The Aftermath

Taylor playing with his new toy from Grandma and Grandpa.

He loves this toy, a lot.

He also loves the box that it came in. He played in it as much as he played with the toy. Such a silly kid. And such a ham.

I hope everyone had a wonderful and fun Christmas!

Boxing Day at my Aunt and Uncle's house. Every year they display all their nativities, I think they have 300, possibly more, and have an open house where people come and eat and wander. It's a fun tradition. No, my family is not Canadian, but my Aunt is, so this has been something they've done for as long as I can remember. Anyway, they have these really cute guys that dance and play Jingle Bells together, and Taylor was really getting into it. He loved to dance to the music. 

Almost over

The morning sickness is going away, I am feeling so much better lately, well, other than the weariness. But I expect that to stick around for awhile. So, there is a light at the end of the tunnel, which I was a little bit scared would never happen. I've heard of women being sick until the very bitter end, and that worried me of course. But it looks like this is going to be a pretty typical pregnancy. I'm even getting my second cold sore, I've read that if you are prone to getting them, you may get them often. And this is often. I haven't had one in a few years. So, sixteen weeks tomorrow, and I will find out what I'm having in four weeks exactly from tomorrow. Yeah!!! And my baby will be the size of a pickle, according to a chart that I looked at the other day. I'll try and post pictures of my baby bump. It's not very big yet, but it is poking out a little.

I loved it

I went with friends to see Twilight last night, and guess what? I loved it!!! I love Robert Pattinson, he was such a good Edward. The only part that I just couldn't take was when he first caught Bella's scent. The reaction was just so cheesy, I couldn't take it. We all laughed pretty hard. But then I thought, what if I just smelled something that would make me want to kill somebody. I'd probably hold my hand over my nose too. And then she smelled her hair! That was so funny. I was hysterical. Anyway, I enjoyed the movie quite a bit, and I definitely want to see it again. Plus, I'm excited for the next ones to come out, I just can't get enough! I'm already thinking about rereading the first book now. That's all, loved it! Go see it, just to see for yourself.

A sad day

My Grandpa Dave, my mother's father, passed away this morning after a very long battle with Emphysema and COPD. I'm really going to miss him, he was such a wonderful man and I am better for knowing him. But I know that he is now free from the pain and suffering of his frail body and probably so much happier to be with his family who has gone before him. It is so wonderful to know that I will see him again, it makes this all so much easier to deal with. I can't imagine what life would be like if I didn't know that. It would be unbearable and incredibly depressing, I am sure. It was hard not living in the same state as any of my Grandparents, but I am so thankful for the times I was able to spend with them and get to know them. Anyway, it's been a very emotional day and now I need to figure out how I'm going to work going to Oregon for the funeral on Friday.

This is a picture of my Grandpa Dave and my Grandma Faye when they were sealed in the temple almost ten years ago. 

This is my Grandpa and my Grandma Polly, my maternal Grandmother. She passed away when I was about 5 weeks old of Pneumonia, so I never really knew her. I am looking forward to being able to someday now that my mom and her siblings are all sealed together with their dad and mom. Aren't both of my Grandmas just gorgeous? I'm lucky that I have 3 grandmas.

Twilight comes out tomorrow!!!!

Isn't this a great picture of Edward/Robert Pattinson? It was in Entertainment Weekly a couple of weeks ago, and I think it makes him look yummy! Except for the stubble, I don't think Edward would have stubble, but since it's a story about Robert Pattinson and not Edward, I guess it's okay. Anyway, I'm so excited to go see this movie! I really hope it lives up to my expectations. Oh, who am I kidding, I'll probably love it no matter what, I am not hard to please. A few of my girlfriends and I have tickets for Tuesday night, the weekends are pretty packed, but we are going to the Megaplex at the Junction in Ogden and they have reserved seats, the best and only way to go for a really popular movie. It's so nice to not have to fight for seats and wait in line and all that. Plus, the weeknights are still pretty open, so it'll be the best time to go. Anyway, enjoy this lovely picture and I hope all of you that want to go see this movie will get to go and have a wonderful time watching it!

