30 Day Challenge

So, I've had a few people send me the 30 day Challenge both through email and Facebook. Let's face it I'm not going to stick with it for 30 days!!! So I decided to do it on here.

day1- A picture of yourself and fifteen facts.

1)I was born in Ocala, Florida.
2)I was raised by a single mom until I was 8 and she married my step dad.
3)Both my bio dad and my step dad are named "Bill"
4)I started taking dance when I was 2 years old
5)I went to a private school until 3rd grade and then transferred to Joyce Bullock Elementary
6)I went to the type of high school where the FFA Pres and the captain of the cheer squad could very likely be the same person.HA! We were PO!DUNK!
7)I was involved in a major car accident when I was 18 and had to be airlifted from the scene of the accident. And to clear up some confusion/rumors that apparently circulated around Williston: NO I AM NOT AN AMPUTEE!! Yes, people on FB have actually asked me questions about being an amputee and I was like, "Uh.. what????" Thanks to the Dr's at Shands, I do still have my leg!
8)I LOVE all things SOUTHERN!!! The accent, the food, the tradition... EVERYTHING!
9)When I get irritated or when I talk to my friends and family on the phone, my accent comes out really thick. MY kids say I "sound like a farmer"
10) I was slightly pigeon toed when I was a baby but it was corrected. Now you can only tell when I'm exhausted.
11)I'm a sucker for small town things like carnivals, quaint little shops, historical markers etc.
12)I only drink diet soda. Not cause I think it's helpin' me, but because I can't stand the taste of regular soda.
13)I'm ridiculously anal about the way my towels are folded. I have been known to go back and refold all of my towels when they weren't folded to my satisfaction!
14)I love to just DRIVE with nowhere to go. Just get in the car and drive and drive and drive. It helps me clear my head!
15)Despite what people may think, I'm actually a list maker! (Yes it's true Kimberlee) I make lists about EVERYTHING!!! I just tend to forget my lists when I need them most!

day2 - A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest.

Did you know that barring untimely death, your siblings are the people you will have the longest relationships with? It's true!

day3 - A picture of the cast from your favorite show.

I love reality shows. This one is my fave!

day4 - A picture of your night.

 There's always something going on and somewhere the kids need to be.

day5 - A picture of your favorite memory.

Each time I became a new mom! (I'd been in labor for 14 hours, was swollen up like a balloon because of high blood pressure and I'd been crying cause I had just thrown up all over my brand new baby! So cut me some slack about looking rough! Thankyouverymuch!)

day6 - A picture of a person you'd love to trade places with for a day.

 Everything that Morgan does comes naturally to her. She's beautiful, smart, funny, fearless, feisty, talented...... I'd love to see the world through her eyes just for one day!

day7 - A picture of your most treasured item.

This was mama's key chain. I gave it to her for Mothers Day when i was 5 years old and she still had her keys on it when she died. It's one of the very few things that I have that belonged to her.

day8 - A picture that makes you laugh.

I still just crack up every time I think of her and those zombies!

day9 - A picture of the person who has gotten you through the most.

It's been a LONG 11 years and let's just say that I literally wouldn't be here if it weren't for him!

day10 - A picture of the person you do the most crazy things with.

Need I say more?... I just love hanging out with Celeste. She just doesn't care what people think and will do ANYTHING.. no matter who's around!!

day11 - A picture of something you hate.

I couldn't decide which I hate more... they both make me want to puke! HA!

day12 - A picture of something you love.

I LOVE pretty much any kind of shoe (except Crocs and cheap flip flops), but I especially LOVE a good high heel.

day13 - A picture of your favorite band or artist.
I don't really have a favorite band or artist. I like lots of songs that lots of artists sing, but I'm not really a diehard fan of any band in particular.

day14 - A picture of someone you could never imagine your life without.

MY FAMILY! I can't imagine my life without any of them!

day15 - A picture of something you want to do before you die.

Finish my degree. With that I want to become a teacher. Then I'd like to open a school or program for kids with special needs. I just think that too often, these kids get lost in the shuffle and are put into programs that aren't specialized enough to help them reach their full potential. Not that I think they should be secluded by any means but I hate that sometimes when they're in a mainstream setting it becomes more of a "keep them quiet and compliant" situation than actually teaching them the things they need to focus on! There are programs like this out there, but they're so dadgum expensive that most parents that are dealing with all the financial obligations that come with this huge responsibility just can't afford them! Granted, I'll never have the financial means to do this, but I'd still like to!

day16 - A picture of someone who inspires you.

