Busy, busy!

What a weekend!
Saturday, we got to work on Tali's new bedroom. We finished up the sanding and then started priming the room.

Priming the room



Painting the room

On Sunday, Tali was having such a hard time in nursery, Brian took her home for a nap. When I got home from church, I found him painting her bedroom. He apparently was determined to get the room done this weekend.
I couldn't let Brian have all the fun. Yes, I painted in my church clothes. I was so good I didn't even get paint on me! :D
Brian having too much fun....

now that the work is FINALLY done!

Yesterday was a crazy busy day! First, we had to touch up some paint on Tali's new room (basically I put kind of a second coat of paint on the walls). Brian and I then pulled up the carpet protector stuff and cleaned up all the dust left over from sanding. We FINALLY have the room done!

The room is completed!


After we had finished the room, I decided I should probably start my other project that I had been procrastinating for some time. Now I know why. I spent the remainder of the day canning my huge mountain of tomatoes that have been on my counter. That is quite a job! My mother in-law came over to help me because I had no clue what I was doing. Thanks Ma! I have never really canned anything before from start to finish. It was a learning experience. We ended up canning more bottles than I thought we would. The total count was 9 pint sized bottles! I figured I still have probably one, maybe two more sessions of canning I need to do until I'm caught up with what is on my counter. I went outside this morning and found more ripe tomatoes! I am so grateful that we have been blessed with so much produce, but at the same time it is a lot of work canning all those tomatoes! Looks like I need to go buy more bottles for canning.

Anyone up for a canning party???

Random

A few weeks ago after we found out that we were going to have another baby, I went out and bought this "big girl" bed for Tali. She apparently loves it.

She started getting tired, and just grabbed her blanket and went to lay down. I think she likes it because she can get in an out of it easily. She loves standing up on it and bouncing. I've got to watch her! FYI: it's out in the middle of the front room until we finish her new room.

This outfit was from her Aunt Libby. She made it and sent it for Tali for fun. I think it is so ADORABLE!

This is my delicious new all time favorite sundae-split. It is SOOOOOO yummy! I put cut up bananas at the bottom, vanilla ice cream on top of that, some assorted nuts, Reese's shell chocolate over the top of that, and of course I couldn't leave out the cherries! It is like HEAVEN!

Tali was helping daddy fix his scooter (in her nice outfit even.....grrrrrr!) You may not be able to see it all that well, but her hands are just filthy. Brian was getting tired of holding her still and got mad at us and so that is the reason for the sad face.

I decided it was time to "wash" her. I actually just thought this was a cute picture.

Our very first home grown, fresh cantaloupe from our garden! Whoo hoo! This was our first time ever growing cantaloupe. Ahhh..success!

It was so sweet and so delicious! I absolutely love having a garden! It is the best! I LOVE having fresh produce!

This is what I like to call the Monson's produce counter. The only thing that wasn't grown in our garden was the crook neck squash. The tomatoes, zucchini, very small onion and cantaloupe are all from our garden! See? I am really needing to do some serious canning. You can't really see, but the tomatoes are stacked behind the zucchini too. I LOVE IT!

Arrivederci

Today was the last day of Summer! :(
NOOOOOOOOOO!

Yes, sadly it is true. The weather was even supposed to be below 70 degrees today! How sad is that for the last day of Summer?

I will miss the warm sunny days sitting out in our backyard by the firepit without the need of a coat or jacket roasting marshmallows. I will miss the smell of the freshly cut lawn and watching my garden with amazement. I will miss seeing all the life during Spring and Summer.

Now everything will start to get cold and dark then soon, everything dies. Gas bills start to get more expensive.......and then come the holidays. UGH! So expensive and oh so busy!

I'm trying to think about the positives about Autumn/Fall.
Here it goes.

• Women/girls start covering up their bodies more
  
• The colors of the Autumn leaves are gorgeous vibrant colors
• The cooler weather gives you a good excuse to cuddle (which means one of two things ladies: You either need to shave more or just wear longer pants)! :D
• NO MOSQUITOES!
  
