Top Reasons I Love This Lady (aka my mommy)

When I was little she would drive me 30 minutes both ways to my ballet classes, which were every single day.

She is almost always happy and cheerful.

Every Halloween we would go to the fabric store and look through patterns, I would pick what I wanted and then she would sew it from scratch.

She loves Christmas and every year our house looks like a Christmas Shop.

She used to get up early every morning before school to do my fancy hair-dos. I was very picky and it caused a ton of fights but she always did it!

Even though I'm sure it was hard sometimes she stayed home with me and my brother and sisters. I'm sure there were times she wanted to be something other than a mom but you would have never known it.

She runs fast and she runs FAR!!!

She's a really great cook, and she cooks healthy too.

We always had a beautiful home. We moved into a house that was 100 years old when I was 12. My mom did nothing for over a year except work and work and work to whip that house into shape.

We always had a beautiful garden.

We moved 9 times by the time I was 12 and my mom never complained. She always told me you have to bloom where you're planted. Even though it was always hard to leave behind great friends and the life we had known I learned to make the best of it thanks to her.

She is beautiful! She just gets better with age: )

Reasons I Love This Girl

She was the president of the French Club in high school and can sing the entire French National Anthem.

She convinced her husband, as a joke, that she was going to sing a solo at their wedding. He totally bought it and the cute part was the he was totally supportive.

Before he passed away she used to call her Grandpa Vance every night before she went to bed.

She introduced me to Litzas Pizza.....yum!!!

She's one of the few people besides posh herself who could pull of the Victoria Beckham haircut and on that note she's never afraid to try crazy things with her hair...but she always looks great!

She went through a phase where even when it was a Sunday afternoon at Nancy and Heinz's place she would always look like a 1950's pinup/Marilyn Monroe. Curled blonde hair, red lipstick the whole nine yards!

She's great to her pets, Minnie and Lady!

All her kitchen appliances are pink....even her Kitchen aid.

She wears like 8 inch heels to work....crazy!!!

She's generous to everyone she loves.

She's been with me through the hardest times of my life and the happiest.

She has a huge heart. I've seen her chase after dogs in the traffic, stand up for abandoned family members, and try to save an injured pigeon for goodness sake!

Chicago Weather

I forgot how GOD-AWFUL the weather in Chicago is. It's only when I come home that it all comes back to me. I remember getting out of the car in my high school parking lot and thinking I wasn't going to make it to the school doors! I remember coming out of ballet and steam would rise from my head!!! When our plane landed in Chicago the pilot said "I'm not going to lie to you the weather in Chicago could really not be worse, there are severe winds and freezing ice pellets!" It was then that I knew that I was really home : )

After two years of waiting, missing, crying etc. My little brother is finally home! It's weird, we got used to him not being around but as soon as he was back our family felt whole again. I'm so proud of him. My biggest worry was that he would be really really different and he has changed but he's still the funny, sarcastic sweet kid that he always was! Here are a few of the moments from the day that Elder Billingsley finally came home.

Today this little beauty is 18! WOW! I still remember the day she was born. It was the last day of school before Christmas break. My mom was going to be induced and she still made me go to school arrgh! I was so excited I couldn't concentrate on making my sled ornament out of popsicle sticks and glitter (a project that I normally would have been thrilled about!!) Well I remember literally pacing the classroom when my dad finally came to pick me up. I grabbed my backpack and me and my sister and dad were off to the hospital! We talked and waited in the hospital room with my mom for what seemed like two weeks. We didn't know if Taylor was a boy or a girl so we made bets on what we thought she was going to be. I wanted a baby sister SO BAD! When the big moment finally arrived we were asked to leave the room (my mom is not one of THOSE moms who is cool with her kids seeing her give birth and thank goodness!!) When we came back into the room we had a brand new baby sister! I was thrilled! She was so cute and tiny. She had these perfect little fingernails. She made the cutest little noises! She kept trying to touch her face. So in honor of this special day here are my favorite Taylor moments!

One Thanksgiving when she was just a baby we were all playing in the living room having just finished our delicious meal! Taylor had just learned to walk and was still getting her sea legs but she came walking into the room FAST and started projectile vomiting (like 2 feet) all over my moms white carpet. The funniest part was she just kept walking!! My mom was soooo mad at me and Amanda because we were laughing but she didn't see it!!

When she used to poop in her diaper she would walk like she was doing a plie' in second position and when we would try and catch her and she would run and hide under my moms bed!

The time Cody dragged her down the driveway by her underwear. She was about 10 when that happened and she was sooo mad at me because I could not stop laughing! But she was so skinny and looked like Mowgli from the Jungle Book. She was no match for our 100 plb. dog.