 Abigail Adams. An amazing woman!!!

day17 - A picture of something that has made a huge impact on your life recently.

 It's what pretty much consumes all of my free time lately!

day18 - A picture of your biggest insecurity.
Why would I put that out there for the whole world to see if it's my BIGGEST insecurity?????

day19 - A picture and a letter.
I'm not really sure what this means..... so I'm not doing it HA!

day20 - A picture of somewhere you'd love to travel.

 Rome , Italy

day21 - A picture of something you wish you could forget.
... I'm not even going to go there....let alone post pics.

day22 - A picture of something you wish you were better at.

This covers 2 things. I wish I was a better baker and I wish I could decorate cakes better. I'm just not precise enough for this kind of stuff. I can cook because generally you can just throw a little of this or a little of that in, but baking has to be exact... I just don't care enough for all that!

day23 - A picture of your favorite book.

Not only is it an incredible story, but the author is so hot!!!!! It was a long hard fight, but I finally got Chris to agree to let him be on my "List" hahaha

day24 - A picture of something you wish you could change.

 I wish my Mama was still alive!

day25 - A picture of your day.

 Ok so this is what I wish my day looked like... 1)look how cute that bedroom is... let's just say mine's not so cute... 2)I work graves so I wish I could just be in bed all day...

day26 - A picture of something that means a lot to you.

My marriage!
day27 - A picture of yourself and a family member.

day28 - A picture of something you're afraid of.

I realize the importance of it and that being afraid of this doesn't really make sense, but it CREEPS! ME! OUT! But oddly enough, I'd actually like to be a phlebotomist! The thought of taking other peoples blood doesn't bother me, but the thought of giving it....UGH!

day29 - A picture that can always make you smile.

I love his little smile. This was his 1st Christmas. He was squealing and shaking with excitement! He's always been such a smiley kid!

day30 - A picture of someone you miss!

But I get to see her soon!!!

Even when HER babies have babies, she'll still be MY baby!

We made a quick trip to St. George on Saturday to pick up a few things. While we were there Preston found this little tent on clearance (I LOVE Target's after Christmas clearance)

We came home and I had to rush off to work. Preston was begging Chris to set it up so he could sleep in it.  When I walked in the door this morning, I saw it in the living room and decided to peek to see if he'd actually slept there. When I touched it I could tell someone was in it, but I was surprised to see SHELBY laying there!

 

Curled up with her blanky!

 

Shelby has grown up SO fast. She doesn't play with toys very often (she doesn't even have a toy box) She's more into clothes and cell phones, laptops, cameras etc... you know, BIG GIRL stuff. It was so fun and it truly melted my heart to see her sleeping by herself in that silly little tent. It reminded me that no matter how big she gets, there will  always be those moments when she's still my baby.

Splish Splash

This should be the last one for the night.... I swear!
Our new Aquatic Center FINALLY opened yesterday. Morgan was invited to a birthday party there, so we decided to take the other 2 to the pool as well. They had a BLAST!

In this rooms, they have a playground, a toddler pool, another wading pool, a hot tub,  a lazy river and a hydrotube that winds around the outside of the building. The bucket that you see at the top of the playground fills with water and then when it's topped off, it dumps all the water onto the kids. Oh my gosh, they thought that was the coolest things EVER! Also in the aquatic center, they have a competitive lap pool and then there's a couple Rec. rooms, a snack bar, a party room and a few other things. It's AWESOME!

Preston playing on the slide on the playground.

Morgan with some of her friends at the B-day party.

Shelby is tall enough to stand up in all the "kid areas" so don't ask me why she's wearing a life vest..... oh well you pick you battles right???? Regardless, how many people can rock a life vest this well????

Rendezvous

Our school does an activity called "The Rendezvous" It started out being for the 4th graders, but now the 5th grade participates and Shelby's 3rd grade class participates. How it works is, the teachers pass out tickets (carnival type) for good behavior, incentives, good grades etc. throughout the quarter. They can also take them away. (ex. Shelby's teacher charges the kids 10 tickets if they need to use the bathroom other than at break time. He also charges tickets if they forget homework or other things like that.) SO at the end of each quarter, they hold a big swap meet. Each kid is supposed to bring some sort of goody or toy to sell. They use the tickets as their money and they have to barter or trade for their goods. Shelby did snow cones at the last one and decided that it was such a huge success that she would do it again. 

