I've been tagged!

Well, I dodged the bullet long enough, and my turn has come. So here it goes....

5 things I was doing 10 years ago
Hehe, this is going to be fun. Instead of making a list, I'm going to share with all of you out there in blogging land, my journal entries from ten years ago. The first is dated November, 20th 1997...a little over 10 years ago.

"Dear Diary-
Okay, I love Ben again. I'm so dumb. He's so cute! I'm going to start talking to him. My goal is for him to ask me to Senior Prom (hi, this is adult Steph with and interjection. I was only a sophmore, and he did ask me! Go Steph!) That would rock! But I still like Steve and right now I'm sort of leading him on right now, but that's okay right? J/K! Well, gotto go to sleep.

Love, Steph

Now we have an entry from February 16th, 1998. A little over 10 years ago. Here goes. (please don't judge me because of how I was at 15!)

Dear Diary-
Well, I am making major progress with Ben. I love that boy so much. At the Valentine's Dance on Saturday, we danced 4 times. He asked me twice, and I asked him twice. :) But I bet we'll end hooking up. That would be fun. But let me tell you about my love for Steve Solen! When I went to Utah we had a party at Sarah's house and watched a scary movie and me and Steve totally cuddled through the whole thing. It was awesome. And then he was at a Stake dance the Saturday after I left and he dedicated the last song to me and pulled Kelsey in close as if she were me. : ) But they didn't dance close, so that's good. Well, I went driving for my first time today. Fun fun! I'll get my drivers licence soon. Yeah!

-Stephanie

So pretty much a was doing a whole lot of nothing 10 years ago!

5 things on my to do list (tomorrow)
1.Go to Party Depot for silver balloons and decorations. HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE PARTY!!!
2. Watch Heidi's kids at 1:30
3. Buy milk, pasta, bananas, and cereal at the store.
4. Make jello jigglers, snowflake cookies, and other delectable treats for NEW YEARS EVE PARTY!!!
5. Attend the much anticipated NEW YEARS EVE PARTY!

5 Snacks I enjoy
1. Chocolate milk. I think of that as a snack
2. cereal straight from the box
3. Popcorn
4. Ice cream sandwiches
5. Tim's Cascade Salt and Vinegar chips

5 things I would do if I were a Billionaire
1. Pay off our crazy Dental School debt
2. Buy the most expensive mini van on the planet
3. Buy a house
4. Travel
5. Do all those other great things, like give to charity and family, and whoever else the heck needed some cash. What am I going to do with a billion dollars anyway?

5 places I've lived
1.Orem, UT
2.Lakewood, WA
3. St. Anthony, ID
4. Rexburg, ID
5. Aloha, OR

5 Jobs I've had
1.Hostess at Stuart Anderson's Black Angus
2. Ice cream lady at Cold Stone Creamery
3. Front Desk person at Bally's Total Fitness in Aloha
4. Waitress at Frontier Pies in Rexburg. I loved that job!
5. MOM!!!!

5 things people probably don't know about me
1. I wish I were a vegetarian, but I'm not, and never will be
2. I hate silky sheets....a lot!
3. I wear pajama bottoms 90% of my life
4. I wish my hair were curly
5. I'm going to be playing the role of Nephi's wife in the musical production, With Mine Own Hand, a musical account of the life of Nephi, which will be recorded on cd and sold at the BYU bookstore and performed at Education Week at BYU in August. YEAH!!!

I'm not going to tag anyone, just because, but I hope you enjoyed the little glance into the life of Steph!

Some Christmas moments worth sharing

Well, once again our little family had a wonderful Christmas with lots of memories made. Here are a few of the highlights.

Here's my dad protecting his precious cheese balls. My mom used to make these cheese balls every year at Christmas and they are SO good. This year my dad asked me to help make some for him to give out for Christmas. I was so grateful for the opportunity to do something that my mom once did at Christmastime. I felt so connected to her as I followed her recipe which is in her handwriting, and created something that I remember so clearly from when I was young. Thanks mom and dad!! I just love this picture.