She use to lay in a laundry basket with a baby blanket and pretend to be the baby Jesus. Now that is cheap fun!

She used to wear her Belle costume to preschool and my mom would let her! My mom never would have let us do that but I think by then she had learned to pick her battles.

She used to have a Ken doll that didn't have any pants. This apparently did not sit well with her because she put a little pink sock around him. That sock was on that Ken doll for years!

Above all she has always been a good sport. We loved her but we made her life hard with our teasing! I guess that's what happens when you're the youngest!

Well thank goodness this little human came into the world! Our family would be incomplete without her!

The best boyfriend in the world!

So my mom and dad gave me a set pearl earrings from Saudi Arabia for my 24th birthday and they are one of my favorite things that I own. I wear them all the time. But the other day I noticed that one of them was missing. My heart was broken. I assumed that one of them had fallen on the floor and then been vacuumed up. We have one of those central vacuums but we also have two pets that shed a ton so I assumed they were gone forever. Well I came home from my moms house today and found Jonny in his work clothes in the basement going through all the gross dog hair and dust looking for my earring. I don't know what I did to deserve this man but it must have been something good!

P.S. I looked under the bed and found my other earring about 5 minutes after Jonny gave up! OOPS!!

A Lovely Weekend

We had a very nice weekend, if not a little busy : ) We had a great time with erica and adam at the ranch! On friday Erica and I headed up early to make dinner for the boys. She made love birds, spinach ravioli with pumpkin alfredo sauce and rosmary garlic flat bread. I attempted to make Yam fries which were supposed to be sweet potato fries. I now know the difference between the two. I wish I could say this was the first time I've expeirienced drama in the sweet potato yam department but hopefully it wont happen again! I'm still learning about this cooking stuff, LUCKILY erica made a great dipping sauce for them so they were still edible. On saturday my mom and little sister came into town for thanksgiving! YAY! I love thanksgiving and i'm really looking foward to it this year. i have so much to be thankful for. Today Jonny and I went out to my moms for a quick visit and then to our friends paul and amys house for a little football. as always they had delicious food and we had a great time. football always makes me fall asleep so i took a little nap and when i woke up we were in a "winter wonderland" i love the snow unitl february.

Winter Cleaning

They say an unwritten goal is only a wish! So I decided to make a list of my cleaning goals for this week. RIVETING I KNOW! It will probaby spill over into next week though because it is QUITE ambitious.

1. Clean out what Jonny and I lovingly call the "Cat Room" I got that from Erica. It's basically a storage room but I'm hoping since Jonnys little sis is moving to Florida on Saturday that she won't mind me taking her magazines, books, clothes (basically the things you leave at home when you move out) out to the garage. Neatly boxed and labeled of course.

2. Clean out the laundry room. So if you know me you know I already spent quite a bit of time doing this already, but then we remodeled the kitchen and all the tools, extra wood, and other things got stored in the space that I cleaned out. So I will be taking it all out to the garage too! I really want to start decorating our place and adding my own personal touch so....I hope Jonny will let me! But I can't do that until this place is de-cluttered!

3. Here comes the fun part, Wash the walls!

4. Wash the baseboards!

5. Scrub the kitchen and bathroom floor really really well.

6. Clean the blinds. Thats kind of fun actually, I do it with oxi-clean in the bathtub!

7. Vacum really really well!

So I will keep everyone posted because I know you'll all be hanging on the edge of your seat! : )

Christmas Came Early This Year

I promised Jonny that I wouldn't decorate for Christmas until after Thanksgiving but I couldn't resist! Jonny was working late and I was bored so I gave into temptation! Cody wasn't into at first but afer a little coaxing he got into the holiday spirit! Eponine was so sweet and read the tree directions to me. We listened to Martina McBrides' Christmas Album and basically had a great night and got that warm fuzzy christmas feeling early! Jonny wasn't as suprised as we hoped but he wasn't mad either so....that's good : )

My Proud List

So Erica and I are avid readers of Nie Nie's blog. She did a proud list on her blog and Erica copied Nie Nie and now I am copying Erica! Here goes........

1. I'm proud that my family is Mormon. I'm proud that my ancestors left their beautiful home in Switzerland and travled all the way to Utah because of their faith. I'm proud that when I see my great great grandmothers headstone it has a "Faith in Every Footstep" plaque on it, and I'm proud that they use her journal entries in documentaries about the Latter Day Saint Pioneers and their struggles as they traveled across the United States.



