Just Another Reason to LOVE Christmas!

The Magical Forest! A place of magical lights, great hot chocolate and funnel cakes, and for Tig, the best rides on earth! Antigone absolutely loved the carousel. She even loved it more than the train, which surprised me. She was even choo chooing all night, and tried to follow the little train every time we passed it, but in the end...the carousel was all that mattered. :) We had a good time and got some silly pictures out of it too!

Our crew, minus Devin (the designated photographer). My sister Heather and lil bro Garth came to play with us and so did the lucky twins that Hea just happened to be babysitting. Funny sidenote, as we were taking pictures, one of the twins said, "no...I don't want to do that because I don't want to look stupid." I laughed and said "ha, we look like that all of the time! It's makes it more fun that way." :)
Our knight in shining armor (but note to self, don't touch him...he's not very stable.) Oops.
Watch Out the twins are driving!!
I love my little baby Garthie. :)
Frosty, Tig and her silly uncle Garth.
Tig checking out her fearless (and rose studded) steed.
Tig LOVING the rose studded steed. :)

Tig NOT loving Santa. Nope, not one bit.
Auntie Heather and Tigi running loose on the caboose.

Tig's Favorite Words

Antigone has become quite the jabber jaw lately. She'll mimick most anything that I say. I'm sure in a year or two we won't appreciate her chattiness as much, but for right now...I love it!

Some of her Tiggyisms:
Mommy...oooooo, wooooow, coooool (anytime she sees something that excites her)
Ismas Yights (Christmas Lights, typically followed by a ooooo, wow, cool)
Uh-Oh Mommy, NO, NO, NO, NO (usually directed at some random object like Goldfish crackers)
Papa urk (I tell her that Devin's at work...all the time...now she tells me) :)
Gacar and Cars ("Madagascar" and "Cars" -her two favorite flicks, followed closely by a strong neighing sound which means the horse movie "Spirit"). Mine is the only child I know that will sit (or stand reeeeeaaaally close to it) and watch a full one and an half to two hour movie, without leaving it or getting up to play with toys. Seriously, she won't move. Should I be amazed at her attention span and ability to focus, or fear that she's destined to grow up to be a couch potato?
And drum roll please for my personal favorite.....Hellooooooooooooo, MOMMY, hellooooooo (her notification system to let me know she's awake), it cracks me up everytime.

Tag You're It Lila, Misti, Lindsay & Wendy (and Heather if you'll do it)!

Tagged by Kaymee:)
This Tag is about my MAN!
What is his name? Devin Lee Baldwin
How long have you been married? 5 1/2years!! But together over 10 (8 - less the mission)! That's crazy!
How long did you date? 3 years with a mission in the middle
How old is he? Just barely hit that 28th year and still could pass for a teenager. I'm sure he'll be grateful for that youthful appearance when he's 40. :)
Who eats more? Dev, by far! Although you'd never guess he ingested over 4,000 calories each day!
Who said I love you first? Umm, i'm gonna have to say Devin, but I don't actually remember (is that a bad thing?)
Who is taller? Devin, it's great because I never ever have to worry about shoes being too tall. :)
Who sings better? Hmm...lalalala...hmmm...I'd probably say we're about even, both pretty standard.
Who is smarter? HELLO?! Who's the one filling out this form, of course I'm going to pick me! If Dev was filling it out, he'd say him, that's how we mesh, both competitive spirits. :)
Whose temper is worse? Usually me, but he can surprise me every great once in a while.
Who does the laundry? Is this really a question? What guys do all of their families laundry? Unheard of.
Who does the dishes? Cook, cleaner, maid, you name, I signed up for it.:)
Who pays the bills? Me, I'm the accountant here. I'd probably have a nervouse break down if I wasn't "in the know" and "in control" of our funds. Isn't everybody a little OCD in some aspect of their lives?
Who mows the lawn? Lately, Devin's dad, but now we have our lawn mower back, so unfortunately for Dev, he'll have to start that back up again.:)
Who cooks dinner? Are frozen dinners considered cooking?:)
Who drives when you are together? Devin. This is the one aspect of our lives that I would change, but he'd never let me. :} Ugh.
Who is more stubborn? That's an excellent question. We are both stubborn, but who is worse...I'm going to have to vote for Devin because if it's something he's willing to argue about, he's not very good at backing down. Keeping in mind such events are far and few between.
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Me, and not Devin for the reason mentioned above.:)
Whose parents do you see the most? It used to be waaaayy more of my family, but now we probably see Dev's more.
Who proposed? Devin, of course!!
Who has more friends? Me, but they are all married and Dev gets along with all of their husbands, so it works out great!
Who has more siblings? Me, but just by one extra.
Who wears the pants in the family? Umm, me, but if Devin wants something I bend pretty easily. I'm definitely the "mean" parent though. I think we all saw that coming.:)

