Vote on which family picture you what us to hang in our home!!!

Picture A

Picture B

Picture C

Picture D

I can't decide which picture to print and hang in our home. I have a spot and everything, but I just can't decide which picture should be "the family" picture. So help me by voting for your favorite. Thanks!!!

Pictures! Pictures!

Pip just started sucking her thumb and she does it in such a weird way

Pirate Pip-and no it wasn't planned. She likes to dip her entire face into the bubbles.
One of the hikes we went on. Indiana is full of nature's wonders. I never thought I would see canyons and deep ravines in Indiana.

Playing at the park. Piper loves LOVES the swing!

I take about a million pics a day of Piper and instead of uploading all of them to Facebook, I decided to post a few new pics here. She'll be a year in a week and a half. It's hard to believe that around this time, I was hugely pregnant and patiently waiting her arrival. Time sure does fly!

Less-ly: Less is more!

After doing a blog on each member of the family, I am the last to go. So I decided to do a 10 things you didn't know about, but possibly could have assumed.

1. I am a creature of habit. I call it predictable, to some it's boring. I just know what I like.

2. Ocasionally I have Ugly days, Fatty Mcfatty days, and I hate my entire wardrobe days. It's on those days, that I stay in pajamas all day long and never leave the house.

3. I love to exercise-ALOT! To quote Legally Blonde "Exercise gives you endorphins, endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don't kill their husbands!" The logic is amazing!

4. I want to be an esthetician when I grow up. Those are the girls who do facials, waxings, make-up, etc. Basically they make you look beautiful. I love beautiful things.

5. I pretend to be really smart. In fact, I'm really not that smart, just a little smart. I have to work really hard at being smart or sounding learned. I'm a closet ditz.

6. I love Jennifer Love Hewitt. I did a tag on Facebook and one of the questions was "If you could pick any actress to play you in a movie, who would it be?" I totally chose her. I don't watch her show or any of her movies, but I just love her.

7. I have 3 wedding dresses. Sore topic, let's move on.

8. I collect cookbooks and recipes. I HATE cooking. This... is a problem.

9. I am very intuitive and am a pretty good judge of character. This makes me appear to be a snob. But I'm not, I just figured out that you weren't a nice person and I chose not to associate with you. I think it's good manners and quite possibly brinks on the verge of honest dealings with your fellowman. And don't worry I have a 1 person limit.

10. I am really strong. I don't look like much, but I am actually pretty strong.

Pumpkin Piper

Just across the street is a huge mammoth-sized church that was having a "pumpkin patch". I use this term lightly because it is just a bunch of pumpkins scattered prettily on the lawn-not the country pumpkin patches I have been envisioning. Nevertheless, I have been wanting to go to a pumpkin patch so this was the closest option. I went with a friend from church and her little boy.And this is what I found in the pumpkin patch:

Trail Blazin'

Today I went on a hike with a few girls from church. I haven't had a chance to really explore Bloomington's hiking trails, so I was really excited to go. The weather was perfect-68 degrees and the fall leaves haven't hit their peak yet. So fun, I want to go again.

Boo! the Wonderdog

Now it's time to devote a blog to Boo! When she was a puppy she was in a dog training class with a bunch of mutts and a deaf Great Dane. The instructor told us we should ask for our money back. Not sure if she meant the dog or the class. Either way, Boo was kicked out of puppy school. We were so concerned about her intelligence. I mean this breed leads the blind and our dog couldn't hack a training class. But I think Boo is smart.

So here's the Top 5 Reasons why Boo should be allowed to lead the blind:

1. She has an excellent sense of direction. When she is finished with a walk, she will go on auto pilot and take me directly home without missing a turn.

2. She has excellent hearing. She could tell the difference between Bobby's very common Honda civic car beep and another person who had the same exact car. When she heard Bobby's car beep, she'd run for the door. When she heard the other guy's car beep, she wouldn't budge. AMAZING!

3. Her sense of smell is off. This is a plus b/c she won't lead a blind person into a hot dog cart or follow a trail of oreos.

4. Boo must be first at all times. This is perfect for leading the blind. Boo already displays a natural tendency to be a leader.

5. Boo is all LOVE and no matter who you are she thinks you are her friend.

Table for 1

Well, it's official. I am a business school widow. I can't say I am surprised that this happened. I was aware of it when Bobby started filling out applications and when he started going on interview trips. I should've known when he asked me questions about how lonely is too lonely or how I will keep myself busy or when he tried to fix me up on friend dates, but I ignored them and now here I am. My best friend gone to school 24/7 and my other friends miles away. If my day had a playlist here are the Top 10 songs you would hear:

1. Show Me the Meaning of Being Lonely- Backstreet Boys
2. Only the Lonely- Roy Orbison
3. One is the Loneliest Number -3 Dog Night
4. I'm So Tired of Bein Alone-Al Green
5. All By Myself-Celine Dion version
6. I Miss You-Aaliyah
7. Alone-Heart
8.I'm so Lonesome I Could Cry- Hank Williams
9. Only the Lonely- The Motels
10. One-U2

Piper AKA: Pip, Little P, Pipper, LL Cool Pip, Pipsters!

