New hi-lites

Oh, I made i-spy kits a couple weeks ago with a sister in our ward, who just happens to be the bishop's wife. We had a blast and I got to know her even better and found out we have a lot more in common than I thought.

I got new hi-lites done yesterday (first ones in my whole life). Let me know what you think. I love them, and am grateful to the lady in our ward who did them in exchange for service work. I love her salon and her work that she does for others.

Not much new going on. Still narrowing down the list of places that we are considering to move to when our lease is up. I'm praying that we can stay in the ward, but probably won't happen since rental houses normally want 3 times the rent to qualify, and we'd only be making 2 times the rent :(. Hopefully we can find a complex that gives us a backyard or BIG patio of some kind. Otherwise, I don't know what we'll do. Hunter needs room to run around...

Trying to keep my blog updated more often. Ian is down 16 pounds since we started hard core in February. I'm down 11, but I know that girls lose it slower than guys do. I'll try to send pictures later of our progression when I'm happier with how I look....

April.... enough said

March came and went and I only blogged once. I swear one of these days, I'll get the hang of blogging more often. March was busy with us enjoying the missionaries (yep, still the same ones since December) for dinner, drop by visits to check up on us, work, school and taking care of the girls.

April is here and already half gone. We celebrated Easter morning here at home enjoying conference and then had Ian's parents over for dinner. McKenna and Hunter opened their baskets when they woke up, and I think Hunter was more excited with her stuff, then McKenna was since McKenna is still too little. She's getting bigger though and will get the concept next year, definitely.




I'm in the 3rd trimester of school and will be done June 4th. I'll finish my internship middle of May and will stay with the company until I find something different. I am looking to go into financial services of some kind (bank teller), or be a receptionist at a medical office which I would love too.

Ian is still working at Famous Footwear and should be starting to work days in the next couple of weeks. This will be easier on us as he'll be home for dinner and be able to spend more time with the girls.

Ian is prepping to go to a sleep study for his sleep apnea on the 20th. He'll get there at 7:00 P.M. and will get 8 hours of sleep. They have you go to sleep between 9-10:30 as it's an 8 hour sleep study and everyone must be out of the office by 7:00 in the morning. They will hook him up to monitors the first 4 hours of the night, then hook him up to a sleeping mask the last 4 hours of the night to see how he sleeps. It will be interesting to see how well he sleeps, and how long it takes before he's able to get into the doctor to get a sleep mask. I'll be grateful (and I know he will too) when he's sleeping better as he'll wake up earlier (sleeps for 10 hours now and still groggy), happier, and wanting to do more activities with the girls without getting headaches as easily. Hopefully this will help his body aches too as he'll be sleeping better, and I know sleep has something to do with body aches.

Look for more updates as Ian goes to his sleep study, I get blonde highlights (yes, I said blonde), and McKenna turns 1 (YIKES!!!!!!)

Where did February go?

Here we are in March and I'm trying to figure out where February went. It was filled with Valentines Day, Ian's first month of working, Hunter's birthday and me staying busy with school and work. It's been a busy month and March will be over before we know it, too.

So, we filed our taxes, got our federal return back (still need to file IA state since we didn't file CA state with only a $4 refund electronically). We paid some much overdue bills and went from $21,000 in debt to just under $8,000. That was only 2 credit cards too. We settled for a heck of a deal on both credit cards. It would've been $8,000 to settle alone on the 2, and instead we only paid $3500. We also bought a much needed computer and I am so enjoying it. Thanks so much to my dad for his patience as we spent countless hours looking at Best Buy, online, Fry's Electronics and finally stumbling upon something at Fry's.

We hit a milestone this month. This was the first month since we moved away from IA that we have paid rent on our own without the help of the church. Though finances are tight this week, i feel good. Let's hope that it continues. This month is also the month that we go off of state aid, so we're on our own. No more food stamps, no more cash aid for help with rent. Let's pray that things go well as we continue to pay tithing.

Hunter's birthday

Hunter looking pretty for the camera.
Here are some of the presents that she got, and her cupcake cake.
Her cupcake cake courtesy of Safeway bakery. Hunter picked it out herself, and wanted it to say "Happy 3rd Birthday, Princess Hunter". She even picked out the coloring of the floaties and the writing.
Here she is watching us as we sing to her.
Still waiting. Ian didn't get a pic of her blowing the candles out.
Hunter got a snare drum with a strap to go around her neck, a tamborine, harmonica, and one other music thing (that pink thing next to the tamborine).
Here I am showing the people on the couch her new Dora dress.
Here's a spring hoodie that she got from aunt Leslie and uncle Kelly.
Summer top for this summer. It has a chick on it and says "Sweet Chick".
Here's another hoodie, only in orange.
Here's 1 of the 2 pairs of shoes that she got for her birthday.
Sock monkey won everyone over, including her.
Here's some pj's from Aunt Karsten and Uncle David. It says "Dance, Smile, Dream"
Here's another set of pj's. She's going to be 1 styling girl, that's for sure. Everyone asked what she wanted for her b-day, and I said clothes. Boy, did Hunter have a fun time opening all of the clothes.
Lastly, a cookie monster HUGE coloring book with stickers in it. It's pretty tall, and she loves it.

