How cool is this?

Everyone,

So I got an email last night. About a month a go, I spent a few hours writing a few small stories for a website. This website got in contact with me from seeing my writing on another website (not my blog, a completely different website that if you really want to read, email me I will send you the link. Deanna, Amy, Jill, you know what site I'm talking about.) Anyway, I wrote 2 stories, sent them in and didn't really think much about it. Until last night. When I got an email from the editor. She was congratulation me that I have been chosen to be one of their freelance writers out of 1,000 applicants! I'm shocked! And thrilled! I get MONEY. Yes, you are now reading writing from a paid writer. This is my ultimate dream job and I am WAY TOO EXCITED!!!! So everyone go familiarize yourself with this website and soon you will be seeing my by-line!

Yay!

Catherine

Why? Why?

Everyone,

I was feeling ambitious and signed myself up for a spin class at the YMCA. I've only been twice because of the creeping sickness in the house. Today was my second time and I ask myself, why? Why do I insist on sitting on a really uncomfortable bike (horse saddles are much better) and pumping my legs going no where? I never liked exercising inside. Those stationary bikes just seem pointless to me. BUT, on the other hand, I went 10 miles today and my legs are killing me. And we went to a party for my mom's group on Saturday and one of the ladies that I see pretty regularly said that I looked thinner. Yay! That right there is the biggest reason to keep me going to the psycho spin class. Even if it is at 6am and Butterfly got up at 4am today. Ugh...

Another good thing about the class is that it gets me out of the house by myself for an hour. I think today was the first time I realized how attached Butterfly is to me. She was crying/whining when I came home. Juice was doing his stone cold "I'm annoyed" look. As I picked her up, she calmed right down and was calm as could be. Juice huffed a little, and went back to bed. Poor guy. Had to be up with the baby at 6:30 instead of 4am. Boo hoo.

Don't get me wrong, Butterfly loves her Daddy. When she is sick, she wants nothing to do with me. Only Daddy will do. And Juice gets the biggest laughs out of her. She loves to rough house with him more, and can't get into his arms fast enough when he comes home from work. I guess she is just used to me in the morning and Juice at night.

In other good news, I finished my scrapbook for the 2004/2005 year. It's almost 100 pages long (92 to be exact). Did I really have the time to do all of that?! I am not starting on the 2005/2006 book until I catch up with Butterfly's baby book. So far I have the baby showers, the sonograms and 2 pages of her birth in there. At least 10 more months to go. My goal is to get it caught up by the time her 1st birthday rolls around. When we have our big birthday/graduation celebration in May I want people to be able to look through the book. Only 2 more months to finish it. Wish me luck.

Juice got a congratulatory letter from his school notifying him on meeting all of his requirements to graduate. Way to go Juice! Now only commencement in May and we are finished with school for awhile. Yay!

We are almost done with our annual house fix up of the spring. New windows, check. Clean air vents, on Wednesday. New door, they come to measure on April 11th. I'm looking forward to not having to have strange people in our house weekly. This is probably the last big improvement we will do on our house now until we move. (We're not moving for a few years...)

Until next time,
Safire

Funny funny...

Everyone,

Just because this is one of my favorite movies, I'm interested to hear your results too!

Which one of Captain Jack Sparrow's bizarre sayings from Pirates of the Caribbean are you?

You are "Welcome to the Caribbean, love." You're more than a little world-weary, but also intelligent and you keep your head when things get dodgy. You're everybody's favorite drinking buddy, but your stubbornness does get in the way sometimes.
Take this quiz!








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Safire

Oh so cute

Everyone,

I know I always talk about how cute Butterfly is but seriously, I didn't realize how completely wonderful having your own kid around was. After years of babysitting other people's kids, and wondering how I'm going to deal with my own kid, it's really quite amazing how much you like your own kids. If that makes any sense. She is just so much fun. Right now she is blowing raspberries at Juice's computer. So silly!

Besides the raspberries, she is doing 2 very cute things lately. We have all been sick. It's been horrible. And since I was the first one to get sick, I am the first one to get better. Why is it that when I get sick I still have to take care of everyone? Juice did help out a lot but it would have been nice to be a little kid again.

