It's a Wonderful Life!

Snow, christmas lights, trees decorated, presents, and the big one... the reason for the Christmas holiday. How could anyone not appreciate this time of year? I love it all. I love watching Landon as I put him in his car seat after he's walked through the snow... look at his boots and if there's any snow on them or his pants he wants it off. :) And of course there always is... he is my little world. I get hope, joy, happiness, contentment, thankful, and blessed feelings when I have him next to me as well as some frustrated, trying, and hair pulling times too... but they are not near as often as the other more positive ones.

Landon's new thing lately is sticking out his tounge at anyone and anytime. I don't know where he has learned this one... but he has been doing it for a couple of weeks. To stop this unusual thing... I have been trying to "get" his tounge if he sticks it out... and this results in his laughter, but then the fear of sticking it back out to have it "got" again! lol... he's so much fun! He also is fascinated by the christmas ornaments on the trees at my house and his aunt and uncle's house too! He is still the same climber that he's always been. He has hit a milestone that I thought would never come along! Landon has finally learned how to say "Uncle!" So now instead of calling his Uncle Thomas DaDa... he says Uncle! Woot Woot! He still calls my sister and roommate DaDa though... we are working on that now...

Last night with PaPa and Grandma Ruth at Leah's house he was climbing on the couches, the dog, us, and was a hoot trying to pull Grandpa's boot off! lol... Dad was so good with the kids and it was so good to see him and Ruth. I can't wait to see them again on Christmas Day! I hope to have a sleep over at their new house soon when they have a spare bed available.

Leah and Thomas finally get their new living room set that they have waited weeks for and are so stoked for... Congrats to them! Thomas is watching Landon tonight and I get to swing by Sportsman's to colaberate with Leah about a certain gift I need to purchase. I also have to do some quick shopping for Landon and a couple of others! I hate shoping around this time of year. People seem to stress out as they walk through the stores... but surprisingly I am not stressed at all. I actually wouldn't mind if gifts just went out the window this year... but because it's tradition... I guess it will stay and I will participate. :)

I do plan to start a tradition of my own... I am going to dress up Landon in sheets, like in olden times, and have him and maybe Linzey (my niece) be Mary with a baby doll as Jesus. I want to read from the scriptures as they do that... or at least tell the story because of short attention spans... but do that every year. I remember growing up and having my older sisters be Mary, Joseph, and the Donkey Mary rode, while Leah and I were the shepards in the fields. It was so much fun and we have the tape today to prove how funny it got when there's not much under the sheets and they start to fall off... luckily we were all girls. Love you April! ;) I hope to take photos every year of this nativity scene with Landon and make a really cool page out of it... In the past my family usually will watch Little Women and It's a Wonderful Life (title of blog), and open a present the night before Christmas together from the person who drew their name. Then the family will get back together the day of Christmas to have something to eat, nothing big, but just to have time together. It's fun and I love the traditions. I love you all and wish you a Merry Christmas and a wonderful season full of joy and enjoyable company to go with it. :) - God Bless!

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(This picture is one that I just love and had to include. I think that no matter what mudd we might have to trudge through, that we can always at least be thankful for the boots that we have on to get us through it to the other side! lol... I love it!)

I Guess I'm Not a Girl!

lol... this blog is a huge thank you to my roommate Andrea who has opened my eyes to the real world of being a girl! She has consistantly been amazed by my naiveness to the world of makeup, clothing, and just over all Needed Knowledge that All Girls are supposed to know. She tells me all the time, "I can't believe you don't know that!" or "What!!?@?!!? You've never done that??? Are you really a girl?"

lol.... until she moved in I didn't know what bronzer meant or was (and still don't use it, but at least know that it's a makeup product that makes me look more tan), didn't know that you can always fit into high heels that are bigger (by stuffing toilet paper in the toe until it's a perfect fit! even though you feel like a dork, It works!) and that I could really sob with someone while watching a movie and not feel like I was being glanced at because you were right beside me sobbing too! (The Notebook).

Andrea is amazing and has really continued to teach me things that I otherwise wouldn't have known. lol... So THANK YOU ANDREA SMITHEE!!!! You have enlightened and have made me laugh so hard my stomach aches and I have to run to make it to the bathroom before having an accident. I am glad you're here and hope that you won't be leaving too soon!

Here are a few pictures of the night that I was enlightened about bronzer and the toilet paper in the shoes thing... I was Andrea's project that night and loved every minute of it. It was so much fun and I felt good about myself which is a good and unfamiliar feeling. Thanks for all the clothes, makeup, and tips Andrea... you are truly the diva of it all.

Nighttime Beatings... not what you think!

Landon this last week has gotten the winter cold that's going around. Because of this, he constantly is waking up during the night and climbing into bed with me. So when he does try sleeping with me, I take him back into his bed soon after... well after a couple of nights of doing that time and time again and it not working (and me hating to get up that many times), I have just allowed him to sleep with me.