• Halloween is on it's way!
• New epsiodes of my favorite shows are on

Bye bye my friend. Until next year......arrivederci

Gardening & recipes

I know I've talked quite a bit about my garden. I just can't help but feel so much excitement when I think of all the produce we've received! We have had so much produce come from our garden that it just amazes me! We have tomatoes coming out of ears that I need to can soon, we've picked tons of zucchini, green peppers that I'm getting oh so excited to pick, 8+ cantaloupe that are getting ready to pick and we have already picked about 5 pink jumbo banana squash! That's not even including all the herbs or other stuff we planted in our front yard.

I have never really gotten into the whole gardening thing before this year. I have to say, it has been such a blessing. I absolutely LOVE gardening......the weeding, not so much. I have kind of neglected my weeding mainly because it keeps the ground nice and moist. I LOVE our garden! It has even blessed us when we were running low on money due to unforseen expenses.

Anyone know of any really good recipes? I'm trying to find new recipes for banana squash (that isn't mashed with butter or brown sugar or in a soup) or zucchini (I usually sautee it with butter and garlic or make chocolate chip zucchini bread) as well as other things I have been growing in my garden. I don't want these things to go to waste. Keep in mind, I'm still new to this whole gardening thing. A lot of this stuff I haven't even tried before or had much experience cooking.

"Girl" Time

Ever since this last weekend, I've been in need of a little girl time. Yesterday, my totally awesome friend Chelsey who is home for a short military break surprised me with a phone call asking me to go to lunch with her. When she got to my house, she brought me a yummy Symphony bar (the almond and toffee chips are my favorite which I never told her) for me. We then went to one of my two favorite Mexican restaurants, Su Casa.

Chelsey had later asked me if I wanted to have a "girl's day out." So today, Chelsey myself and her little brother Devin all went out for a much needed relaxing day! Her other friends couldn't make it for various reasons so it ended up just being the three of us. The day began going to the mall and getting manicures and pedicures. I only got a pedicure, but my feet look so pretty! After that we decided to do lunch. It was a really good day that was very much needed after this last weekend. Thank you Chels!

I really love and miss all my friends. They are truly some of the best people I know!

I just want to take a moment and thank you all for your kind words of support. I am truly grateful for all your thoughts and prayers. I am really okay with everything that happened this past week now. I wasn't very far along, and I know it could have been a lot worse. I've accepted it and now I'm moving on.

I've come to realize that it's not the end of the world. I know I will have more children eventually when the time is right. I know that it is all in God's hands and I should accept his will, not mine. I was reminded of this Sunday while studying for my Primary lesson that I had no intention of teaching, that is until I read it. It was ironically on adversity. Talk about an eye opener. The scriptures that I read for that lesson had brought me so much peace and comfort; more than anything I had ever before experienced. I knew that I was not alone. I knew I was going to be okay.

"My son (or daughter), peace be unto thy soul; thine adversity and thine affliction shall be but a small moment; And then, if thou endure it well, God shall exhalt thee on high."

"....and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son (or daughter), that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good. The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?"

Love lost

Yesterday around 4pm I started bleeding. I called my OB and she told me it could just be from implantation, but if it got worse than to go to the ER.

Needless to say, it got worse. I finally went in around 10pm and practically spent the night at the hospital. They took several tests and ultrasounds.

After a few hours the doctor came in and told us we could go home. That's when they told us the bad news. I feel so stupid for having announced my pregnancy this early. I really wish I had just waited to tell everyone.

Brian and I are doing okay. It's just kind of a sensitive time right now. Thanks for all of your support.

Look out world!

Here it comes to save the day! Another Monson child is on it's way! That's right. I'm pregnant!

