b-que with some great food. After almost 6 months of not seeing each other, we had a lot to catch up on and found ourselves talking til the early hours of the next morning. I haven't laughed that hard for a long time. It's as if we haven't been away. Thanks for such a great night (and morning) and for the wonderful friendships we share. Here are a few great pictures.

Paige being Paige!

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