Next up Piper! So for her I will do an acrostic

Petite- Piper averages 3 months smaller than her current age. So she's about the size of an 8 month old. She's just a tiny little thing, but boy does she have gut

Inquisitive- nothing escapes Piper's notice and to everything she gives her full and unwavering attention

Photogenic- actually Camera Attacker didn't start with a "p". I have more in your face shots of her trying to eat the camera

Enchanting-it's those eyelashes or the way she just flits about like a little fairy.

Rugrat-you should see her move, she crawls, rolls, and cruises at the speed of light

Bob: the Man, the Myth, the Legend!

I decided to spend each blog talking about my family. First up: Bob!

Bobby is 33 years old. He's still in college. He's been in college for awhile. Right now, he is earning his MBA from Indiana University. In fact, Bobby graduated from BYU with kids who were in Kindergarten when he first started college at the Y. But that's neither here nor there:) Bobby is the youngest of 3 sisters and claims he never saw the inside of a bathroom until he was 12. Bobby worked at GEICO for several years and has quite a few t-shirts to prove it. Bobby enjoys watching football (but knows everything about all kinds of sports even if he doesn't watch it or has never played it, he's a genuis.Really!), playing with his girls-Piper and Boo!, golfing, reading books on investing and other incredibly smart things, and sleeping. He can fall asleep anywhere, anytime. I think he suffers from acute narcosleepy. One of the first things I noticed about Bobby was his height and then he opened his mouth. For anyone who knows Bob, he is very opinionated. Of his opinions we always say: Opinions are like a**holes, everyone has them and they usually stink! But really, Bobby is super sensitive, a great listener, and my best friend. When I need him, he's there even if it means he has to skip out on a meeting or work later than he wanted, he's there for me. He's my best friend and husband. That's my Bob.

Welcome Home?

Our new apartment is beautiful. It's huge, far bigger than anything we ever lived in, great location, quiet, has a balcony, and a garage. This is my dream apartment. BUT there is 1 HUGE, problem: my neighbors smoke. This past Sunday we came home to find our home smelling like a day old ash tray. I flipped out,ranted, and raved. I yelled and stomped. Don't my neighbors know what I've been through to finally make it to apartment heaven? I updated Facebook with "I hate my new apartment, I'm moving." Now this doesn't seem very fair to the new apartment. After all it is my home. It hasn't had a chance to warrant such a status. So I began to wonder:What makes a home?

Ironically, the one apartment we always refer to as "home" happens to be the 100 year old, hand dug, 600 sq foot basement apartment on the corner of 5th and 6th. Yes that's right, the basement apartment in good ol' Provo. For anyone who knows of this apartment, you are probably shocked to hear that we loved that place as our home and think of it fondly (now the landlord, not so much, but he did give us our entire deposit back so he couldn't have been all that bad).


When we first drove up to it, I cried. Literally. I told Bob to keep driving, this was not going to be our home. But after calling 300 landlords who turned us down at the mention of a dog and after we had offered a 1,000 dollars to one just so he would consider a dog, we decided that the apartment on 5th and 6th would be our last resort.

We lived in the basement apartment for 2 years before moving into a bigger, nicer place. It was a bittersweet move because memories had been made and alot of money had been invested in the apartment. But when referring to our "home" Bobby always says "Now... that basement apartment wasn't all that bad, we made it home." My response, "yeah, I sure do miss our little basement apartment."

Day Tripping

During the week Bobby is busy with school and studying, but on the weekends he is all mine. I am in charge of planning our weekend activities. We have to make the most of them since we hardly see eachother during the week. This Saturday we decided to visit this cute little artist colony town called Nashville-not Nashville, TN. It's located about 25 minutes outside of Bloomington in the hills of Indiana. We had a fun time strolling along the sidewalks and window shopping. The weather had a hint of fall and each store was decorated with halloween or harvest decorations. Too cute! I love these little towns with their charming stores and hand crafted goodies. My favorites are the stained glass shops and the candy store-I'm a big kid.

A tutu really does make everything better!

Today I had an appointment with a new orthopedist for Pip's club foot. I had been very excited for this appointment because a: it meant that we could finally get new shoes for Pip and b: we could see how her foot is developing. Well, I am pleased to know that Primary Children's did a FANTASTIC job on her foot. However, I did not get the new shoes we so desperately needed. Her shoes are falling apart and her toes hang over the edge. To not have proper fitting shoes would only cause more problems. I was stuck between a rock and a hard place and the only person who cared was ME!

I left the office angry and in tears. Stupid doctors, stupid health insurance that's taking so freakin long to get approved, and stupid insurance underwriters who won't approve her shoes when I finally do get insurance. See I can't get her new shoes until her insurance approves them. We don't have insurance...yet. I tried explaining this to the doctor and telling him, I already knew insurance wouldn't cover it (we have a long standing fight on her last shoes with PEHP) and that we are still pending medicaid. He didn't care, he didn't see the problem. Why am I suddenly the smartest person in the room?

I even called back and said I will pay out of pocket for the shoes, I just want them now. He didn't even bother coming to the phone and giving me the information I needed to do just that. JERK!!

I decided to take a nap and hopefully by the time I woke up, everything would be better. Then I heard the doorbell ring. The doorbell could only mean one of 2 things: it's Piper's tutu or a birthday package from my mommy sent here to brighten my day. I opened the door and discovered it was not a birthday package for me, but Piper's tutu!

My day seemed a little better, the dark clouds parted, I felt happy on the inside. Seeing Pip in her tutu made my whole day a whole lot better! See a tutu really does make everything okay!