Tuesday, June 23, 2009

An anniversary to remember!

That wonderful husband of mine has done it again, and it just keeps getting better each time. For some reason I was not expecting my husband to do anything for me for our anniversary. I didn't even think that he would send me a card. I should've been suspicious after what he did for me for Mother's Day but I had absolutely no clue that he was up to anything for our anniversary. I think partly because my thoughts were preoccupied with having a couple of sick kids and a baby who might be teething, among other things.

Anyway, originally I was planning on going out to dinner with my sister in law, Celeste, since both of our husbands are gone for our anniversaries. But then Nikki got pink eye on Friday and Garrett got it on Sunday. So I had to cancel. Well, my brother Stillman calls me up Sunday night to invite themselves over the next evening to start a "Harry Potter" movie marathon and that they were going to bring pizza. They didn't care about sick kids because their kids had the same thing earlier last week. So I hesitantly said yes.

The next morning did not go very well and I was beginning to get stressed out for several reasons. I thought "this is going to be the worst anniversary ever". Finally, the doorbell rings around 5:30 and I'm thinking Stillman wasn't supposed to show up until 7pm, so who could it be? Then one quick thought came that maybe Curtis was having flowers sent to me. Sure enough it was flowers, but a whole lot more.

My mom and dad were there at the door dressed up as "Special Agent Whiskey Delta" and "Special Agent Accomplis "Numero Uno". They presented me with my 2 dozen red roses and then Agent Whiskey Delta proceeded to give me special files and instructions and a couple of gifts. They then laid out my dinner table in front of the computer where I would be interrogated by someone via Skype on the internet. My kids were taken by them as "hostages" who would be returned after the interrogation.

They left and I went to the computer where I had a lovely dinner presented that included one of my favorite dishes, chicken alfredo, a salad, breadsticks, bubbly "sparkling cider", and custard. I pulled out my secret code word, "Mission Tango" and typed it onto the screen. Then Curtis called me up on Skype where we could talk and see each other. We both ate dinner together (it was 3 am for him). After we finished eating we played a couple of online games. One round of Wheel of Fortune and a couple of rounds of my family's favorite, Uno. It was a lot of fun!

Then I went to pick up the kids, driving my parent's car since they took mine with the kids. When I finally got all the kids in bed at the end of the night I read the last file which included a "SHMILY" (See How Much I Love You) card attached to a personal letter he wrote to me. It was wonderful!



My 2 dozen red roses. One broke off and so Nikki made that one her rose from Daddy and even made her own card for it that says "I Love U Nikki". And there's one of my gifts, a bracelet he had specially made for me with my name on it.


Here are all the special files that were given to me.


Mom and Dad's ID cards. Love it!


Here was my gift from my parents. A blown up picture of my kids that they had blown up and framed. I absolutely love that picture and am so glad they framed it for me. Now I can hang it on one of our bare family room walls. Thank you!

I can't thank my husband enough for all the thought and effort put forth to make our anniversary so special when he' so far away and we can't physically be together. He spent at least 6 weeks planning this. And thank you so much to my parent's and anyone else involved that helped to pull this off. It totally turned my day around and made me the happiest wife in the world. Mission: Accomplished!!! You did awesome!! I love you so much!!!!

For more pictures and details see my parent's blog "Mom and Dad Norton" on my blog list.

Monday, June 22, 2009

From Here to There

From dating.....

To engagement...

To our wedding day

To 7 years (& 3 kids later) and more in love than ever!!


I love you and here are 7 reasons why:

1) You love me
2) You're a great father
3) You are kind and dedicated
4) You make me laugh
5) You're handsome
6) You love the gospel
7) You love and take care of your family

Happy 7th Anniversary Curtis! I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE YOU!!!!!

Sunday, June 21, 2009

Happy Father's Day Curtis!



One of the many reasons I married you Curtis was because I knew you would be a wonderful dad. This is a slide show we put together of photos with you and all 3 of the kids from the moment Nicole was born until we left you at the airport from your first R&R. You have done a great job! We all love and miss you so much! Happy Father's Day!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

The 3 Amigos!

I took this picture of the kids today and I just loved it so much that I had to share it!