Turkeys, Lights and Gingerbread Oh My...

So, yes I've been slacking in the posting department, but I've finally found the time to update so here goes. It seems like November went by at whirl wind speed. Before I knew it, it was Thanksgiving. We got to spend it up in New Harmony with my grandparents and family. Of course (as is necessary for any trip we take), Antigone was sick up until the night before we left. But we made the best of it, atleast she took good naps during the day. :)

It was absolutely FREEZING while we were there, I'm talkin 7-14 degrees in the morning freezing. Terrible, terrible temperatures for a place in southern Utah, but what can ya do. There were lots of great activites like horseback riding, petting the goats and cows and horses, 4-wheeling and Rhino riding, going on horse drawn wagon rides, and playing in the treehouse with swings galore.

BUT as I mentioned before, Tigi wasn't feelin great, so we missed out on most of them. :( (I have a pouty face right now). Maybe next trip I tell myself (or maybe when she's 5 and doesn't get sick every three days anymore). On the plus side, we did get to celebrate Dev's b-day (which was on Thanksgiving) with a fabulous looking ("looking" because of course, I didn't taste it) huge chocolate cake. He said it was fabulous though. :)

My little dancing queen! She's got the rythm.

And now that Thanksgiving is over, let the fun begin!!! Today the Christmas lights went up and most of the decorations are on display in the house. I love Tig's reaction to all the new (to her) things. Oooooo....wooow, she says to just about every little trinket in her view. We also had Dev's family over tonight for the traditional Gingerbread House Fest. Good times, good frosting and of course, good looking houses. :) Tig loves candy these days, so we'll see how long it takes her to find a way up onto the table to attack my festive creation.

The three amigos. :)

Ooooohhhh, but wait...I did want to quickly mention a great new find I was introduced to in St. George...a nifty little store...TaiPan Trading. Loved it! Thanks to Grandma Jerri for the shopping excursion! It's kind of a cross between Pier One and Cost Plus, but without the Asian feel. All the little things that just complete your home decor. I'd highly recommend a looksy if your in the area.:)

We LOVE Parties, right?!

Ready to decorate for Christmas?! Well, it's time for another Sticky Sayings party (vinyl lettering), joined together this time with Lia Sophia Jewelry (for all your holiday and everyday jewelry needs). It's going to be at my house on Wednesday, Nov. 7th from 6-8pm. Everyone's welcome to come and bring a friend! Call me if you need directions.

This is my favorite so far, and you can't see it very well in the invite, so I thought I'd post up here. :) Don't you love the holidays?!

Look out World, here we come!

Yeah, we got our contractor's license!!! So now if you ever have any demolition needs or want to build a pool, give us a call!

Happy Halloween Charlie Brown!

One of the things I love about the fall is that it is the beginning of all the fun holidays thereafter, Halloween, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, well, maybe not Veteran's Day, but you get the idea. And I also really enjoy watching the special holiday movies that come on, like Happy Halloween/Thanksgiving/Christmas Charlie Brown and Rudolph, Frosty, Grinch and many, many more. As cheesy and lacking in the special effects department as they may be, those movies make me happy. You know, bringing back all the warm fuzzies of childhood and stuff.:)

So, in honor of the Great Pumpkin, we took Tig trick or treating and she did absolutely fabulous...for about 10 houses, then she was done. Her little pumpkin bucket was getting pretty heavy, but she never wanted anyone else to carry. Perhaps she was proud of her treasures and didn't want to risk the chance of them being taken away permanently.:)

A few good things we learned from this Halloween holiday, Tig LOVES candy corns and tootsie rolls (and apparently the wrappers too), she HATES pumpkin guts and Almond Joys (they make her gag instantly just by touching them, they don't even have to be anywhere near her mouth), and if you put the costume on a child enough times, she'll learn to like it.:)

Here are some good ones from all of our festivities...

