Fun Day!

So today was a pretty fun day!  This morning I took Lilli to story hour at the library.  She loved it.  At the end, they sang this song with actions and she was right up there trying to do the actions.  The lady that was telling the stories was laughing at her.  Lilli actually did pretty good.  Then we came home and I HAD to clean the house.  It was gross, so I did that while Lilli was running in and out of the house in the back (telling Sid what to do).  Ben left for work after about an hour into her nap, so I had time to really clean and eat and take a little break.  When she woke up we spent a lot of time outside.  She was picking these dandelions we have in our back yard and rubbing them on her head, of course making her head all yellow.  I put three in her hair, one on each side of her head, and then one on top.  I have pictures I'll post later. It was really cute.  Then I gave her a popsicle, that she got all over our carpet (I was folding laundry in our bedroom during all this) so I had to clean up that mess.  I don't know why I thought this day was so fun but it was.  I'm pretty sure Lilli had fun too.  We played with her toys and read books.  It was just a good, fun day!!!!!  What a sweet little girl I have!  I feel really lucky!!

Married 3 1/2 years

This was taken when we went on a boat ride in the San Francisco Bay, about 3 years ago (I couldn't get one of our wedding photos uploaded, sorry).

We were sealed in the Mt. Timpanogas Temple (my favorite temple).

What is his name?  Benjamin Scott

How long have you been married?  We have been married almost 3 1/2 years.  Our anniversary is December 18th.  Wow!  

How long did you date?  Well, we first met my sophomore year at BYU-Idaho (almost 6 years ago).  At one point he had a big crush on my roommate (they hung out a lot, just as good friends though), and I was dating one of his roommates for a while.  There was also a time where he was trying to set me up with one of his friends from his ward.  We were always just good friends.  We lost touch for about a year, and then I saw him January of 2004 and we started hanging out.  So we officially dated for about 4 months before we were engaged.

Who eats more sweets?  Ben's really never eaten a whole lot of sweets, so I guess I am.  But not anymore.  I'm trying to lose weight.

Who said "I love you" first?  He did.  It's actually quite a funny story.  Or it wasn't funny at the time.  We were talking and all of a sudden he said, "Shari, I have something I need to tell you."  I wasn't sure what to expect, but what he said TOTALLY surprised me.  He said that he thought we should break up.  I was in shock, not to mention tongue tied.  All I could squeak out was an okay.  Then he laughed and said, "What I meant to say was, I love you."  LAME!!!!  I was so mad!  I told him I couldn't say it just yet.  It took me a while, especially after that.  Can you blame me?

Who is taller?  Definitely Ben.

Who can sing better?  Ben can.  He's got a beautiful voice.  My voice isn't too bad, but I would never sing a solo in church or anything.  Ben definitely could.

Who is smarter?  There again, Ben wins.  He's so smart.  He's working on getting his B.S. degree and so far he's got all A's.  Right now he's taking some hard classes (Anat and Phys and Political Geography), and is doing well in them.

Who does the laundry?  I do, though Ben's not afraid to help if I can't get to it.  

Who pays the bills?  I do the budget, Ben does the bills.  I'm starting to do them though, just so that when he's gone to his class in D.C. I know how to pay them.

Who sleeps on the right side of the bed?  Ben does.  It's closest to the door (he feels that he should be closest to the door in case we have a break in or something).  But that will change once I get pregnant again.  I'll have to get to the bathroom several times during the night and it will just be more convenient for me to be on that side.

Who cooks dinner?  We both do.  I cook more now, but when we were first married he did.  He's actually a really good cook.

Who drives?  We both do.  I just drive from the backseat (or the right front passenger seat).  He gets so mad, but I really am trying to work on it.  

Who is more stubborn?  Definitely Ben.  Lilli gets it from him for sure.

Who kissed who first?  He kissed me first, but at the time I wasn't ready so I told him I wanted to wait.  I kissed HIM 2 weeks later on Valentine's Day.  

Who asked who out first?  He asked me out first.  We watched a movie at his apartment.

Who proposed?  He did.  He flew down to Amarillo (where I was doing an internship, living at my BFF's Emily's parents' house).  He had planned a big extravagant proposal, but it didn't work out.  I had just gotten out of the shower one night and saw a note on my bedroom door saying to go out into the living room.  So I went and he was sitting on the couch.  I went over there and he asked me.  It was a nice, simple proposal.  I was just excited to be able to spend time with him before leaving again.  I wasn't sure when I would be able to see him.

Who wears the pants?  We both do.  We have an awesome partnership, just the way I think it's supposed to be (we're not perfect, but we support one another). 

Pictures from Wyoming

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On Vacation!