Here's Santa dad during our Christmas eve eve's program. Complete with an acted out Nativity with a Care Bear in the starring role of baby Jesus.
Here's Sage next to baby Jesus' manger
The aftermath of our delicious dinner, complete with Prime Rib, Ham, rolls, jello, green bean casserole, broccoli salad, and....well, I think that was all. Notice Heather cleaning...she's the official dinner clean up girl. I'm not sure that she's so keen on the title.
Look at those sick little eyes. This is just the beginning of a terrible sickness that would reach it's peak on Christmas day with lots of screaming and bleeding ears. Poor baby girl. (All was resolved with a call to her ear tube surgeon and some antibiotic ear drops)
We left Heidi's house Sunday night around 8:30pm and headed off to Snohomish to spend Christmas with Jake's family. We got there around 12:30am, and instead of walking into a sleeping house, everyone was awake and full of energy! It was like we had shown up at 5:00 in the afternoon. We were up until about 1:30am until we finally decided it was time for bed.

Here is Mya and Jaxon helping me make cookies for Santa. I'm not sure why Mya looks upset, I promise she was having fun. These two cousins were so fun to have together, and Mya was a good sport to put up with all of Jaxon's imaginary batman games. The cookies are chocolate chip by the way, and they were delish!Oh, now this is a moment that I will treasure forever. By some miracle I found a pajama set of Batman and Robin. Now you must know that Jaxon is OBSESSED with batman and robin, and refers to himself as "boy wonder, Robin" and daddy as "batman" and, mom as a "nice joker." At least I'm not an evil joker! So when he opened these pajamas on Christmas Eve, it was as if life had reached it's peak for little Jaxon. Nothing could top that moment in his little life. He was thrilled. This pose you see in the picture, is one of many that he made that night. He had finally truly become boy wonder Robin. What a goof!To go along with Robin, I had to find something special for Jake to open on Christmas Eve. Well, here you go! The dynamic duo in the flesh!

My knight in shining armor! Thanks Aunt Heather!Mya got a new kitchen for Christmas and Jaxon and Sage loved it. Sage especially. She spent so much time playing with it. She does have a birthday coming up!

Well, there's so much more to say, but those are just a few of my favorite pictures and the stories to go along. Isn't Christmas the best?

Merry Christmas!

Tonight we had a fun Toy Story party at my house. Abbie, Connor, Emily, and Jaxon were all invited. We ate pizza and then they snuggled up on a huge air mattress with blankets and pillows and enjoyed some quality movie time! Thanks for coming guys! Let's do it again soon.

And here's Sagey (that's what we've taken to calling her) enjoying a good book. Harry Potter and Twilight are just around the corner!

"Humm...this book looks interesting,

Oh yes, quite good...I always love a good ending!"

Okay okay, I know that this is my 3rd post tonight, and I'm bordering on pathetic, but let me explain. Jake is gone. He's fishing in Washington right now with his dad. Props to me for being a freaking awesome wife to let him go after he's been non-existent for the past two weeks because of dental school 2nd year finals (only Sarah Cook can truly understand!) My kids have been in bed for 4 hours now, and I've been cleaning my carpets for the past 3. This is the reason for the blog craze. It's my way of connecting to the outside world. CAN YOU HEAR ME?!?!?!

Okay, so today I dropped a Costco sized tub of laundry detergent on my floor. That was open!!!!!!!!! Granted it wasn't full, but still, let me continue. If you think cleaning vomit or diarrhea out of carpet is hard, try cleaning laundry detergent. I've been working on a dish sized spot forever!!!!!! Stupid carpet wont stop sudsing. Grrrrr. So now you all know, keep liquid detergent OFF of carpets, or you will be sorry.

Until next time...

Santa!

We went to a tree farm a few weeks ago with Heidi and her family, and Santa was there. Jaxon was So excited to tell him that he wanted a "Regular Buzzlightyear with wings." It was so cute. I hope Santa brings it. I'm not sure whether he's been naughty or nice, but I'm afraid I'm leaning towards naughty! : )

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This is my attempt to take a beautiful picture like I always see on Mahina's blog.

The shadows are terrible, but this is when Jaxon was jabbing on and on with Santa

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! ONLY 7 DAYS LEFT!!!

Princess Jaxon

Well, I figured since my last post was about Sage in her pretty dress, it would only be fitting to have a post with Jaxon in a pretty dress. SHHH! No one tell Jake!

I promise, it was about 80% his idea...only 20% mine.



