Three sleeps

Whenever we have something exciting to look forward to, I always tell Jaida how many "sleeps" she has before the day arrives. We now only have to go to bed 3 times before my parents get home. WAHOOOOOOOO!!!!! There aren't words to describe how excited I am. They've been gone about 18 months too long. :) They are now in the process of sad goodbyes with all the people they have grown to love there. But there's a lot of people here anxiously awaiting their return. Not only have I gone without my parents, but my doctor as well. I don't know how you people survive without your own personal medical consultant. :) Glad mine is coming back.
Can't wait to see you mom and dad! The house (and the cat) are ready for your return.

A little D.C

Mya found a sacrament cup somewhere. Not sure if it was in the diaper bag, or the yard, or the car. But she found one. I happened to be drinking a Diet Coke (surprise) and she decided she wanted some. And of course I couldn't pass up the opportunity to take a picture.

So here's Mya. . .taking shots of Diet Coke. . .in a sacrament cup.

And you can tell by her shirt, she just finished eating a graper otter pop. I'm generally a one outfit a day kind of mom, so if they get dirty, they're sportin' it for the rest of the day. Don't judge them. And the band-aid on the arm. . .purely decoration.

The Human Spirit

For the sake of my children who will probably one day be reading the words of this blog, I wanted to comment on the resilience of the human spirit.
Mike and I have had our fair share of "life" lately. We were talking the other day after getting the girls to sleep and I looked at him and said "we've sure had a lot of **** going on lately. I need a "life-break". "
Though we are still very much in the midst of our never ending craziness, I am fully aware of the strength of the human spirit. Not just mine, or Mike's, or the other people in our lives who seem to be (unfortunately) VERY resilient, but EVERY human spirit's ability to endure and overcome. There have been many nights, and several times during the day, where I think "I have NO idea how I made it through this day" and yet I did.
The old adage that "someone is worse off than you" does nothing for me. Everyone has trials. . .everyone has bad times, hard times, times we think "I'm never going to make it through this". The point is, God made us strong and can make us stronger. No doubt about it.
So for all of you out there, and to my two amazing little girls (and all my kids to come!): we aren't meant to fail. And though there will be times we think "what's the point", there IS a point and we're all connected for a reason. Other people's agency will often be the biggest trials we have to endure and endure we will!
This is NOT a woe is me post. I'm fine. So don't send me e-mails asking if I'm okay. Just wanted to tell my girls that life is super hard, but sooooo worth it. And if Mike and I can make it through all we've gone through and are going through, they can make it through anything life throws at them.
Life really is good. despite all the bad, there is so much good. And THAT is what we have to focus on!
To go along with that, for anyone who actually made it through this, I wanted to send a HUGE thank you to all the people who have literally saved my sanity the past few weeks and months. A specific thanks to Alice (who probably doesn't read this, but to those of you who know her, give her a big pat on the back for me) and Dr. B and his amazing wife who REALLY helped me out today.
Here's to life and the strength of the human spirit!!!

Reason number one. . . .

. . . .why I am NOWHERE near ready to have another baby. :)

That's Brittany Hughes new baby for anyone wondering. You can see more pics of her on my photo blog.

My old roomate.

Many of you know my friend Melissa. We were paired up as roomates our freshman year at BYU. We lived in the S-tower at Deseret Towers. If it weren't for Melissa, I NEVER would have made it through my freshman year. I'm just not BYU-dorm material. That was a rough year for me. But Melissa. . .she's one of the funniest people I know. We used to have stair races up to our room on the 3rd floor. We knocked down more than one person on our way up. We also tried to teach ourselves to be ambidextrous by practicing handwriting each night before bed. It didn't really work. Melissa petitioned to get pistachio pudding served in the cafeteria. She made a bunch of it, set up a table for people to try it, had them sign a petition, and then presented it to the head of the cafeteria. A few days later, pistachio pudding was on the menu in the cafeteria. I was so proud. She also used to make me listen to Enrique Iglesias in Spanish to improve my skills. I still listen to some of those songs. . .in Spanish. Love that girl. Oh. And she got a 35 on her ACT. She really likes it when I tell people that. :)
This is her. With her new HUSBAND, who also lived in the dorms our freshman year. They didn't really date back then. But finally found each other again. And they're perfect for each other. I had the privilege of being their photographer on their wedding day. Soooooo much fun. For those of you who know her, check out more photos on my photo blog here!



Congratulations Melissa and Lambert. I couldn't be happier for you!!! And good luck on your new life in Boston. We'll have to come visit.

Stories for the books

The past week around here has been crazy. We're still trying to get settled in the new house, our neighbors are hassling us about our ghetto yard (seriously. . .they are), we're trying to get my parents house and yard put back together, Mya got sick, and now Jaida's sick. Well, she has a fever at least. No symptoms (besides intense drama), just a fever.
And to top it all off, the stupid racoons are back in my parents attic (those of you following this story in our lives know the drama behind that), and there are still mice running rampant in their storage room. Welcome home mom and dad. They're going to want to stay in Africa and that's saying alot. :)

A few funny stories.