My friend, Emily.

Emily's husband, Randy.  What a goof!

Ben and Aaron were anxiously engaged in flying kites for the girls, but notice how uninterested the girls are!?!?!  It was really kind of cute!

Lilli (all decked out in winter gear, ready to go outside) with my little bro, Kennan.

All right!  I know I haven't blogged in a very long time, but Lilli and I have been out West visiting my family in Wyoming.  We left Ben home alone for 2 weeks.  Boy what a vacation it was!  Lilli got spoiled!  Anytime she'd cry someone was always there to pick her up.  She was so sassy too.  She would always tell me no (which Ben and I don't let her do when we're at home, she'll go in time-out) and got away with it.  Everytime I would lay her down to take a nap or for the night, she would just cry and cry.  My dad would come find me and tell me that he was going to go and get her out of bed.  So there were nights where she would stay up until 10 or 11 pm (EST).  BUT she did sleep in till about 8 or 9 am (EST), which was nice for me.  Lilli had so much fun seeing her aunts and uncles and her Nana and Papa.  On the day that we flew out, we got up at 3 in the morning and drove the 2 hours to the Atlanta airport.  On the way to the airport, we ran over some glass and got a flat tire.  It was so freezing cold!  It made me a little nervous with Ben out there, because we were on the I-20 with semi's driving so close.  Anyway, we got the spare on and needless to say, Lilli and I BARELY made it to the gate in time.  Just as we got to the gate, the lady announced that the gate would be closing in about 60 seconds!  It was close!!!!!  Lilli was okay on the flights, except on the flight from Denver to SLC, she fell asleep but woke up during the last 45 minutes screaming and didn't stop until AFTER  we landed.  That was not fun.  We had a lot of fun with my family.  Both Breanne and Kandyce made trips from Logan to come and see us.  We made a trip up THERE to see them.  It was just fun being able to see everyone again, visiting Grandma Norene and seeing my Uncle Don and Stan and cousin Trevor.  We celebrated my little bro's 11th birthday and got to see the moose living by my parent's house.  My mom and dad decided to wait to celebrate Easter until we got there.  The Sunday before Conference, they had an Easter egg hunt for the kids.  Lilli is now a pro at Easter egg hunts.  4 in one year!  We were able to go to the Lindquist's house and have a fun little Easter egg hunt.  That was a lot of fun!  On Easter Sunday we had our good friends the Pilkington's over for Easter dinner.  They had a little egg hunt before dinner for the girls'.  We had so much candy, it was gross!  

Conference was really good.  Our church got a new prophet, President Thomas S. Monson.  He truly is a prophet of the Lord and it was awesome to be able to sustain him as such.  I think my favorite talk was one of the last ones given.  It was by Elder Ballard.  He spoke to the young mothers.  It was something I needed to hear.  So many times I feel inadequate as both a wife and mother and hearing him say what he did gave me hope.  I feel renewed and ready to go again.  Sometimes I get burned out and it was nice to hear an apostle of the Lord say that it's okay to feel that way and just hear him speak so lovingly and respectfully about motherhood.  I also loved President Monson's closing remarks.  What a wonderful man!!!!!!

Easter weekend, my best friend from college, Emily, and her husband, Randy, drove up from Tampa to visit us (they were buying a truck there and had flown in from Amarillo, TX where they live).  It was a short visit.  They got in at about 3am and left that same day at about 7pm.  We went out to eat for lunch and on our way to the River Walk our car got a flat tire (Yes!  2 flat tires within 3 days of each other!!!) so after waiting 2 hours to get that fixed we just came back home and played the Wii.  It was so good to see them!  Even though it's been a while, it still felt like no time had passed at all.  Thanks for making the visit you guys!!!  Love ya!!

Anyway, that's what's been going on in our neck of the woods.  It was so fun seeing family again!!!  We love you and hope to see you soon!  (Kennan and Kenzie, you really need to talk to Mom and Dad about coming this summer).

Women's Conference, Soccer Trip! BUSY!