My 1st couponing experience

I spent $38.00 for all of this. Total amount saved $63.45

Items bought: 6 boxes Cheerios, 3 Ragu sauces, 1 Sandies cookies, 7 Nature Valley granola bars boxes, 1 Fiber One granola bar box, 1 Suddenly Pasta Salad, 2 boxes Gushers fruit snacks, 2 boxes fruit rollups, 1 doz eggs, 8 ears of corn, 1 container of raspberries, 1 bag carrots, 1 cucumber, 1 head lettuce, and 4 bananas

After hearing of other people's couponing experiences and going to a couple classes about how to coupon I finally broke down and did it. However, I don't think I could've done it by myself. I had my sister in law Michelle helping me every step of the way. A big thank you to her! I think I understand it a little better now but I still feel like my brain is spinning when I try to think about it. I don't know if I'll be able to keep it up but we'll see. At least now I've got my snacks for my upcoming Utah trip in 2 weeks!

Friday, June 12, 2009

When is Curtis coming home you ask?

Many of you have been asking when Curtis is coming home. Well, I'd love to say he's coming home for good on July 20th but NO, he's not. He'll be home on July 20th for another vacation for 2 weeks. We are still a little up in the air as to when he'll actually be home to stay. All we know is that it won't be until sometime in the first half of next year. After this vacation in July he won't be home again until December. He'll have a 3 week vacation that time because he'll have been there over a year. At the end of their year mark they get a 3 week vacation. His year is up in October but he's going to save it until December and hopefully be home for Christmas. We've also decided that we're going to try and have Garrett's 3rd and last surgery done at that time. However, if Garrett gets sick again and we have to postpone it, we'll wait until after Curtis is back for good to do it. Now I just need to call Garrett's cardiologist and talk to him about what we decided.

Anyway, we decided it would be best for Curtis to stay longer than a year because of the economic situation. His year is up in October but if he came home then he really wouldn't have any work because that's the normal slow season for construction. So we decided it would be best for him to stay through the winter at least and then he can come home and get his contractor's license and get down to business.

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Random pictures part 2

Jack's starting to like his toys and sucking on everything.

Told you he likes sucking his thumb, hehe. Maybe if I keep him occupied enough with toys he won't suck his thumb too much.

Having fun in the swing!

"What's up mom?"

Nikki made that for me. The hearts represent each member of our family. She then surprised me by taping it on my bedroom wall by her other pictures she made for me. She's such a sweetheart.

He found his thumb again. Too cute!

Monday, June 8, 2009

Random pictures part 1

A lot has been happening here lately. Jack has learned to roll over from his back to his tummy. He rolled over the first time on Sat May 30th. And I even barely caught him today rolling from tummy to his back, after he had rolled from back to tummy. Ever since he learned how to roll over every time I lay him down he ends up rolling over within a few minutes. He loves to be on his tummy and looking up at everything. After a few days of trying to get him on video I was finally able to do it and added the video to our youtube video bar on the right. I've added several other new videos as well. Jack has also discovered his thumb works great for a pacifier and has become quite attached. I hope he doesn't make that a habit like I did when I was little. Here are some random pictures of what else has been happening here the past week.
Garrett, Jack, and I went outside to enjoy the cooler but nice weather the other day and Garrett was drawing with the chalk. As you can see, our grass is coming in good (and so are the weeds, but they got sprayed so hopefully they'll be gone soon)

Nicole and Jack watching TV together. Don't worry, I didn't leave him there very long. He's way too young to be watching TV yet and I'm trying to get my kids to watch less of it.

These boys already love each other.

I don't get very many photos with all 3 of my kiddos together. I love how high Jack is lifting his head.

This is a few days after Jack started learning to roll over.

That's so true for this little guy. Once he learns something new there's no stopping him.

Garrett likes wearing a backpack once in awhile. He thinks it's pretty cool.

Nikki was talking to me with her little sock puppet and the puppet wanted a picture taken of itself.


I will continue with some more photos in a day or two. I'm spreading it out for Curtis to enjoy. Speaking of Curtis, 6 weeks until he comes home for R&R(July 20th)!!! Yay!

Another debt bites the dust!!!

I've been waiting months to be able to use that blog post title. It's official, I went down to the bank about an hour ago and paid our truck off! We had already paid our van off in February and now the truck is knocked out too. Now to work on paying off the home addition. It feels so good to be getting rid of debt!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday, June 6, 2009

And the answers are.....

Okay, here's the answers to my baby picture quiz. I think most everyone did really well.

A- Nikki
B- Jack
C- Garrett
D- Jack
E- Nikki
F- Garrett

Thanks for playing and good job everyone!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Name that baby

Which of my kids is in the photo?
A
B

C

D

E

F