Anyway, with this sickness, Butterfly lost her voice. She had the cutest little tiny cry. It was all deep and raspy and tiny. So so so cute. It's almost gone now and I never did get a video of it so you can't see but cute none the less.

The other thing that she seems to like lately is books. She will sit down with a book and read it to herself. Talking and all. Turn the pages, smile at the bears and dogs and owls. We also read a bedtime story at night and she will now snuggle into me and turn the pages when it's time to turn the pages. I love that she loves books. I hope it continues.

Another tooth has shown up on top. That makes a total of 6 teeth.

I have just discovered that my really good friend Julia has a blog too! Have been reading through it all day in between chasing down Baby Girl and getting juice and soup for Juice. How come I didn't realize this earlier Julia?! ;) Congrats on knowing that Audrey is coming soon!

Until next time,
Safire, Juice and Butterfly

Oh that's just me, hacking lung out.

Everyone,

Butterfly and I have been sick sick sick for about a week. I first noticed how cold I was last week after swimming. And by the end of the day, I was a puddled mess of fever, cough and general grumpiness. Wednesday was bad...I had Juice stay home from work because I seriously couldn't get out of bed. Temp climbed to 102. Thursday, Juice stayed home voluntarily because I was so sick. Temp climbed to 104.5. Ouch. That day Butterfly started to act a little cranky and I knew it was only a matter of time before we were both sick. And boy did she get it. Her fevers weren't as bad as mine, but the stuff coming out of her nose was a lot more disgusting! She will throw herself back and start to scream if she sees a tissue come out of it's box. Even if it's going to my nose and not hers she flips out. Poor thing. She is also not sleeping well. She woke up one morning to her nose crusted over. I had to get a washcloth and hold it there to break up the snot so she could breath out of her nose. Let's just say I've seen more snot this week to paint my walls with it. Gross.

Yesterday we got new windows in the house. The biggest difference so far has been how quiet it is. I never knew how thin our windows were. So far, so good. Pictures to come but the office is a wreck (had to move everything 2 feet away from the walls) and I don't want to find the camera.

Also, my family is in Disneyland without me for the second year in a row. Shoulda gone...

Safire

10 Months old!

Everyone,

Butterfly is 10 months old today. Can you believe it? She is out of the single digit months. And I can't believe how much she has learned this month too. Besides the crawling and the dancing (which is so cute by the way), she has also learned how to stand by herself for a few seconds, point out noses (including the dog's), chins, mouth, ears, eyes, glasses, etc. She is also pulling up on everything in sight.

Also for 10 months old she seems to have caught my horrific cold. I'm hoping that she won't get as sick as I did and keeping her doped up with tylenol. So far she has missed out on the cough but has a major runny nose and a small fever. Not like my huge fever of 104!

We're just hanging out today and hopefully we'll be better in a few days. Until then,

Safire and Butterfly

Temps

Everyone,

Temperature outside: 50 degrees
Temperature inside: 70 degrees
Average Temperature of a healthy human: 98.7 degrees
Average Temperature of a healthy dog: 101 degrees
Temperature of Safire right now: 102.3 degrees

Sick with a fever and a cough. Ugh...

Safire

Movie Test #2

Everyone,

Another test....


Video Sharing at DropShots.com


Butterfly dancing!

Wahoo!

Everyone,

I am $100 dollars richer! I just found out that I was drawn for a prize from these people and won! MP3 Player here I come!

Now if it only had another zero on the end...

Safire

A crawling test...

Everyone,

This is a test of my abilities to put a video on this page. This is only a test.

Monday, February 27, 2006



Edited to add: Experincing technical difficulties. Try again later.

Another Tuesday gone by...

Everyone,

I have tried very hard to post on days other than Tuesday but since Butterfly swims on Tuesday and SLEEPS when we get home, Tuesday is the day to post.

Juice and I are planning new doors and windows on our house for our big home improvement project this year. Our windows are scheduled to be put in in March, and we're going to the Home D*pot for our door. I have one door I desperately want. Of course, it's not steel (fiberglass is just as good!) and the HD does not carry it. So I went to the manufactures site to see if I could order it especial. No deal. They only go through the HD and if the HD doesn't stock it, they won't sell it. Bummer. I suppose it's a good thing since if I were to get this door, I may have to take it with me when we move from this house. Instead, I will be getting something like this as opposed to this. Also, storm door or no storm door? Juice and I are sitting on the fence for this one. Any thoughts?