Mya loves her belly. Almost as much as I do. I always ask her "where's your belly" and she proudly lifts her shirt to show the world. Last night she wanted to see MY belly. That's private territory, but she's hard to resist so I let her. She looked at it kind of funny, pushed down on it and said "skish" (squish) "skish" "skish". She then tried to wipe off my stretch marks (which were given to me by her) and then pointed at them and said "ca ca". Time for a tummy tuck. :)

Jaida was getting ready for bed last night and wanted to watch "Caillou" before she went to bed. For anyone who hasn't seen that very lame cartoon, you aren't missing much. It's painful to watch. Mike was watching the end of the NBA finals game so there was a battle for the TV. I'm sure Mike would have given her the TV (because he's nice like that) but I try to keep Jaida from taking over all the time. So I told her she'd have to wait. In a very frustrated/sassy tone she said "It's not father's day so I get to watch what I want to watch." Are you kidding me?

Lastly, I thought I'd post these pics of Jaida. They probably shouldn't make me laugh, but they do. She was pretty hot yesterday with a fever so in an attempt to cool her down, I put wipes on her head. Not sure if that's what you're supposed to do, but I'm kind of winging this whole mom thing anyway. She looks sicker in the pictures than she really was (because she was outside riding bikes with the neighborhood posse 20 minutes later).

Oh. And one more thing. If anyone has any U of U t-shirts they'd like to donate to me, I'd love it. I can't really bring myself to buy any, but you would die at the reaction I get when I wear U of U stuff down here. I thought we were far enough north in Utah county, but apparently not. The first time I wore my Utah shirt (courtesy of Berly. . thanks) outside, I thought the neighborhood was going to lynch me. People I'd never even seen before were giving me nasty looks and commenting about my apparel. Unbelievable.

The farm

We bought a year pass to Thanksgiving Point so I figured I better use it and took the girls to the farm. Mya wasn't feeling great and was terrified of the animals. Can't say I blame her. She loves animals from a distance, but has no interest in getting close. Jaida was more brave this time. She actually let a horse eat out of her hand which, to me, is pretty brave. Those things have big teeth and it's about 10 times bigger than her. She also rode on the ponies by herself. I didn't have to walk next to her, which I was grateful for, because those things poo and pee all over the "parent walking path". Nasty.
I surprisingly didn't take very many pictures. I was holding Mya most the time which makes picture taking slightly difficult and very shaky.




This one's for you mom (my mom is an animal lover. . .my dad. . .not so much). Next time we go, you can come with us!!!!! WAHOO!!

Four Stories of St. Julian

Many of you already know my brother Shane was working on his first movie. Well. . .it's finally done. Four Stories of St. Julian was written and directed by Shane!

You can check out the trailer and details at http://www.stjulianfilm.com/

**WARNING** You probably don't want to watch the trailer in front of kids "or at church" (those are Shane's words). Because it's an independently produced film, it's not officially rated, but let's just say it's not "G". In fact "probably" is not the right word--don't watch it in front of kids. Now I've got you curious--admit it.

And I can't exactly say our mom would be so proud (because of the content) but I am. Way to follow your dreams Shane. It takes a lot of guts to do that.

They're submitting the film to some film-festivals and he is now working on his "next project" which is so classified he can't even tell me what it is. ha ha. But I look forward to more in the future. He is an insanely talented writer (gets that from my mom) and very creative. He stole all the creative genes that were supposed to go to me.

So. . .if you dare. . .check it out. :)

Regardless of what happens with it, how many people can say they've made a movie (besides one you do in your yard with your video camera)?! So cool.

WEBSITE!!!!

Finally!!! The photography website is finished. I'm not sure who came up with HTML coding, but seriously. Thankfully it wasn't as hard as I thought (using a template), but VERY time consuming. Regardless. . .it's done. Tell your friends about it. Thanks.

Oh, the address. www.lindsayrossphotography.com Clever I know.

In her own words

Normally I don't try to encourage behavior like this by video taping, but Jaida is neither encouraged or discouraged by anything I say. She just does what she does. So I figured her telling what happened was far better than me.

What I really wish is that I could have video-taped Mike's reaction when he found out what she'd been doing.

Thankfully the air conditioner seems to be fine.

We don't say that. . .

. . .a phrase I have to use more than I like.
Yesterday Jaida told Mya to "shutup" Here's the conversation that followed.
Me: "Jaida. We don't say that."
Jaida: "Yes we do."
Me: "No, we don't."
Jaida: Yes we do Mom. I say shutup at home and you say shutup at the store."

Sleepover

Jaida and Mya got to have a sleepover with their cousin, Kelsey, over memorial day weekend. I didn't tell Jaida about it until a few hours before, but she was pretty excited for those few hours and throughout that night. As soon as Kelsey got here, they both said they were "so tired" and needed to get in sleeping bags and go to sleep. It was 5pm.

A little pizza party.



Facial expressions don't get much better than this one. :)

And then a popcorn party!

A little movie.

And some playtime with dress-up shoes.

Mya can walk surprisingly well in those princess shoes. Unfortunately she can run in them as well. She loves to wear them out in the road while she pushes her shopping cart. When I go to get her, she takes off as fast as she can. Great fun. The neighbors think it's hilarious.

"Where's your nose?"

Weddings

My step-nephew in-law (that's confusing) got married a few weeks ago. My little brothers good friend, Mike Cunningham was the photographer and he let me second-shoot. For those of you who know Zach and care, you can see more pictures on my photography blog here.

Boring life?

A relative of mine who "struggles" and recently was released from the Salt Lake County jail noted, after spending a day observing the daily routines of myself and the girls, that my life was boring. I found this quite funny and slightly ironic coming from someone who just spent the past 8 months in a 10 by 10 concrete room with no windows and bars on the door. Apparently he doesn't read my blog. My life is anything but boring. Here's to motherhood and the endless non-boring days. :)