Goodbye to the 9-5

Well Brad has finally done it, he quit his job at the University of Phoenix. He has been talking about this for a looooooong time. I think he'll enjoy life on the outside a lot more. He often said that people are not suppose to live in a 4x4 foot area(he means a cubical). I don't know how he did it so long but he really made the best of it. He's leaving there with no student debt and a bachelors degree to boot. We are so excited for the future as this feels like the right direction for us. Brad now is going to continue in being a realtor. Oh and we know it's a slow market and all of the yadda yadda's about that so please don't rain on his parade. I am excited to have a man around that is happy to get up in the morning again. He is with a brokerage that if you move across town or country then they will move you for FREE!!! He also has another IT Business that if you haven't heard about it already and you are one of Brad's close friends I will be shocked to death. So on top of that good news we are also planning on renting out our home. So if you know of anyone that is wanting to live in the now booming Laveen area please let us know. I'll be posting pics of the house soon for anyone that is interested. So want to give a quick Thank you to University of Phoenix for providing a degree and work for my husband. And on to bigger and brighter days!!

The Big "O" Mess

So I leave my children for one minute and the box of cheerios was unloaded onto the floor and the eating frenzy began!! I came into the room because I hear two little kids eating like monsters on the floor with monster sounds and all. What is my Briggy teaching my precious little girl! Couldn't help but to laugh at the silliness of the hole situation. These two are a crack up.

Here you go Dallyn She's all for you.

Well my sister is in Alaska and she loves it but that doesn't mean she doesn't miss home. I can totally relate living in Russia, I loved where I was but it wasn't in anyway close to what I was used to. I remember trying to capture AZ in a moment the few hours before I left for my flight. I stood in the parking lot of KMart and just tried to let the heat seep into my bones. I remember looking up at the moon and my mom had noticed. We had just watched the movie This Side of Heaven. She told me what the elder told his girlfriend before he left, that no matter what side of the earth I was on we were under the same moon. That helped me so many times walking home late at night when it was cold and I had my longing thoughts of home come to me. So I can only imagine me sisters desperation for the companionship of the moon. So this ones for you sis I hope you enjoy her in all of her glory. Can't wait to see you again and hear you laugh at your own jokes. Love ya sis.

Dang I was TAGGED!!!!

Tag I'm It!

This is my first tag and I can't say that I am overly excited about being tagged, but I will play along for the sake of not being a party-pooper.
How to play this game. Post these rules on your blog; List 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 goals, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts about yourself. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names.

JOYS - 1) Evenings when my husband gets home and the four of us go swimming together. Love love love those nights.
2) I have some really great sisters. I joy in there calls and emails and long conversations.
3) Nights when we stay at my parents house because brad and I can slip out late at night and pretend like we don't have a care in the world like the rest of the idiots out at 1AM!!

FEARS - 1) So my dad owns buffalo at his house. I have nightmares that one of my children will get too close or slip into the cage and that will be the end of them.
2) That when I give a talk in church after it's all said and done people think I am an idiot and I wont have a clue.
3) That I will never get rid of the spiders that live in my backyard. They just keep coming back.

GOALS -1) To get my abs to back to where they are suppose to be before the next baby makes them even more unrecognizable.
2) To show my husband more of the love that he recognizes daily
3) To be 15 minutes early instead of 15 minutes late to everything.

CURRENT OBSESSIONS/COLLECTIONS 1) Currently I am collecting loose chage so I can take Brad on his first cruise. I have a little more than half a milk jug full. Whoopee!!!!
2) The current obsession is dress up clothes for Vanessa
3) I love thrift stores. If I could go everyday I would.

RANDOM FACTS 1) I love to decorate and work with my hands. I am starting a certificate program in interior design so I can improve what I am already doing.
2) When I met my husband for the first time I tried to get rid of him because he stood by me almost the entire institute opening social and asked me who there I liked. He's real smooth but I guess it worked out for him.
3) I love spring training games. I think it is the best thing in the world to go sit on the lawn and watch a good old baseball game.

So.....pretty boring.I am sure I will never be tagged again.