Butterfly is being very cute lately, and also kind of a pain. I angered the nap gods last time by saying she sleeps so well. That went out the window. We had a couple of nights staying up until 1am, 2am and then getting up at 6am. *YAWN* Looking back at our horrible sleeping for the past 2 weeks or so, I think I may have found a solution. We need to stop getting teeth in such a horrible way. She now has 5 teeth, her top right incisor showing up. The one next to the front tooth. (Or for you dentists out there in case Mike ever reads this...her #10 tooth.) This reminds me that Juice and I have our semi-annual cleaning coming up. Gotta remember that.

We're high into Birthday season. It starts with my Dad on Feb 24 (Happy B-day Dad!) and will end with Juice on March 31st. Also included in there is Andrew, Soot, and my Mom. I used to love March growing up because we always went out to eat for birthdays and between 3 March birthdays, we went out like every other weekend. It was great! But now being so far away from them it's not as fun (for me). One birthday I'm looking forward to is Butterfly's first. I can't believe that she is almost a year old. We will have a low key celebration with just the family that day...maybe a trip to our favorite hamburger joint since this is where we went the night before she was born. We will probably give her a cupcake and call it good. About 2 weeks later is Juice's graduation and my parents and his parents are coming out for the celebration. We will have a big hoopla then for her and for Juice.

We had a break through with solid foods last night. She has always taken one or 2 bites and then turned up her nose at anything else we offered her. I made apple sauce (yes, I make my own baby food...so much more cost effective since I can make 2 weeks of food for 3 or 4 dollars and a jar of baby food costs about 2 dollars for one, maybe two feedings. You do the math.). Anyway, I have frozen cubes of applesauce and I gave one to her frozen. It was so cute the faces she made! Once I defrosted it a bit (only a little bit, it was still cold) she went through the whole cube like it was nothing. And was asking for more. Yes! Feed the child! So we broke out some butternut squash and she went through that cube too. It's a nice feeling when I know she is full. :)

She is crawling all over the place and can I say that the baby gates I ordered can not get here fast enough. I'm about to go bonkers if I have to steer her away from the dog food or the dog door one more time.

Until next time,
Safire

Swimming Fun

Everyone,

Juice took a half day at work and was able to come swimming with us. We took some great pictures.

She absolutely adores the water now, and starts kicking and splashing within seconds of getting into the pool. Also today, when I came out of the locker room she said "oohhhhh" and started kicking in my arms. You'd think she likes it! I'm really glad we are able to do this class and we've signed up for the next session.

She also will voluntarily put her face in the water. Especially after I have been blowing bubbles. She loves the little songs we sing (Hokey Pokey, The Wheels on the Bus, etc) and will just spash as hard as she can with them. So cute! When we first started swimming she was timid, shy, and tried to crawl up me to get out of the water. Now it sounds like she can't wait to get in and have fun. It's made bath time at our house a little more wet but I really don't mind. I'm glad she's finally stopped screaming through her baths.

Another thing she has just started doing is crawling! Like actual up on all fours crawling. She started that on Thursday the 16th with just a few steps in a row, and then it's just exploded from there. She can also pull herself up on most things and is starting to take small steps and cruising. So much fun!

Until next time,
Safire, Juice, and Butterfly

ps- I think these little games are fun...

You scored as English. You should be an English major! Your passion lies in writing and expressing yourself creatively, and you hate it when you are inhibited from doing so. Pursue that interest of yours! English 92% Journalism 92% Biology 83% Mathematics 83% Philosophy 67% Theater 67% Anthropology 58% Linguistics 58% Engineering 58% Sociology 50% Dance 50% Chemistry 42% Art 33% Psychology 33% What is your Perfect Major? (PLEASE RATE ME!!<3) created with QuizFarm.com

Just for fun

Everyone,

Thought this would be fun. Check it out.

Also, I contacted my member of congress for the first time today. Laura is coming to visit in April and we are going to tour THE White House. Apparently you can only get tickets through your member of congress.

Juice and I have been watching the Olympics and are fascinated by curling. We've had many hot debates on how they figure out the scoring of this game. According to the Tornio Olympic website, the team who is closest to the center of the target, called the house, scores and every stone that the scoring team has closer to the house than the other team also gives them a point. I think I get it...