Jaxon has been a riot lately. I guess I never thought the kid would grow up, but it's actually happening. He loves to sing, and it's always singing the Batman song, G.I. Joe, and of course, Santa Clause is Coming to Town. He's always letting me know that if I do something he doesn't like- "I'll be so so mad." Hummm...I wonder where he learned that. He's not shy AT ALL, and will tell anyone who gives him the time of day about batman, buzz lightyear, and whatever else is on his mine. A few of those people being the Bishop on Sunday, and Santa Clause. If I've been gone a long time and he's excited to see me he asks, "Are you my mom?!" It's like it's just too good to be true. Him and Emily are so cute with all the games they imagine up. He's just a sweetie. Crazy, but cute!

CUTE!

I love having a girl!

Christmas Spirit Is All Around

Today we went to the grocery store as a family to pick up dinner, and on the way in I had a little conversation with the Salvation Army bell ringer guy. He seemed liked a really nice guy. While in the store, Jaxon was running wild. Jake has lost him twice in the last two days at different places, so we were sure it would happen again. We were 'yelling' at him the whole time to stay close, and get back here, and don't run off...those sort of things, loud enough for all our fellow shoppers to enjoy. Well, as we finished up and were walking out to the car, the friendly Salvation Army guy stopped Jake to tell him how beautiful Sage was. So sweet. I don't usually have cash to give them, but today I did, so I pulled Jaxon aside and told him that the man was collecting money to help people who didn't have toys and who might be sad. I gave Jaxon the dollar and had him bring it to the friendly bell ringer. He showed him how to fold it up and put it in the little red can and then told him that when he got home that night he would call Santa and tell him what a good boy he was. I was feeling great about the whole situation and was calling Jaxon to follow me back to a car when a lady, carrying 3 large stuffed dogs, came running out of the store stopping me

lady:"Is his name Jaxon?"

me:"yes"

lady:"Jaxon, would you like this dog?"

Jaxon nods his head...

"Well it's yours...Merry Christmas!"

me:"THANK YOU!"

She then procedded to run off with her 2 other stuffed dogs, which I'm sure had great purposes to fufill, and left me to wonder at the joy that is Christmastime. If we hadn't stuck around the few minutes to give the dollar to the nice man, then this whole experience would have never happened. Thanks to whoever you are kind lady, and thanks to my Savior for his tender mercies.

Random Kid Stuff

I just have lots of random things that I want to post of the kids, but don't want to think of clever blog posts to fit them all in. So here they are all bunched together.

The other day, Jaxon woke up just miserable, asking for a band aid to put on his ear. Poor kid. I took his to the doctor that day and confirmed that he had a nasty ear infection. After we got some Motrin in him he was back to his crazy self. He was actually saying cheese for this picture.

Here is the Jaxon that we all know and love. I just think this picture is cute.

I love this one because Sage either looks really tired, or disgusted. Plus her dress is adorable.

There's my cutie!
Here's Sage and Holly when they were just little things. How cute. This picture is for fishing Grandma and Grandpa. This is the Christmas sweater you bought for him. If it weren't for his silly face, you could see that he looks really handsome in it. Thanks!

This is Sage today. She's getting so good at walking, this video doesn't really do her justice!

Here's a little performance from Jaxon and Sage. Enjoy!

Last night

Last night I had an interesting experience that I have to get down so I remember it. Around 3:40 last night, Jaxon woke up just screaming for his mommy. Jake is in finals week, and was still up studying, so he got to him before I could and was trying to ask him what was wrong. After a few more pleas for him mom, I brought him into bed with me. I asked him what his dream was about, but all I could understand was something about a store. He also asked where Sage was, and I told him that she was asleep in her bed. He needed something to drink, so I went to get some water and Jake told me what it was that made him so sad. Jaxon told Jake that we had left baby Sage at the store! Break my heart!! I went into my bedroom and asked if that was what was wrong, and he nodded his head. So then we proceeded to go and check on baby Sage to make sure she was okay. After he knew she was safe in bed, he went back to sleep. I just thought it was so sadly sweet that the thought of leaving his sister at a store made him so unbelievably sad. I guess he really does love his little sister.

Jaxon's Pictures

These just make me laugh. I let Jaxon have the camera, and this is what came out! I especially like the one of his little feet!

My Super Deal!

I love to shop. I love everything about it, except the part where you have to pay people money. I'm a very poor person, I'm not going to even try and sugar coat that fact, but I still can NEVER pass up a deal, especially one like this! It must be good if I'm blogging about it!