 

 She had quite the line throughout most of the event.

The kids bring a HUGE variety of things. They had old toys, candy, snacks, sodas, donuts, hair bows, books, blankets... ALL KINDS OF THINGS. Shelby left with a couple sodas, 4 hair bows, cotton candy, a pink cowboy hat (no worries, I refuse to let her wear that TACKY thing!)

 One of the teachers DJ'd for them and the teachers even did some line dancing!

The kids had a BLAST! Shelby made 900 tickets in 1 hour. She sold her snow cones for 20 tickets each.... that's a TON of flippin' snow cones! I had to go beg the lunch ladies for more ice HA!She now has a total of 1740 tickets. What do they do with all those tickets you ask? At the end of the year, the kids write their names on each ticket and they go into a drawing for prizes. Each teacher that participates buys 10 small prizes and then the PTA furnishes a new iPod. All I can say is that with all those tickets, she better walk away with something good!

March of the Penguin

Each quarter 2 classes are in charge of the Reading Assembly for the whole school. This quarter is was the 2nd and 4th grade's turn to host it. The 2nd graders read a book about a penguin and sang a song. They were SO! DANG! CUTE! (ok so maybe I'm a little biased, but oh well) I love Morgan's little face in this video. You can totally tell she's missing her 2 front teeth.

You gotta love the "cabbage patch" dance at the end HAHA! I SWEAR she didn't learn that from me.

Morgan's whole class and part of another class.

The Crew

Crazy girls!!

We just love "Tator-tot"

"Mogo" or "Moe" and "RyRy"

Christmas Video 2010

So, I realize that this is a tad bit late, but oh well. The last several years, I've done a Christmas video for the grandparents. My Granny doesn't get to see the blog so she just eats these videos up! Here's the video for all the rest of you that didn't get the DVD.

Bargains!

My good friend Martina is in town for Christmas so I went to Provo to do some "scouting" with her. (The "scouting" part is a story for another blog) We always have THE BEST time when we're together! We were supposed to be looking at crafty home decor....which we did....for a minute... But then we got sidetracked by a shiny thing in Park City a.k.a the Tanger Outlet Mall... ok so in all fairness to us, Chris really put the idea in our head by reminding me that there aren't any craft stores at the outlet mall in Park City so there was no reason to go. Silly, Silly man! How were we supposed to NOT go??? I mean, REALLY!
Ya'll know I'm a bargain shopper and this particular outlet mall has bargains like NO OTHER! I have several friends that get some amazing "coupon deals" (which by the way, I seriously need someone to sit down and teach me to coupon) Anyhow, my friends always post their good deals on their blogs and I always feel left out... so here's my good deal for the day!  I got all of this stuff at The Childrens Place. (including what the girls are wearing) There's 7 skirts, 5 shirts, a Halloween Costume for my nephew Ashton (that's another blog for another time too) and a pair of knit pants to go with the costume. It's  a total of $169 worth of stuff for $18.27!!!! the shirts, costume and knit pants were all .99 and the skirts $1.49! Martina got $150 worth of stuff for $29.  That's over $270 we saved our hubby's.. what would they do without us???? They'd be broke, that's for sure! HA! I'm still on a shopping high!

Most of all though, I enjoyed hanging out with my friend. She's going back to Pennsylvania next week, and I miss her already!!!!! I can't wait for her to come back again!

Christmas 2010

We had an awesome Christmas. The kids had such a great time and they were SPOILED!!! ROTTEN!!!
We spent most of the day shopping in St. George. Then came home to go to a Christmas program put on by one of the local churches. Then we went to look at Christmas lights and then home to open Christmas presents. Here's Shelby getting one of her presents that she REALLY wanted!!!


Here's what they got from Santa...Shelby's is on the left, Morgan's in the middle and Preston's on the right.

I just think this one is too cute! You can totally see that Morgan has no teeth!

My mother in law got me the coolest present this year. She got me all of these cute little magnetic embellishments.

With this cute little stand

that you decorate however you want... I LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!!!

We have a New Years traditionwhere we give a small present to the kids just to sort of close out the whole holiday season.  Oh My Gosh!!! The kids love it! They get SO excited. (Morgan was feeling very well, that's the reason for the grumpy face)

We had an amazing Christmas. I can't believe that it's already 2011! Hope all of you had a great Holiday Season!!!