I found out on Tuesday September 8th. I didn't tell Brian right away because it was 4:30 in the morning. So after he got back from school, I had him watch Tali so I could go pick up some "milk and apples." Little did I know it would take me close to an hour to figure out how to tell him I was expecting.

I finally decided just to get him a goody bag with baby themed candy such as Baby Ruth, "Junior" Mints, Sugar Babies, & Sour Patch Kids. I then put in a Winnie the Pooh hat and booties along with a card. Brian was having a bad day at school that day and so the card I bought (you can kind of see it in the picture) kind of looks like it says "You Suck," but when you open it up it reads "You succeeded. Congratulations Daddy!" He looked at me for a split second confused and said "I haven't graduated yet." I just told him to keep looking in the bag. He caught on real quick.

He was pretty excited.

Our new little one approximately is due in May. Possibly within days of Tali's 2nd birthday. I haven't been to the doctor's yet, so I don't really know my exact due date. This time however, we decided we are going to find out the gender of the baby. I have to admit though, it was kind of fun not knowing the gender until it's born, but I wanted to be prepared just in case we have boy.

Remembrance & gratitude

As I think back eight years ago about the 9-11 attacks on the Unites States, I not only think of the lives that were lost that day, but also about how strong and wonderful this country really is. I remember waking up to my mom watching the news. She told me that an airplane had hit one of the twin towers in New York City. As I sat there watching I was horrified by what happened next!

I remember seeing the second plane hit the other building. Then I heard of the plane going down near the Pentagon. Clearly, this was no fluke accident. I remember sitting there being only 19 at the time thinking how could any human being do something like that to another human being or several for that matter? I remember seeing people running from the buildings in sheer terror. I remember seeing people jumping from the windows of those burning buildings.

Yes I remember many horrible things from that day, but I also remember the good that came from that day too. People were helping one another. The country was becoming united again. It didn't matter what political party you belonged to or what ethnicity you were, people were starting to love and serve one another again. People were also starting to look to God again.

I noticed too often we take for granted those who serve us daily. Police officers, fire fighters, those in the healthcare profession, family, friends, and even strangers. We have military serving all of us in this country everyday. I'm sure everyone knows a friend or a family member either serving or who has served in the military. I am fortunate to know such wonderful people. They love this country so much that everyday they are risking their lives for us to remain safe here at home. For that I am truly honored, grateful and humbled by their service. To them I would just like to say thank you.

We have been so blessed to live in this great nation. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father that I was able to be born in this choice land. I am so proud to be an American.

Labor Day Weekend

This weekend, we went camping up near Ogden Canyon. It was a lot of fun. This was the view we had from our tent window. It was gorgeous up there!

Tali even enjoyed herself

What a funny girl!

She and Daddy had so much fun playing in the river!

She was happy playing only with Daddy in the river. When I tried to play with her in the river (doing the same things Daddy was doing), but she would just cry.

Daddy was having a lot of fun going down the river too.

Our favorite part was playing in the lake on this beach type thing. Tali even loved it! The water was so warm too. The only downside was getting sand in places it really shouldn't be.

Like father like daughter!

This, I am so very proud of! Yes, I've been to girl's camp, but I've never built a camp fire all by myself. YAY! GO ME! I know it's kind of sad and pathetic, but I was quite proud!

Tali and her "pet" rock. She carried that thing everywhere. She loved it so much because it was shiny and sparkled in the sun. She thought it was quite fascinating.

And here she was trying to feed Daddy her "pet" rock.

And of course I had to take a family picture before we left.

While Daddy was loading up stuff in the truck, Tali was just having a ball playing in the truck bed.

When we got home, we checked our garden for new produce and we had some really big zucchinis (well the biggest we've grown anyway) as well as two full grocery bags of tomatoes. It was awesome! For dinner we decided to try a recipe I found of recipezaar.com for Spaghetti Squash. It was my first time ever trying spaghetti squash. I made everything from scratch and the majority of ingredients were fresh from my garden! I LOVED it!