Yes, you read that right. That's a 2 dollar dress, regularly $48! I didn't even try it on at the store, I just bought it. And I had to buy one for Heidi as well. IT'S $1.97!!!!!!! Most of the time when I make a purchace like this, it sits in my closet for a year without being touched, and then ends up in a D.I. bag, well not this one. I love it! And I hate to say it, but it looks great on me! And on Heidi! So that is my story of the $2 dress. My little Christmas miracle! : )

YEAH FOR SHOPPING OUTLETS!!!

Don't Blink

I've been told countless times that kids grow up quickly and to enjoy every minute of those first few years. Well, this past month has been one of those 'don't blink' moments, and I just hope I enjoyed all that came before it as much as I could. Just last month, I had a little toddler who kept me busy with changing diapers, locating binkies, and trying to figure out what to feed him every meal, as well as squeezing in a nap everyday. I also had a baby, who cried a lot...due to ear infections, and teeth, was crawling everywhere, and was SUCH a cutie.

Fast forward 1 month.....I have a sweet little toddler, who can go potty all by himself, and couldn't be more proud of himself, who no longer requires a binkie for sleep, and who does great with no nap, and is in bed by 7:30 almost every night. He eats more and more of what I put in front of him, and he's learning new things every day. And my baby is walking, babbling, waving bye-bye, and is finally getting those teeth through that have been making her so grumpy. She has also been under general anesthesia, which is more than I can say. She had tubes put in her ears this week to help out with those nasty ear infections. And she's still a cutie. I feel like my life has just completely flipped into this new one. And I like it! I couldn't be happier with both of my children's new found accomplishments. Wow, I'm only 3 years into being a mom, and it's already been quite the ride! It's a good thing I love roller coasters. HOLD ON!

Here's baby Sage showing off her waving skills she just learned today!

Good old days

I just got Sage down for a nap, Jaxon is watching a movie in my room and my house is SILENT!!! Sweet wonderful bliss. So what do I choose to do? Blog of course. This one is for Kelsey. I apologize for making you see mutant Rhodes Rolls for so long.

So I am working on a little project for my friends for Christmas, and have some fantastic pictures that I just am dying to show the world. I've been friends with these ladies for a really long time, and I just feel so blessed to have been in such an amazing group of friends. Yes, I'm talking about you: Kelsey, Sarah, Melissa, Lisa, Lacey and Tashina. So enjoy this little blast from the past. I love you all! Now, please forgive me for the embarrassing pictures you're about to view.

I'll start with me, it's only fair. This is in 6th grade (I think)

Me and Mel....one crazy night at Wendy's

Here is the 7 of us. It's the only picture with us all in it. We need to change that ladies.

One of the earliest pictures of me and Kelsey. Gosh, it's been a long time huh?

Tashina...she's honestly probably the most beautiful person I know. That's why I feel 100% okay about posting this picture.

I think we were trying to be funny. We sure had fun back then huh Lis?

Lacey was probably the funnest roommate I could have ever hoped to have had in college. This picture just tells it all.Here's the gang at my 15th birthday party...nearly 11 years ago. It was a murder mystery, hence the cosumes.Well, there are so many more, but I'll leave you with that. Thanks for all the memories. I can't wait to keep making more!

This is what a bag of Rhodes Rolls looks like when it's been left out overnight. I thought it was pretty interesting.

This wasn't even a full bag!

Thats all.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a fantastic Thanksgiving yesterday. It started when Jaxon and Sage joined Jake and I in bed. I love mornings like that. When we asked Jaxon what he was thankful for, the list went as follows:

1. Nice seamonsters (who's not thankful for that!)
2. Scuba Divers
3. Nice sharks
Then, after some prodding,
4. Jesus
5. Mom and Dad
6. Baby Sage


I then had to start on my list of food items I was in charge of for dinner. One of which was an eight layer jello, which takes forever to make. I was in the best mood all day. I LOVE HOLIDAY'S! Jake and Jaxon went fishing, and Sage took a nap, so I was able to get all my cooking done without interruptions, which was really nice. Finally around 3:00 we headed off to Heidi's house, with my jello, green bean casserole, and tomato mozzarella salad. After waiting for everyone to arrive, we ate at 5:00. Dinner was delicious! Thanks to my dad for being one of the top shoppers at Fred Meyer, and winning us a huge Turkey. I guess our Thanksgiving was pretty typical, but if you ask me, there's nothing better than a typical Thanksgiving.

Here's our beautiful table

Jake and I, not so patiently waiting

The dinner party, just add Dad

Sage was stealing Holly's toy.

Mom and baby Sage