Sick of being sick

Oh man, but I am. I have had a much harder time this time with morning sickness, and I am ready for it to go away. I guess in a way, I'm lucky, I haven't had to throw up yet even once, although there have been a couple of close calls, it's just constant nausea, even after I've eaten. Last time, if I felt sick, all I had to do was eat something and I was fine, but now even if I eat, for the most part I still feel sick. It is awful. But I am blessed to have such a supportive husband. Even if he doesn't always want to, he will give Taylor a bath, or make dinner, or pretty much do anything I ask when I'm not feeling up to doing anything. Now all I have to do is wait out the next couple of weeks and hopefully it will go away and I can enjoy the rest of this pregnancy. Well, sort of. I'm sure I'll get to deal with heart burn and being extremely uncomfortable at the end. Man, am I a complainer, at least I don't have to be pregnant all summer again. That was no picnic. 

Announcing the new baby behling

That's right, for those of you who didn't know already, I'm expecting my 2nd little bundle of joy! We're pretty excited, and hope that everything continues to go well with this pregnancy. I'm 10 weeks and 2 days along today, and got a few pics taken last night at the doctor's office. So I thought I'd post them. It was fun watching this little person on the screen last night. He/She kept doing a little wiggle dance, and there was a moment you could actually see the face. My doctor confirmed that it was, indeed, the face. So cute!

Raking leaves

On Saturday, the 1st, we went outside and raked the millions of leaves in our front and backyard. We have a lot of trees. Here are some fun pictures of Taylor and Justin playing in them.

Here's a few pics of Taylor's costume. He was a giraffe, obviously. Cute! He wouldn't let us take very many pictures of his front, the second pic is the only one.

Family pics

We had some fun family pictures done a couple of weeks ago, and here are a couple. I really wish I had some of just Taylor, but he would not cooperate. I blame it on myself, we haven't really taken him very often to get his picture taken, so he just considers it a total nuisance. But I really do like these pictures, aside from the fact that my belly is just so obviously sticking out. It's never really gone away since I had Taylor, and I did not wear a very flattering shirt. So, here are a few of my favorites.

Happy Halloween!!!!

Happy Halloween everybody! I just wanted to take a moment and wish you all a scary, goulish happy haunting, and I hope you get all the candy your heart desires;) The rest of the year is going to fly by, so make the most of this most wonderful of holidays!!!

Tagged-forever ago!

So, I was tagged by my friends Rachel and Emma quite awhile ago, so I guess I should do something about it. They were almost exactly the same tag, so I'm gonna combine it into one. I'm supposed to share 6 quirks about myself in one, and 7 in the other. Anyway, hope this doesn't bore you.

1. The papers on my desk at work have to be straight and neat. Even if there are a lot, and they are everywhere, they have to be arranged symmetrically, or it bugs me to death. 

2. I don't know if this is quirky, but I love the movie 'Xanadu', with Olivia Newton John. I think it is one of the funnest and cheesiest movies, and I could watch it over and over and never get bored.

3. Which brings me to my next one, and most of you know this, but I love musicals of all shapes and sizes. They make me feel happy and I was a little disappointed when Disney stopped making the cartoons where the characters actually sang. Okay, a lot disappointed. I still love Disney movies, but I will never forgive them for doing that to me.

4. I hate scary movies, they make me fear things that I otherwise wouldn't even think twice about. Like...mirrors, When I'm in that frame of mind, which I am a lot in my scary almost 100 year old house, I won't look in the mirrors in the dark. I don't want anyone to be behind me. And we have a medicine cabinet in our bathroom, and you know how scary that can be. If I open it to get something out, and close it again, I sometimes will not look in it and hurry out of the bathroom. Weird, I know.

5. I chew my nails when I am nervous or watching a movie, or sometimes when I'm bored and not paying attention to what I am doing. I've done this for a long time, I really have tried to break the habit, but I have not been able to. I've resigned myself to the fact that it is something that I will do for the rest of my life or till I can't because I no longer have fingernails. In fact, I've been nawing on my thumb nail while I'm trying to think of how else I'm weird. Oh, there are lots of ways, I just can't come up with any.