Until next time,
Safire and Juice

It's fixed!

Everyone,

Looks like they finally got their act together and fixed our internet problem. We don't have anything broken in the house for the first time since Halloween. Now what will I do if I'm not waiting around for repair guys all the time?! We are getting our windows replaced in March so I guess I have to wait for that.

And, as promised...PICTURES! And VIDEOS! I know my parents are going through Butterfly withdrawl. It's been like 3 weeks since they've seen her and I know if I go through 3 hours without her I'm crazy to see her again. So here you go.

The first 3 are her 9 month old pictures, and the last 3 are of that great snow storm we had last week. And the baby back pack that Juice is wearing Butterfly in we got at a second hand sale for 5 dollars. Yes, 5 bucks! They normally run about 70 or 80 dollars so we were happy.

And for the videos:
There are 5 of them. 2 of her crawling, one of Soot in the snow, one of her playing with Soot (SO CUTE!) and one of her tounge. You can find them all here.

She did a very cute thing the other day. She has a little book on her exersaucer and she turned the pages, talked to her self and at the end it sounded like she said the end because I always say that at the end of a book. She is just adorable.

Also, we went to the picture place at the mall and got some professional shots of her for 9 months old. If you'd like to see them, email me and I'll send you the password.

Until next time,
Safire, Juice, Butterfly, Soot

9 Months and another thing broken

Everyone,

Butterfly turned 9 months old on Friday. Being the party animals we are, we celebrated by going to the doctor. Butterfly is a healthy girl, weighing in at 23 lbs and she is 30 inches long. She has 4 teeth (two bottom, two upper) and can pick up teeny tiny little things with that cute pincher grasp. She has discovered her tounge and talks with it out, smiles with it out, complains with it out...you get the idea. She can touch her nose with it which is pretty cool. She has also picked up the annoying habit of shyness when she smiles (she will smile and look away all cute like). She is still a major people person. But only when I'm holding her. Can anyone say 'Stranger Anxiety'?

She has turned into a decient napper, taking two 1 hour + naps a day. She is normally up around 6am (or whenever Juice gets up) and normally I can convince her to go back to sleep until about 8am. Unless I need the car and we leave to take Juice to work around 7am. On Mondays and Fridays I go to the gym so she gets to play in their Kid Stop for an hour or so. And around 11am is her first nap. Today she slept from 10am till 12:30am! Then we will play, I'll dress her for the day, and do some errands, depending on the day. She normally will sleep again around 3pm and this is typically her really long nap. She almost always sleeps 2+ hours in the afternoon. When she wakes up, we play some more until Daddy gets home. And then she plays with Daddy while I get the dinner ready and have some alone time. After dinner, we normally take the dog for a walk, get her ready for bed and down she goes around 8:30pm or 9pm.

She eats anything we offer to her off of our fingers. She is hit and miss with stuff from spoons. Lately she has been eating avacado which she is okay with. But she's had squash (loads of squash), refried beans, pancakes, bread, steak, chicken, potatoes, apples, kiwi, muffins (that was a hit), asparagus, bananas, and rice. She is still only getting one meal of solid foods a day because she is just not interested in eating solid stuff until dinner time. She LOVES cups and no drink is safe around her. She drinks well from an open cup, a sippy cup and can even drink from a straw. She likes juice (what kid doesn't) but we water it down for her.

She has started to crawl on her belly. It's more of an elbow elbow toe toe toe toe move but she does moter forward. I have a video of it coming later. She can also sit herself up, stand up when propped, and is starting to cruise along the couch. The best thing to get her moving is either the dog's toys or the camera. She and the dog play really well together. I also have a video of that.

The dryer is fixed (angels singing) but now our internet is broken. Which is why I don't have the videos or even pictures of her. I can connect, it's just painfully slow. Our internet provider doesn't know what the problem is so I have no idea when it will be fixed. But when it does, many pictures coming your way. You are warned.

She is really loving her swimming lessons and will splash and kick on command now. It's so neat to see her really understanding what we are saying. She knows what Mama means and will call me when she really wants me. I bet her first word will be puppy or Soot or ducky (a favorite toy) but you never know.