All in all, it was a good birthday, and we even showed up and had a surprise visit from Aunt Patricia and Uncle Steven, who are in town from San Jose area for a week.

Dang computer

The computer is having problems loading the pictures. I go to click on browse, to pull up the files with the pictures, to upload them on my blog. When I click on "browse", it does NOTHING. It brings me back to this screen. I don't know if it's a javascript error, or what exactly is going on.

So, until Ian can get a chance to look at it tomorrow morning (Monday), I can't put up any pictures :(. Sorry mom, I'll get them up tomorrow morning, then put up the ones from the zoo tomorrow night. Love you.

Catching Up

I was talking to my mom and dad tonight, to see if she had seen a good money saving/making deal at Target in the ad. She mentioned that I needed to keep my blog updated, I told her I'd try, so here I am updating my blog.

After Christmas, life got busy with me going back to work (had 4 day weekends for Christmas and New Years), and Ian starting "county hosted" job searching classes. I was keeping up with facebook, but neglecting my blog. I'm sorry everyone. I know it was my New Years resolution, to do better with my blog. I promise now that I have fun things to report, that I'll update my blog more often. If not, you can hunt me down for it..... lol.

Mid January, Ian had a job interview for Assistant Manager at Famous Footwear. He was hired on the spot, and started the week after. He was promised 30 hours/week A@ $9/hr, but has only been getting 20-25 hours a week. I can't complain though, since it's still money and still a job for him. Hopefully things will pick up when the manager goes on maternity leave, and people come in to start buying shoes.

K, off to put some more updates up and put more pictures up.

New Year

I just looked at my blog and realized, I didn't do so well in 2009. Here's to doing better in 2010 (ok, so January is almost over).

Christmas was amazing. I worked the week of Christmas, but was lucky enough to have Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off. Ian got a job at UPS for December as a driver helper. He brought home tips, butcher meat, and chocolate. It was a fun time for him, but unfortunately, that job ended Christmas Eve. It was back to looking for jobs for him.

Christmas Eve my brother-in-law Shane drove up from Southern CA. He stayed with his parents, and we got to spend the day with him after Ian got off work. We went up to Dutch Flat to spend time with Ian's family. It was a very nice night with orderves (sp?) and talking. We came back down to Rocklin and walked around the neighborhood to look at all the Christmas lights and decorations people had in front of their houses. I walked that neighborhood 3 times and never took pictures :(. You'll have to wait until next year.

Christmas Day I was up at 5:30 A.M. Yes, I was up before my 2.5 yr old. I stayed in the bedroom and looked at e-mails and facebook on my phone. Hunter woke up at 7:30, Ian woke up shortly after that, and McKenna was the last to wake up. I took a picture of all the presents in front of our tree, and will post that this weekend. I didn't take any pictures of presents being opened since I played Santa. Family came over at 9:00 for breakfast and presents. It took us 1.5 to open all the presents (a lot of them were for Hunter and McKenna so it took longer, and we have a tradition of opening presents one person at a time). We had eggs, biscuits and gravy for breakfast with yulekaka bread and Goat's cheese with it. The family took off so Shane could get dressed, and they could take a nap. That afternoon we headed up to Dutch Flat again for dinner. It was a nice dinner with more orderves (sp?) and lots more talking. I always enjoy going up there.

The New Year came and went. We had the missionaries over for dinner, then played games with Ian's parents. They left at 11:00 to get home before all the traffic got bad, and we put Hunter to bed. I fell asleep on the couch at 11:45 with McKenna on my stomach. I tried so hard to not fall asleep, to make it to midnight. Ian came to wake me up at 12:00 to give me a kiss, wish me a Happy New Year, and told me to put McKenna in bed and come to bed.

Since the New Year, Ian attended 2 weeks of County supervised job workshops. The last day of class, Ian got a call for a job at Famous Footwear for Assistant Manager. He gets $9/hr and will work 30 hours a week. We were happy for him.

I promise to put pictures up this weekend of the girls (they're getting so big). Until then, keep being who you are and remember we love you.

P.S. Losing weight this year. Lost 10 lbs since November. Let's hope I'm more healthy in 2010 than I was in 2007, 2008 and 2009.