6. When I eat a hostess ho-ho, I peel the chocolate off and eat it, then I unroll it and eat it in pieces. I haven't had one of those in a long time, that sounds really good.

7. I've decided the reason I like being in plays, is because I get a natural high from being on stage. It's kind of like doing something extreme for me. And since I won't do anything like that cause I'm such a wimp, performing is my way of getting an adrenaline rush. And I get one every time, I love it. That's probably why I'm so tired all the time right now, I haven't performed in a really long time. I guess it's time to jump back in.

Now, I hate to do this, but I tag....Kristin, Bonnie, Misty, Dave, Brooke, Whitney, and Laura.

Handbag Planet

I want to win a new bag. So here is a link to go and enter the contest! Click here

Sleepy Head

One of my favorite things is to watch my cutie sleep, and sleep he does. In a lot of strange positions and places. It was so fun to post the picture of him sleeping in the closet, I thought I'd show you some other cute sleeping pictures.

Taylor frequently slept like this in his crib. Right up against the slats with his feet either up on the side or throught the holes. And his hands behind his head. But usually the next time I'd check on him, he'd be on the other side of the crib in a completely different position. The kid doesn't ever stay in one place for very long, even in sleep.

This is Halloween last year on our way down to the Halloween party at the Todd's. Isn't he just so adorable when he's sleeping?

He got this flashlight for his birthday from Kristin and Jeremy, and he wore out the batteries doing this. It has three little stenciled covers that project different animals on the wall. I think the red one is a monkey.

This is my very favorite picture of them all. This was just last weekend, I was out shopping, and Justin was watching Taylor. First he wanted his mickey mouse doll, then he wanted the hat. You have to understand, he won't let us put this hat on him at all when he's awake, but this particular afternoon, he wanted it on before he went to sleep. And it stayed on him for almost his entire nap. Such funny kid, I'm telling you. I'm so blessed to have a cute kid with such a fun personality. He has his moments of not-so-cuteness, as I'm sure every kid does, but he makes me laugh so much, that I can easily forget those other times.

Closet Case

A couple of Saturdays ago when Taylor wasn't feeling well, we put him down for a nap. Well, he took his time, as always, getting to sleep, and when he was finally quiet, I went to check on him. Well, imagine my surprise when I couldn't find him! He wasn't in his bed where I expected him to be, or behind the door, where he likes to hide when I come in to make sure he is in bed. Well, I decided to open the closet, just to check, you know. It was the only other likely place he might be, and there he was. Fast asleep on the floor in his closet, with the door shut. I guess he fell asleep while he was waiting for me to find out if he was calming down. Well, he spent the remainder of his nap in there, of course I left the door open, so that he could get air. But it was easy to tell when he woke up because we could hear the closet door open and shut a whole bunch of times. And then the next day, when I was putting him down, he didn't want to take a nap so I made him a bed in the closet, and that is where he slept again. Silly kid, they always find the weirdest places to fall asleep.

I love, love, love Halloween. So, I'm getting a head start and putting a fun background to show how much. Enjoy!

Breaking Dawn

I know that some people have a lot of opinions, some good some bad, about this book, and in particular, the entire series. I just read something that I think will be interesting to a lot of people. It's frequently asked questions about Breaking Dawn that is on Stephenie Meyer's website. I think that people should read it because it always helps me to kind of see a little into the mind of the author and to know why she wrote what she did. Anyway, I'm posting the link so that you can go there if you so desire. Tell me what you think. I thought it explained quite a bit and I enjoyed reading what she had to say.http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/bd_faq.html
I really did love this entire series, it was extremely entertaining to me, and I'm very excited to watch the movie when it comes out. Thanks for reading.

Update

I found the pick, I repeat, I found the pick. Actually, Justin did, it was between some magazines in our bathroom closet. So, I'm happy again! Whoo-hoo!

This is a picture of Taylor's cake. I would have posted it with the other pics, but it's my only one and it was on my phone. So here it is, the Lightning McQeen cake. My sister-in-law, Misti did a great job!