We had a huge snow storm yesterday and got about 8 inches. Very fun for me and Juice. We missed the snow. Soot likes the snow but it balls up in her fur and then she can't walk. And Butterfly isn't really sure what it is but I have cute pictures of her in it because, well, all parents have to put their kids in their snow suits and take pictures of them. Don't they? :)

We left Butterfly with our neighbor Ida for an evening last week and went out to dinner for Valentine's day. It was okay, but we learned that Butterfly cried pretty much the whole time we were gone. Sorry Ida!

I also got a girls night out with my mom's group. That was a ball and we talked babies, bodies, and first birthdays. Hard to imagine that Butterfly will be a year old in a few months. She is looking more and more like a little kid every day. Where did the baby go? Anyway, I had a really great time talking to everyone and having a meal to eat at my own pace. We plan on continuing that every 2nd Thursday of the month. I'm very excited.

Well, I think you are up to date now. Hopefully our internet will be back up to full speed soon and I can post more often. Unlike Andrew who hasn't posted since...well, see for yourself. ;) (I'm only kind of kidding Bro...update your blog! Edited to add that I went and saw for myself and he has updated today. So good job Bro!) And Dad, you haven't posted since October. Just an FYI. Love you guys!

Until next time,
Safire and Butterfly

PS- Forgive the spelling.

8 months old, in review

Everyone,

Things have been a little crazy here. What with no dryer (still) and me trying to go work out 2 days a week, Butterfly's swimming class on Tuesdays, my regular mom's group on Fridays, and weekends with the fam...I feel swamped! I'm happy we're so busy though. My mom asked that I do an update on Baby Girl for her 8th month birthday. So here you go Mom!

Butterfly is now 23 lbs, and 29 inches long. She is rapidly growing out of her 12 month old clothes. In the past week I've cleaned out about half of the clothes that fit her just 2 weeks ago. I am frustrated with 18 month old clothes (next size up) because they all figure the child is walking. And that is something she is definitely not doing! It's hard to find things that fit right on her. I hate the in between stage.

We have been taking a swimming class at the local YMCA since the beginning of January. It is so much fun to see her in her little swimming suit and get her into the pool. It is the highlight of my week. She does not like it as much as I do. The first class we took she clung to me like I was sky diving instead of just swimming. She wouldn't play with any of the bath toys, smile at the teacher (this was big, she smiles at EVERYONE) or let go of my hair. She got a little more relaxed each time we went, but only the last 5 minutes or so. Last week, we were so early that I sat on the edge of the pool with her and helped her count how many laps people were doing, what the flags said, how many women were in the aerobics class, etc. By the time our class started and we got in the pool she was warmed up to the idea. And she splashed. And splashed. And splashed. She loved the rubber duckies, did little frog kicks and was trying to get me to let go by the end of the class. So cute it makes my eyes water to think of it. ;)

We are starting to get her really into solid foods. It's a slow process. She eats a little bit of whatever we're having at lunch and dinner, plus her own food at dinner. So far she is okay with squashes...butternut being her favorite. She also likes refried beans, any kind of meat, bread, and goes crazy for drinks. She loves to drink out of our cups and I think she has learned how to use a sippy cup. We have to feed her first otherwise all she will do is drink. She also loves to get food all over herself and me. I wonder how much of it she is eating. Today I started giving her cherrios and she loves them. She also loves popcorn. She is her mother's daughter, after all.

Yesterday morning she woke up a little under the weather and today, she has a nasty barking cough. Poor thing. She also has a fever. And I know right where she got it too. On Friday morning, we went over to my friend's house in the ward to talk about Enrichment...since I'm on the committee. Well her kids have all been sick with this icky barking cough. And she played with Andrew's toys (born 8 days after her...same day as Jacob!) who has been recently sick. Voila, instant sickness. I guess not everyone is as committed to the joys of wiping down baby toys with clorox wipes as I am. Next time she can play with her own toys.

Can you believe that she is almost as old on the outside as she was on the inside?

Until next time,
Safire and Butterfly

What did I fuse now?

Everyone,

One and a half loads. That's all I ever get out of this dryer. One and a half loads and then weeks of nothing. Do you think the dryer is trying to tell me something? Do I need to put it out to pasture? I think so, and I'm willing to let it rest and rust wherever. But those stupid home warranty people. I blame my captious loads of laundry on them.