Last night after I went to bed at 2am because of sitting up and chatting to my roommate till the wee hours of the morning, I layed down and Landon went from the normal position in bed - head on pillow and feet pointed towards bottom of the bed - to the opposite position. You guess it all right! All night long, Landon was kicking me in the face. Finally I just rolled over so that if he did end up moving (which happened every 5 minutes) he wouldn't kick me in the face. I tried to change his position, but he liked to have his head on the mound of blankets and elevated with his feet on my pillow... so that's how we slept last night. It was interesting and I hope that tonight and the rest of the week goes better. Poor kid has trouble sleeping at night because of the cough he has. I hate it when he gets sick, I just want to take it away from him and suffer through that for him... But because I can't, I use the humidifier, vick's vapor rub and cough medicine as well as warm baths.

Dating... unnerving and scary

So as you all know I am now single and able to date. I'm glad that I'm able to date now, but that has opened a whole new world of things that I never thought I would have to go through again. I am scared to death of dating again... in all honesty. I am naive and this is a really bad thing when trying to determine if someone is being truthful or not and with so many other things too. At one moment when I think about dating I am excited and gitty and then when I really think about it, I am so stinkin' scared and petrified! I never thought I would have to go through this again and it's all new and unnerving! All of a sudden I'm thrown into going with my gut instinct, wondering what's going to be said next, and nervous because I don't know what the heck I'm doing! I have only officially gone on 1 date so far and that date didn't go as well as I was hoping... red flags going up everywhere... but I am now emailing a couple of guys and talking on the phone to some guys that I find interesting and fun. I talked to my mom last night and told her about one of the guys and then was given a slew of advise. I am going by my patriarchal blessing, which states that I need to heed my mother's counsel because she has my best interest at heart and has more experience in life. So I am heeding every one of my mom's counseling tips.

1.) Know the guy for at least a year before getting really serious. This way I can see the ups and downs that come with time, am able to talk to family/friends/church leaders and others about past and present questions and concerns, and am able to really tell how the are through time. - Mom and Bishop LaDow's Counsel

2.) Go on a date with at least 10 different guys. I have never really dated (my mom pointed this out) and I need to be able to have something to measure others with. So going on multiple dates will give me lots of different experiences to look at. - Mom's counsel

3.) Have them come to my town first. I have been doing a lot of networking on a LDS singles site and I was told (and think it's wise) to have them come here first so that I can meet them face to face and have it be on my ground/territory. Ok... that sounds weird... but anyways... you get the point. There are a lot of creeps, pedophiles, rapists, and such in the world today and anyone can get an account with an LDS singles site... so better safe than sorry. - Mom's counsel

4.) Always be in groups the first couple of dates. - My Own

5.) Have my sister and brother-in-law, Leah and Thomas, do something with us so that they can tell me things and point things out to me that I might not notice by myself. - Mom's counsel

6.) Always know my self-defense moves. Thank you Super Saturday Self-Defense Class! I really know this works because I was just showing some of the boys in my family what I had learned and downed my nephew when I didn' think I had done anything. It was pretty effective and not hard at all. :) Fun! But serious and handy as well! - My Own

7.) Go to the temple with them for date later on. I actually learned this from a fellow single guy that has had some more experience than me.... and where would you find a better place to meet! - My Own and My Mom agrees :)

So those are just a few of the things that I have set for myself.

It's crazy, I just thought that one of my MiaMaids, Ashli, will be dating in a couple of weeks!... way weird!

If you have any more words of advice or caution please feel free to share them... I am all for help! I hope that I can stick with these things and over time find the right, worthy person for me and Landon to be with.

Church Ah Ha Moment

First off... I have to share with everyone how happy I was with Landon being such an Amazing little boy during Sacrament Meeting this week! Usually I have to get up at least once with him because he is so dog-gum noisy. But this week he sat on my lap almost the entire meeting long and the noisiest he was was when he made some piggy noises because we asked him what a piggy sound was. :) I think it had to do with not sitting by Brielle (Andrea's daughter). When they sit together they fight over books, snacks, seats, and even mommies. So maybe we'll be drifting away from sitting with the Smithees, even though they are great and I love them so much!

So Congrats Landon. You were amazing... and I hope there are many more Sundays like this to come.

I am so glad that I am in the Young Woman Program. This Sunday we watched the 'Joy to the World' DVD that our ward is giving out to friends of the youth and members. It's a great missionary tool and really brings the meaning of Christmas home. So the DVD is great and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. :)

I had an ah-ha moment in Sunday School. I have to confess that sometimes I use Sunday School to get some last minute preparation for my lesson done. I have been know to "skip" it because of this or chatting to a friend in a free room. But this Sunday I am so glad that I didn't. Brother Neilsen taught from Mormon 1-9 or something in there. It was just amazing how strongly I felt the Holy Ghost during church, and especially during this lesson. When I walked in (late!) Brother Neilsen was asking the class if we knew a 10 year old boy that would be able to take on the responsibilities of keeping the sacred records of the church. I thought of all the kids I know - even some of the teenagers and couldn't think of one that I would really pick out to give something that huge to. I know that Mormon had some time to grow and learn before he actually got the plates, but to be told, when you were ten, that you would be given the records that have been kept from generation to generation... I don't know. It just struck me as amazing. God does work in mysterious ways. He knows what He is doing... and looking at this I am just stunned. Of course this may just be me a little slower than the rest of you, but it was my ah-ha moment all the same. :P

Ok... I just read through that and I hardly understood what I meant, but I hope you could glean a little of what I was going for in that.