The Terrible Two's

So far what people say is true, it starts way before their 2nd birthday, we'll see if it goes beyond. It's not all terrible, though, toddlers can be pretty funny. We had Taylor's 2nd Birthday party on Saturday, the 30th, cause that was his birthday, yeah. It was a pretty crazy day, and a funny story. We went to the zoo in the morning with some family and friends. We were supposed to meet there at 10, but Taylor decided to throw up all over himself on the way there. So with trying to find a place to buy him a new outfit, cause we didn't bring any extra clothes(I had no idea that would happen). And trying to clean up the car, we didn't end up getting there until 11. And Taylor was fine, he didn't act sick or throw up again, so we stayed and enjoyed ourselves. We rented him a wagon, and let me tell you, he stayed in that a lot more than he will stay in a stroller. A wagon would be a good investment for anyone with toddlers, hopefully we'll get one soon. Anyway, the reason I don't have any pictures of the zoo, is because we figured out the batteries were dead in both our cameras. So, when we got to the zoo, I bought some from the gift shop. The camera worked for about a half hour, then all the sudden in the alligator house, it went black. It won't take anything but black fuzzy pictures now. I guess I have to get a new camera. So, the pictures we have are from the party, and my dad took them. So enjoy! I'll post more as I get them.

Taylor is spoiled. The large present in front is from his Aunt Shannon. It was a cute toddler bed, that he loves!

This is how Taylor opened the majority of his presents. Dumped them upside down. He thought that was very fun! My dad thinks I look exasperated in this picture. What do you think?

Amelie getting the present that fell out of the bag.

This is what Taylor did when all the presents were opened. Yes, my kid has a lot of fun with wrappings. Who cares about presents!

See, Rachel, your kid isn't the only one who likes to put things on her head:)

And this is Taylor blowing out his candles. Yes, he actually did it. Granted, there was a lot of spit dribbling down onto his cake. His poor Uncle Stephen actually put his hand under his mouth to catch it. That was pretty funny.

My new nephew

This is my new nephew Bennett James Firth, Jr or JJ as he will be know. Very, very cute. He was born last Tuesday, the day before my birthday. He was just over 8 lbs and 22 inches long. Lighter than Taylor by about 10 oz and longer by an inch. A very tall and skinny boy. Anyway, he's so cute, I got to meet him on Saturday at Taylor's birthday. He's so little and I can't believe Taylor was ever close to that small. It's crazy. My sister-in-law is amazing. She had such an easy birth that she could've gone home less than 24 hours after she had him. And she was able to come to her nephew's birthday party less than a week later. I'm in awe of her. I was holed up for two weeks in my house after having Taylor. Anyway, he's beautiful, and I'm so excited to have another nephew.

So, my old roommates will understand this more than anyone, but Taylor lost my favorite pick and I am so sad about it. I've had it forever and it's the perfect pick because it had a wide toothed comb on one end and the other end was long with one wonderful point. It made it so easy to part my hair, and if I wanted to, I could do a zigzag part or a wavy part. I've been using this pick every single morning for a very long time. I had a roommate that was very fond of it also, and she was very sad when we were not roomies anymore, cause she couldn't use it. I've never been able to find another one like it, and so now I have to figure out another way to part my hair that is as easy as that was. I'm very heartbroken, but I won't give up. It has to be somewhere in my house. Unless Taylor threw it in the garbage like he does his toys and I didn't see it, so now it's somewhere in a landfill. I love kids, they make your life so interesting. It definitely is not predictable anymore:)

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 8 people with my name in the U.S.A. How many have your name?

My friend Diana had this on her blog, and I thought it would be fun to look up. Who would've thought there were this many people with my name in the world. Just for fun, I looked it up with my maiden name, and there were 7. I'm curious how many of those have my middle name too. Crazy!

We've now been back from my family reunion for more than two weeks, and I'm finally getting some pictures on here. Unfortunately, I suck at remembering to take pictures. So, I don't have really any from the actual reunion, but we did take some when we drove up to Crater Lake. This is seriously the coolest lake I've ever seen in person. It was formed when a volcano collapsed in on itself a bajillion years ago. Over time the rain water and runoff from the snow pack made it this gorgeous lake. The water is so clear and blue, and apparently so pure you can drink it without doing anything to it. Sadly, we didn't go down to the lake, the hike down to it is on the other side from where we were, and it's quite a long and steep hike, or so I've heard. One day... Anyway, it's also the deepest or second deepest lake in America, I think, and the 4th deepest in the world. Really cool. Everyone should go see it at least once in their lifetime.