At least I got the whites and the towels mostly dry. And it's a very good thing this child has so much to wear. And at least the washer still works.

Safire

That's your problem, it's fused shut.

Everyone,

Back from Utah. Had a wonderful and full time. Juice and Dad and Andrew had a great time in Las Vegas seeing cool electronic things. Mom, Me, Angela, and Butterfly did some girl time. Watched some movies, did some shopping, lunch, etc. Very fun and not something I get to do on a regular basis out here. (Girl hang out time, I mean) Anyway, I also got to spend some time with Laura, Zuke, Dennielle, Jae, Heber and all of our good friends. I even got to meet Kaiden, Zuke's baby, for the first time. He's so cute.

We also enjoyed being able to be with family this time around. We spent the morning with Juice's sister Nanette and her family, and had dinner with all the Ws that night. Also, Butterfly got to her great grandma P. We were also able to take a big family picture of my mom's side of the family. All 32 to of us. I sat next to my Grandpa and as he looked around while everyone was gathered, he asked me how many of us are there now. I told him 32 and he smiled and just said, "Amazing. 32 and no one is missing?" Nope. He then said, "32 and 2 dead and more on the way, I'm sure." He just looked so happy to see all of his family there. Together. I was very amazed myself.

I'm glad to be back home. Even if coming home brings over a week of mail, bills, and problems to deal with. One of our problems is on going. THE DRYER IS STILL BROKEN. I don't know if I've mentioned it but our dryer has been broken since Halloween. Yes, 4 months. We have a home warranty policy that covers the dryer so we went to them first. They pointed us towards a matience company who deduced that our heating element was broken. He ordered the part (which took almost 2 weeks) finally put it in (after playing phone tag with him for about a week) and we had a working dryer. For one load. I put the second load in and turned it on and heard a thunk. Then nothing. It wasn't going. I opened it up and you could lift the drum around in the casing. Not good. So the guy comes back, determines the bracket that it spins on in the back wore down to the point of it breaking (so THAT'S what that nasty squeak was...) and he had to order that part too. Enter the holidays. It took him till late December to get the part. And then when he went to put it in, we discovered when the drum dropped, it broke the heating element in the back. Which is the first part we installed.

So, a recap: dryer doesn't dry. Dryer guy #1 comes out to determine problem. Problem is bad heating element. Dryer guy #1 orders part. Gets part, puts part in dryer. Dryer works for 1 load. Stops working. Dryer guy #1 is called again. Back bracket broken. Brand new heating element broken. Dryer guy #1 is frustrated. I am frustrated.

We went back to the home warranty place and they said that they would have to send someone else out to look at it before they approved a replacement. Or we could take $200 and fix it ourselves. We have a stackable unit. It's over $800 dollars to replace. We opted for the second guy to come and look at it.

Dryer guy #2 comes a few days before Christmas and sees the problems and says he can fix it. He gets the parts in a lot faster than Dryer guy #1, and puts in the new bracket and heating element. Should be done, right? Wrong. The dryer still won't turn on. We have been going to the Laundromat for weeks now. I thought it was hard when I had to carry it all down 3 flights of stairs and down the road like when we lived in Provo. It's 10 times harder when I have to load it all in the car, add the baby and drive there, unload it all and keep Butterfly entertained, etc. What a pain.

Anyway, Dryer guy #2 finally figures out what is wrong with the thing. When the drum dropped, it caused a lot of electricity to go through the dryer. It fused the motor. Oops. So now he has to order that part. Fine, part ordered. He came today to put it in, and it still won't work. Now the thermostat is fused shut and won't regulate the temperature so it gets way too hot and can short out again, catch on fire, etc. Great.

Luckily, he had a different thermostat in his truck so he put that one in temporarily until he can order yet another part. He said in 26 years of doing this, this is the hardest thing he had to fix. He said it haunts him. It haunts HIM? Try looking at it everyday.

Good news is that he got it so it works and I can do the mountains of laundry I have stacked up in my room. Bad news is that he has to come back again. Sigh...

Safire

PS- In the time it's taken me to throw a load in, put the pictures on this and go back downstairs for something, the washer has shut down. Why me?!

2006

Everyone,

2005 was a year of change for us.