Ummm...candy...ummmm.
I'll take this "deer in the headlights look" picture as a great one. Is seems to be as good as they get sometimes.
Uncle Garth (under the sheet), Scary Cousin Ashley and a "frightened" Tigger.:)
Getting a picture of all three of these cousins is quite a chore.
Why have tricks, when I can make you treats...mmmmm, yummy.
Happy Halloween!

Why I love to be Tigone's Mami

I've been thinkin a lot lately that I need to write down some of great moments that happen in our day to day lives that make me appreciate being a mom and being Tig's mom. So, I have a couple pics to demonstrate...
Tig went to her first day of "toddler school" two weeks ago. She looked so grow up in her little school girl outfit! I LOVE dressing her up in cute new(ish) outfits.:)
Ahhh....my little prima ballerina, can't you just see her saying, plie...revele...plie...revele. :)

And then there is her sassiness. Look at this face, does she look like she's joking? :) Our days are always "brightened up" with some form of Tig sass. Those are probably more of my genes than Devin's coming out in her.
I love Tig's independence, her "I'm big, so let me do whatever I want" attitude. Even when that attitude gets her into trouble, like falling down the stairs because she had to walk down straight, rather than on her tummy.
I love the fact that she looks as much like me as I look like my own mom, not too much. We all have the hair, the eyes and the fair skin, but that's about it, everything else is a mixture between the milkman and the postman.:)

Oh, but wait, I did forget one thing...these chunker thighs...these have Morgan written all over them.:)

Awww, thanks guys!

I just have to tell you...I feel so loved to know that people are demanding my updates! I figure it's either because I'm so clever and witty that you can't wait for new commentaries, or you are so bored of everyone else's blogs too and knew that I would succumb to peer pressure faster than most. I'm sure it's much more the former than the latter! :)

So, to answer inquiring minds, yes, I actually have been busy lately. In fact I've been putting together a presentation on discrimination and sexual harassment (yawn, I know) that I just gave today. Hooray that it's done! I think it went pretty well and I'm a little more knowledgeable for research's sake. And knowing that I'm a self-admitted "huge procrastinator" I wouldn't allow any blogging until I had finished my presentation completely...that of course didn't happen until this morning. But it got done and that's what matters most.:)

Aside from the hours spent in Powerpoint, we took a brief (and I mean very brief) rendevous up to SLC to see the Sunday morning session of Conference live and in person. It was great with the minor detail of Devin and Steve never got into the Conference Center after waiting two hours in the standby line in freezing temps (gotta love that Utah climate), even though Misti and I had seats ready and waiting for them. Ugh. So they got to cozy up together in the Tabernacle on the hard, I mean "antique and newly refurbished" benches. Misti and I are wondering if they aren't spending a little too much time together lately... (just teasing, love ya babe).

But I really did enjoy seeing Conference in person. It's humbling when everyone in this giant hall are just chatty chatting away and all of a sudden everthing goes silent...in walks the cute little 97 year old Prophet happily waving his cane at each person he passes. It's one of those moments in life when you think to yourself (despite Devin's speeding ticket and the snowstorm we drove through to get here) I'm glad we took the time out to do this. It was special.

On the way home we cruised Spanish Fork Canyon, beautiful place and as Misti put it, would be a great place to live...if it wasn't in Utah.:) She can say such kinds of things since she's at risk of being deported back there. But that's another story in itself.:)

So at any rate we had a great time, ate lots of delicious food (little push for "Adolph's" in Park City, it's fabulous!), spent three nights (the longest ever) without Antigone and she didn't even blink when I walked into Jan's house on Monday morning to pick her up! I was a little distraught, I have to admit. I thought for sure she'd come running at me full force the second I opened the door, but no, nothing. Aunt Jan's is, apparently, just as good as being at home. That's a good thing...I guess. Sniffle Sniffle.