The Fam.

Me and Taylor

Justin and Taylor

Taylor in the center of a very old tree.

The lake in all it's glory. The island is called Wizard Island and there are boat tours to it. Nice.

Oregon

I went and bought Breaking Dawn last night at midnight in Medford, Oregon. Yup, I drove all the way here for it. Just kidding, we are here for a family reunion this weekend, and we actually found the local Barnes and Noble, called and reserved copies and went to their release party. Yup, we are die hard fanatics. Nah, I don't think it's that bad, we didn't wear prom dresses to the party. I couldn't believe what some of the girls here were wearing. The chick who got a prize for the way she was dressed, was wearing a very short, not very modest (or attractive) skirt. That seemed to be the way a lot of the girls were dressed. I'd hate to see what their actual proms look like. Anyway, we're having fun here in Southern Oregon. It's only about 10 degrees cooler than Utah, so we're still quite warm here.

Yuck!!!

We have bed bugs. Yep, I hate admitting it, it's really embarrassing, but it's true. The reason I'm putting it on here is because I'm wondering if anybody has had this problem before, and if so, how did you take care of it and get rid of them? I think we brought them back from California, so hopefully it's not too bad yet, but it's gross and I'm horrified that it happened. Plus, they love me. I have had quite a few bites and Justin has not had one. How does this happen when you sleep in the same bed? It doesn't seem logical, but there it is. Blah!!!! I can't believe this is happening, it makes me itch just thinking about it.

I guess I've been tagged

Joys

1. My family, of course. I am so blessed to have a wonderful husband and a beautiful, hilarious son. They both constantly make me happy to be alive.

2. My family. I love my loud, crazy family. I love that when I visit home, I have to practically yell to be heard. I love that they would do anything for me, especially my mom and dad.

3. Feeling the Spirit. I haven't been feeling this so much lately, it's kind of hard when you are chasing a two year old down the aisle in church. 

Fears

1. That I will forget how to sing. It's been so long since I've been in a group or anything, that I am so scared I will lose my one and only talent. I've been fretting about this for a while, and Justin says he wants me to start trying out for musicals again when he is done with school. He'll be able to watch Taylor.

2. Spooky stuff. I hate being scared, but at the same time, it's a bit of a thrill. But I do not want to be scared of the almost 100 year old house I am moving into before I actually move in. Some people are making that a little hard. Davin, Josh, and Dave to name a few.

3. That I will not be able to control my children. Taylor is such a handful, that I kind of worry that he will always be that way, and that any subsequent children will be as well. It terrifies me that I will be a bad mommy.

Goals

1. To get back into singing, and never stop ever again.

2. To finish school.

3. To have a gospel oriented family.

Obsessions/Collections

1. As you can see by my previous post, the Twilight Series. I love those books.

2. Blogging is quickly becoming one.

3. Anything Cars, oh wait, that's Taylor's. No, right now it's "So You Think You Can Dance" awesome show, I can't miss it.

Random/surprising facts

1. I'm really not that surprising, what you see is what you get, for the most part.

2. I kind of want to be an esthetician, I've been thinking about it a lot lately.

3. I can't think of anything else. Sorry.

Now tag, you're it, Kristin Sokol, Bonnie Riley, Sherilyn Morgan, Laura Lewis, and Ariane Mardis. 