2. I'm Proud that my parents are still married! They have worked so hard to keep their marriage together, NO MATTER WHAT! They've taught me so much about what it takes. My dad gave me the best advice I think. He said marriage is really not that romantic most of the time. Most of the time it's really stressful and it's really hard work.

3. I'm proud that I was only one of three people in the room when Presley was born. It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. The minute she came out, she looked just as beautiful as her mommy!

4.I'm proud that I'm finally going to the gym and losing my happy fat! Happy fat is the weight you gain when you're in love :) I'm proud that I can now run farther than I ever thought I'd be able to! I'm proud that I love it!

5. I'm proud that I was a huge nerd in high school. While most people were partying and hanging out with friends, I was spending hours in the ballet studio working my heart out! I listened to Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Saint Sans. My idea of a great Friday night was watching Swan Lake or Giselle on DVD : ) Not that I didn't have some of the best times of my life, hanging out with my best friends Amanda Emily Beth and Joe! We laughed so much! I don't think I've ever laughed as hard as I did back in those days.

6. I'm proud that my little brother is on a mission. I'm proud to say he's my brother and I'm proud that he hasn't just gone through the motions, he's worked really hard and is a great Missionary.

7. I'm proud that I'm politically conservative, even though most people my age are liberal. I'm proud that even though my parents are conservative too they NEVER tried to push their political beliefs on me. I had to ask my mom in high school if she was republican or democrat! I'm proud of George Bush and I think he did the best job that anyone could do (i kind of copied that last part from Nie Nie)

8. I'm proud that I love country music. I know some people think they're too cool for country music but I prefer uplifting songs that make you cry to songs about "blunts, 40s, and bitches." Country music embodies all the things that are important to me; God, America, Love and Family.

9. I'm proud of America. I'm not ashamed to say that I think it's the best country in the world. I think there is nothing wrong with questioning the things this country does and I think it's great to keep those in power on their toes! They work for us after all. But the people who think America is evil, oh I wish we could cart them all off to Saudi Arabia and make them work in the 120 degree weather, away from their families, with very little pay like the Filipino workers that live in Saudi, because that is the reality for MOST OF THE PEOPLE ON THIS EARTH! They aren't looking for happiness they are merely trying to survive. We are so lucky, I've seen it in a way that most people have not had the opportunity to!

10.I'm proud that I'm kind of a Pollyanna! There was a time in my life when I was very negative, but I realized that wasn't working for me and I changed. Now I'm GLAD : )

HEAVEN

So my car broke down earlier in the week which is stressfull enough to begin with. YUCKY! Even worse I took it to the mechanic (TWICE) and he can't find anything wrong with it! So Jonny has been taking my car to work even though it breaks down about 4 times on his way there! He's been letting me drive his car so I'm not stressed out about getting to work on time. And on friday instead of making me get up early to give him a ride in his car, he arranged to get a ride from his dad. I've never met someone who is so sweet and considerate. I don't thank him enough for the amazing and considerate things that he does for me everyday. These are the top five reasons I love this man !

Hardworking-(the hardest working person I know, well he ties with my dad!)

Sweet- Kind and thoughtful. Always looking out for the feelings of others. He would never say something mean or hurtful to someone. Even if he hates them.

Funny- He cracks me up all the time. Especially when he tries on a new pair of jeans and does the bowling and skiing poses to show them off! It's HILARIOUS but you'll probably never see it : ) LUCKY ME!

He's so sweet to my dog- He let Cody ride in his car when it was like 4 days old. He loves to take Cody on walks (without his leash, it drives me nuts!!) And once at 4 o'clock in the morning Cody started barking really loud and it woke us both up and terrified me. I wanted to yell SHUT UP CODY! But Jonny sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed Codys ears and talked to him unitl he calmed down.

Fair-As much as it drives me crazy he won't automatically take my side if I'm having some kind of fight or dissagrement with friends/family/co-workers he always makes sure that I'm being fair and at the end of the day I actually prefer it. My parents are the same way and I think it has made me a much more fair and less judgemental person.

This Girl Sure Is a Dancing Fool

Look at those sexy moves!

Animals Have A Sixth Sense Part Deux

Here is the second video. Maybe Eponine just hates Amandas "Valley Girl" accent!

They Say Some Animals Have A Sixth Sense

Eponine doesn't act this way toward everyone. Just Amanda and cats/dogs that she doesn't know. MMMMMMM......maybe she's trying to tell us something!

Even when I'm mad at Jonny I still think he's cute! What the hell kind of gd outfit is this?! P.S. you can tell he's mad at me too, he's shooting daggers at me out of his eyes!