TAG YOUR IT
1. Dallyn Jones 2. Grandma Lilly 3. Lindsey Stokes 4. Sheena Reisner 5. Valerie Broyles

Miss Vanessa

My little miss Vanessa isn't a drama queen but she does go for the scare factor. Like for instance when she was born she had a hole in between her left and right heart chambers. Those have healed beautifully and I am so thankful. Now my little baby girl is 9 1/2 months and she doesn't like to bare any weight on her legs. She can sit up by herself but doesn't pull herself up and obviously can't crawl. I am a little worried about my sweet girl. I have started to work with her on putting pressure on her legs and she is doing better. We have an appointment for her to see a neurologist soon but before we go there I was wondering if anyone else has been through this and how it turned out???

Mortensen FHE

The Mortensen family is known for getting together no matter what for family home evening to reunite as a family. This time we had a themed fathers day competition. The first competition was to eat 5 crackers and then whistle. The picture above is my father whistling with these crackers all stuffed in his cheeks.
There were a few other competitions, one being trying to scrunch up newspaper using one hand with out bending your elbows. Terrle won that one but he cheated I'm sure of it.
My mother also joined us that night fresh off of coming home from Jerusalem. We are so happy to have her back!
I am happy we have these events because I am afraid I wouldn't see my cousins except once or twice a year. It is so good to have the second cousins get to know each other. Great evening!

Things you don't do infront or your son

Well we learned this the hard way. That being that you do not paint your toenails infront of you little boy. He not only had this on his toes and legs but also on his face. I had gotten it off of his face before I realized that I needed a picture for later teasing so we just got the toes. My little Brigg is growing up and learning so fast. What a Joy!

Memorial Day

Memorial Day was a blast this year. We decided to spend the day at McDowell Mt Ranch aquatic center with some friends. I think if I lived in Scottsdale I would be there everyday, this place was so great. It had slides, a kiddy play pad, dive tank, lap pool, lazy river, and a huge pool that toddlers could run around and have fun in. My boys had an absolute blast and I was able to get some much needed sun.
Vanessa Jo decided it was time for her nap and so that is exactly what she did. She woke up at the end and had looked like a train wreck. It had been a long day for her already. We had been staying at my moms house in Mesa and forgot our bathing suits at home. Seeing as our house is a drive we had to go buy all new bathing suits that day. So we went to Target and it seemed like a bomb had dropped on the women's swims suit section. Brad of course found his in less than a minute while I waded in a sea of untidiness. So I found some that hopefully would fit and headed for the dressing room. I really wanted a great suit because I do a lot of swimming and so I showed each to Brad and had him help me find the perfect suit. I felt ok about the one he had told me was the one but I wasn't sure. I figured that he wouldn't lead me wrong so we headed off to the aquatic center with our new purchases. I enjoyed myself but you could definitely tell we were in Scottsdale with all of the perfect bodies and Gucci sunglasses around. I played with Brigg in the small pool but found that when I would sit in the shallow water the midsection half of my suit would would come up. I didn't think anything of it until later.
That evening we went back to my parents house and joined Devon and Fawns family for a BBQ out back. My sisters had there first glimpse of my new suit and said that it was cute but it looked like a maternity top. To which I replied that it couldn't be because it wasn't in that section. Well as they talked to me I remembered a comment that my husband had made in the dressing room that this other bathing suit made me look thinner. Well the other one had a tube top section for the bust and I hate how those look so I chose the one that now is being called a maternity top. After the conversation with my sisters I still didn't think it was a maternity top but I was now really really self conscious about it. A few days later I went to buy Brigg some shoes at target and the store had been put back together from the memorial day rush, and sure enough the bathing suit I had bought was put back in the correct section. You guessed it in the maternity section!!! On the bright side I did get the correct bottoms and love those. I have learned a good lesson that day and all in all had a Great memorial day other than the new pregnant girl suit.

Smells like burning

I know it has been a while since mothers day but oh did I have a good one. My husband decided to give me a spa treatment with candles and scented oil the whole works. I was so excited because I needed a break at the time. So he ran a fabulous bath for me with bubbles and all. He then said he had an extra surprise for me and that I had to go lie down on my tummy. Now let me just say that I trust my husband but I should have known better. I was laying there and then all of a sudden felt burning on my spine like I have never felt before. My dear sweet husband had got the idea from the store clerk at bath and body works of how to do a heated rock message. So he had heated some smooth rocks in a crock pot for an hour on high with oil on them and then took them straight out and put them on my poor unprotected vertebrae. I will give him some credit that after the rocks cooled down it felt like a warm blanket and was quite relaxing but I post this mainly as a note of caution for any of you crazy enough to do this at home to wait for the rocks to cool, otherwise, do not try it at home it will cause burning like you've never felt before!