Here are the rules: Post these rules on your blog. Answer these 15 questions about yourself on your blog. List 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, and 3 random/surprising facts. Tag 5 peopls at the end of your blog by listing their names. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Ode to Twilight

I love Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. There, I said it. They are the best books I have read in a long time, and I will read them over and over again until I just can't anymore.(but I'm betting that will not happen). I am so excited for the fourth book to come out, and yes, even for the movie. Even if it is not entirely true to the book, I will not care, I'm sure I will be completely entertained, and that is really all I want when I go see a movie. I will be in Oregon for a family reunion when Breaking Dawn comes out, and I am still going to go to the release party at Barnes and Noble. Oh, and I love her new book "The Host". It is just as awesome, albeit a little harder to read, as all her other books. Who knew that an obscure little Mormon mommy from Arizona and who graduated from BYU, could write such amazingly popular and wonderful books. She's my hero. Anyway, anyone who hasn't read them or even heard of them, or has heard of them and is just thinking about reading them, just do it. Find out if all the hype is true. Here's a link to her webpage, check it out. www.stepheniemeyer.com

Roommate Rendezvous

         

This is at a roommate get-together/bridal shower for Robyn that we had on Friday night. It was so awesome to see everyone and their kids and significant others. These girls got me through so much while I was single. I'm so glad that we have not lost touch. Well, completely. We tend to wait too long in between our get-togethers, which is really sad, but we still find the time eventually. I hope that we always keep in touch, I just wish we all lived a bit closer to each other. Anyway, I love this group! 

Bye Bye Binky

I'm so excited, Taylor has basically given up his binky all by himself. He won't suck on two of the ones we still have cause they are orthodontic and he doesn't like them. We lost one, and he's almost chewed the tip off the last one. He's been going to sleep without it for a couple of nights now and hasn't needed it, I guess, at the babysitter's. It's so nice to not have to frantically search for one so that he will calm down. I was going to gradually wean him off of it when he turns two, but now we're 2 months to that day, and I won't even have to worry about it. Hopefully he won't decide that he needs it when we move, since moving seems to be such a traumatic experience for him, well, at least it was in the past. Anyway, whoo-hoo, no more binky, Taylor is done all by himself. He's growing up fast, now we just have to deal with the terrible two's, which began a couple of months ago, by the way. Do any of you listen to Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband? His first album coincided with me starting college a million years ago. Well, on that album he has a song called "2 year old attitude" and I've been thinking about that song a lot lately. It describes Taylor to a "T". I can't remember the words at the moment, but maybe I can get the song on here soon. Those of you with 2 year olds or have had one in the past will totally relate, I guarantee it.

This is "our" new house. Well, new to us anyway. We are renting it for an unbelievable price, especially since it is a house and has a double garage and a YARD!!! I'm so excited to move in. Less than two weeks! Hope ya'll will come and visit. And our next move will definitely be into a house that we will own, not rent, I guarantee that.

A house for the Behlings

It's official, we are moving out of Justin's mom's house and into a house of our own. Well, at least for now, we'll just consider it our own. We are renting a little house in Fruit Heights for around $500 a month! Now tell me that that's not a great deal, cause it is! We can't find an apartment around here with a garage and a yard for that cheap. I'm so ecstatic that we have this opportunity! It kind of just popped up out of the blue one day. A girl at work and her husband are buying a townhouse(yeah, I'm a little jealous, but you can't have everything), so they are moving out of this house that they've been renting since they got married. Well, things just kind of happened and now we are moving in on July 19th! It will be so nice to have our own space again. It's tiny, but we don't need much room for the 3 of us, at least right now. So, it's pretty perfect for us, and I am looking forward to a couple of weeks from now. I'll post pictures of it when I can take some.

Fun in the Sun

We got together with some friends yesterday to have a splash party. We were supposed to go over to our friend's house and swim in their pool, but their daughter, Phoenix, decided to make her entrance into the world instead. So, we went over to Rachel's family's house and let the kids splash around in a kiddie pool instead. They absolutely loved it! Well, not at first I guess, Taylor wouldn't even let Justin put his feet in the pool. But after we added a little warm water and coaxed him in, he didn't want to come back out. It was pretty hilarious, the kid has no inhibitions once he is enjoying himself. One of the pictures is of him going headfirst down the slide. That was all him, my friends. When he decided going feet

first just wasn't enough of a thrill, head first was

the way to go. He is definitely not taking after me

at all in that area. All in all, not a bad way to 

spend a Saturday afternoon...

Justin and Dave Todd chopping wood oh so efficiently. Cassi and I ought to be so proud.