For your viewing pleasure...

Spanish Fork Canyon (it was freezing, that's why I resemble Rudolph in the nose department)

I wanted a pic of the two of us so that I could also put one of from way back in the day (8th grade) when we became friends. But to my amazement (even as the photobug I've always been) I don't have ANY pictures of Misti and I together, seriously none. But...I did find this little gem from Girl's Camp 1995! CimaRRON ward whoop whoop. Hahha.

Butterfly Park

I have to say, parks are so much cooler now than they were when I was little. Absent are the dangerous teeter totters and the spinning thing that you always tried to fling everyone off of. (Both of which I loved) Now there are giant bugs and flowers, brightly colored tunnels and multilevel steps, slides in every shape and size. I love it! So did Tigone of course, but do I really go to such parks for her enjoyment or mine? :) We were so glad that Tig's uncles Dillon and Garth and Cousin Ashley came and joined in our adventurous time. Love you guys (and girl)!

The Tigi crew...A-lee (aka Ashley), Dillon & Garth.

Lately...

Isn't fall great is Las Vegas?! I love going to the park and playing in the backyard without getting heatstroke! Tig and I have been real busy lately and here's a few snapshots for your viewing pleasure. :)

Tigone & Cody playing, but what cracks me up is how she's a bully to him when he comes to our house, and only at our house, not anywhere else. It's like she's marking her territory or something. Poor, poor Cody.

Tig & Jenna loved the Dolphins at the Mirage!

Trying to get a picture of these three all looking at me is impossible!

Tig's favorite animal is a lion. Once she saw them, she kept doing her "quiet" roar...over and over again.:)

...one day when I got out of the shower. Oh brother.

Such a busy body I have. :)

Some New Sticky Designs

For your viewing pleasure, here are some new vinyl ideas. Feel free to email me if your interested.:)

With your own last name...unless you want mine.

I love decorating for the holidays!

7 Things that TOP my List for Making me nearly Insane,

Little shout out to Lila for this beauty of a list...:)

7. I would have to say, no offense babe, but sitting in the passenger seat while Devin is driving has got to go on this list. At times, I think I might have a coronary and die at the ripe old age of 26 because I can't stand how he'll follow someone sooooo closely, rather than getting in the other lane. Or how he'll wait till the last second to slam on the brakes when the people in front of him have been braking already for what seems like an eternity. Or somedays he'll drive like a bat out of you know where for ten minutes then pulls right up behind some slow poke, while all the people he just passed pass him. Ugh. He stresses me. Stress causes prematue aging. Devin's aging me.

6. When Antigone can't go 2 minutes without me holding her...all DAY long! Thankfully this doesn't happen all the time, but she does have her days.

5. The stupid algae that won't ever completely leave the corners of my pool! I scrub and I scrub and I scrub, but it never fails...let the pool alone for a week and it's back.

4. Bugs in my house and tomato worms in my garden. They creep me out and come back every year.

3. Having to restart my computer for the third time because it freezes before the login screen even comes up. So lame.

2. Going out to a "nice" (expensive) restaurant and the waiter is a jerk, your food is crappy and you still have to pay a couple benji's just to get out of the building!

1. Lila's number 1 was so perfect for me, I had to reuse it...People who drive slow in the fast lane! Especially when there is plenty of room to get over! Anybody that knows me knows that I'm always in a hurry (even if I don't have to be), so get out of the way! - THAT makes me crazy.

So let's hear from a few of my buds...anybody just want to vent about something? :)

A Day Without Labor...Ha!

So this past weekend we went for a hike at Mt. Charleston. I've been dying to go and be "out in nature" for quite some time now and Devin finally agreed to go. Since we aren't pro hikers or anything, we don't own a backpack that your toddler goes in for hiking and such, so we ended up carrying her most of the way. I have to admit, I'm pretty weak sauce. When it was my turn to carry her, I'd make it about one switchback (we went to Mary Jane Falls, aka "switchback mania") and then put her down to walk.:) But luck for her, Devin pulled through and carried her most of the way. What a good dad!

Tig LOVED the waterfall!

Ummm...lunch. Nummie, nummie.