I feel like my life has gotten crazy and busy.  Noticed how I didn't write crazy busy, just crazy AND busy.  Let's see where do I start.  Ben left for his soccer trip Friday morning.  I had tons of errands to run trying to get ready for my class for Saturday's Women's Conference.  After 2 hours of Ben being gone, I called him ready for him to come back home.  It felt like he had been gone for forever.  Anyway, Lilli and I played outside for a while that day with our good friends Megan, and her two daughters Abby and Emma (Aaron, the husband also went on this trip).  Then I had to go the stake center and get set up for my class.  We get home and I put frozen pizza in the oven when Megan calls and invites us over for Domino's pizza.  That was fun!  We were there for a little bit then it was time for Lilli to go to bed.  Then I studied and talked to myself and went over my lesson for a long while.  I was so tired, but had to get up at 6:30am to get ready.  My morning wasn't too crazy, like I was expecting.  Thankfully, Ben got a babysitter to watch Lilli, his totally awesome (and brave) cousin, Lex.  She's living here in Augusta and is a lawyer.  Anyway, Megan and I drove to the Conference together.  I seriously was shaking so bad I was nervous!  We had the main speaker and I had to sit up front in the chapel with the other teachers.  I was very intimidated!!! Then it was time for the classes to start.  I was SO NERVOUS the night before, and felt little comfort because Ben was gone.  Of course I talked to him on the phone, but it wasn't the same.  Anyway, I had 11 ladies there (6 were Laurels).  It was nice to have a variety of people, the older women were able to talk about Relief Society from their point of view and let the girls know how much they really do have in common.  Anyway, after the class was over, I was sweating profusely but could finally breathe.  I guess it went okay.  Everyone came up to me and told me I did a good job.  It's over and I know the Lord was with me (Ben said he was praying for me all day, sweet hubby!).  So later that Saturday, we had a Tornado Warning.  The news was telling us to get in a closet and wrap up in blankets and coats.  Megan and he two girls were here.  We were pretty nervous, but made it thru okay.  It would have been nice to have our husbands there with us.  Well, this is getting to be a long blog and I know some of you don't like reading long blogs with no pictures.  Sorry.  I'll post pictures and some cute video of Lilli singing her ABC's later.  And better explain how crazy life has been.  It's wonderful too!!

Ward Easter Activity

I colored mine and Lilli's lips blue with a Robin Egg (my favorite Easter candy)!

Saturday night was our ward's Easter activity.  We were to bring a blanket and a picnic dinner.  I had to go to the church and help decorate so Ben ended up making the dinner.  We had a big ole chef salad with cooked shrimp.  It was really good.  Then the kids made little crafts that were super cute.  You can see the flower Lilli had attached to her wrist.  I helped her make them.  Then they had the Easter egg hunt.  I think that was Lilli's favorite part.  At first she didn't know quite what to do, but once we showed her, she went wild!  She loved it.  Now all she asks for is candy.  We have a really awesome ward and had such a great time!

Sidewalk Chalk

The other day I took Lilli out to do sidewalk chalk. I made sure that she wasn't wearing anything that I would really care about getting chalk all over (as you can see, she was a mess). She had so much fun! It was cute to see her imagination come out (even though all she did was just scribble, but still.......). In a lot of the pictures I've noticed that her hair looks awful, so I actually did it this time. It's so curly, but it's just big curls, so it's really cute when I actually put stuff in it. Anyway, she loves being outside. I do too. Being in the house all day makes me stir crazy. Luckily it's been really nice and so we've been able to get out. It's just been the last day or two that hasn't. We've had some severe weather warnings and tornado warnings. In the middle of the night last night, it was so windy I thought maybe there was a tornado or something. I had to turn on the tv and see (there wasn't). Ben was hoping that yesterday would be a good day so we could make our own kites and go fly them. I guess in Brazil, people would made some really beautiful kites and then have kite fights. Kids and adults would glue glass onto their kite string and try to cut each other's kites down, pretty crazy. But because of the weather, we didn't. I swear I sound like the weather channel. Anyway, I'm getting nervous for next week's Women's Conference. I have to teach a class (one-time only) and I feel so unprepared. If anyone has any ideas for me as far as getting the Laurel's excited about coming in to Relief Society, Please let me know. I've never done a class like this, and it's been a while since I've attended a class like this so I'm not sure how to make it fun and exciting. I'm still excited though. Ben has started another class. Human Anatomy and Physiology. He's pretty stoked about it. We're still waiting to see if he's going up to Washington D.C. or not for that class. We're hoping to find out next week. He and some of his buddies are going out of town next weekend. They're going to Tampa, FL for some soccer games. I guess the U.S. Men's team is playing. They're only staying for a day, which isn't bad, but it's going to be an expensive trip. I'm sure they'll have fun. As for me, well I've joined a Biggest Loser program with some ladies in my church ward. I've only been doing it a week and have only lost 1.4 lbs. I know it's not very much, but at least it's a loss and not a gain. I only have about 48.5 more pounds to go!!!! I know it's a reachable goal, but it's tough to stay motivated to work out every day. But I'm doing it and I feel better doing it. It's fun and we all pretty well motivate each other. Wow, this is a long blog. Sorry everybody! The next one's will be short. I'll try not to wait so long to blog next time.