• Butterfly's birth...big change!
• Juice finished school
• I quit my job
• Soot became a little more mellow and not such a fireball

2006 promises to be another fun filled year!

• Butterfly will turn one, and do all the things one year olds can do like talk, walk, feed herself, etc. Time really does fly when they are this little. They learn so much so fast.
• Juice will graduate in May and be done with school for awhile. He may go on and get his doctorate in a few years, but we both need a break from studying.
• We have 2, possibly 3 trips planned this year. Our trip to Utah in 2 days (no I haven't started packing), my family's trip to Hawaii in August (happy 5th anniversary to us!), and maybe a get together with my good friends Zuke and Tine and their baby Kaiden, and also Stacey and Ryan and their new baby Madie. Zuke, Stacey, and I were big time cronies in high school and we still like to keep in touch. Since we all now have kids, we want them to meet too! No ideas on where that trip will be other than North America.
• I joined a local gym to get myself back into shape in time for Hawaii. Wish me luck.
• Juice and I are going to try to eat more at the table as a family and not so much in the living room.
• I would like to write in my paper journal more often. I really enjoy reading past journal entries and I hope to give them to my kids at one point. I'd like them to hear about their childhoods through me.
• We want new doors and windows for our house. Something to save up for.

We are so happy and blessed to be here. And to have all the things that we have. I wouldn't have this year starting off any other way!

Safire

New Years Eve 1994

Everyone,

It was 11 years ago today that Juice and I met. Our church was having a youth dance. It was going to be my first one ever (you're not allowed to go until you're 14). All of my friends had been going to them all summer and I wanted to see what the fuss was about. I was obsessive about writing in my journal at the time so I know exactly what was going on that day.

I was mad at my friend Jordan because he didn't want to go with me to the dance. I really liked Jordan but he was not Mormon and I don't think he really wanted to go to a Mormon dance. Andrew had to drive me to the stake center (which was just up the road) and we were late. As always. As I walked in, all of my friends were there and hanging out in a big circle. Kristie ran up to me to tell me that Deborah had brought some boys that we didn't know. That was a big thing since these dances are organized by stakes (a group of congregations in the same area, if you will) and you can only dance with the same boys so many times. Apparently. I didn't know, being a virgin stake dancer at the time. Kristie and I walked up to the circle, introductions were made and a slow song started. Juice turned to me and said, "You're tall. Want to dance?" Of course I said yes and was probably happy I was tall for the first time in a long time.

Through the course of the evening, Juice and I danced almost all of the slow songs. Much to the chagrin of Deborah (the girl he came with) and Melanie and Kristie (who had major crushes on him). Juice and I also played on the giant twister board that they had set up in another room of the church. The end game came down to me and Juice, and he beat me only because I was very embarrassed about so close to him. He gave me the candy he won in front of everyone. I remember offering some to Melanie and she hissed "NO! He gave it to you! Keep it all!" I think I still have a wrapper of the starbursts taped in my journal. He danced the last two dances with me. Kristie (being a very good friend at the time) gave him my number because I was too shy to do it myself.

Little did I know that Juice did like me because I was tall, and pretty. But did he like me enough to remember my name from that night? No. He had to call around and ask who I was before he could use my number. In Juice's journal, he mentions me as the "pretty tall girl I danced most of the night with" and that's it.

He did call me a few days later and we got together with friends and played Pictionary in my basement. Juice and I soundly beat Melanie and Max (his best friend, also at the dance that night) and we even slaughtered them at Charades. I think we hung out once more and then didn't see each other until September that year. I was still in junior high and he went to high school.

My 10th grade year I don't remember hanging out with him very much. I liked him a lot, but so did a lot of other girls. At the beginning of my junior year, he asked me to Homecoming [see above picture] (my first date!) and hung out every day after that. Okay, not EVERY day, but it was close. We were off and on dating until he went on his mission. I wrote him in Germany, and didn't see him until a few months after he got back. We were both at BYU by then (my junior year again) and within 2 weeks of school starting, we were looking at rings together.

We were engaged on Nov 2, and 10 months later, married on Aug 4, 2001. We've been married 4 years now and I still love to watch him walk in a room. He's a wonderful husband, a fantastic father and my best friend.
We still love being together. It's nice!

Safire and Juice