Do I really hold Ashley that much?!

As we were walking out of church yesterday, I had to stop in the hall and find my keys before we got out to the hot parking lot. So, I set down Ashley, the diaper bag and my primary bag. Ashley walked away from me briefly and as she started walking back, a lady in the ward passed by and said, "Wow! Is she walking now?" I replied, "Well, she is two." She had a really quizical look on her face and said, "Maybe I knew that she walked." I told her that maybe she just always sees me carrying Ashley and so maybe that is why she didn't realize that she has been walking for the past 9 months. But, as anyone with children knows, there are times that you just want to get somewhere fast and if that means that you are carrying your 30 pound toddler (plus the 20 pounds of bags), then so be it!

Don't turn your back...part 2

I should have known better. In fact, I do know better than to serve a breakfast with syrup to Ashley. But it is so cute to hear her say "syr.." that I just can't resist giving her some sticky goodness. One thing that I have learned is only to serve a breakfast with syrup on days that I am not rushed to go anywhere or get anything done first thing in the morning because I will inevitably be giving at least one girl a bath. While I was cleaning up the French Toast breakfast and getting the dishwasher loaded, Ashley decided to take her left over syrup and rub it in her hair. Bless her heart. And to top it all off, I left the elastic in her hair from yesterday so I had the extra challenge of getting a syrup covered elastic out of her hair. So much fun that I can barely contain myself some days.

Happy Birthday Ashley

Yesterday was Ashley's 2nd birthday. We decided to do our big celebration with family on Sunday. So, Grandma Corinne, Grandpa Steve, Auntie Tamara and her friend Casey came down to have dinner and cake and open presents with us. Last year for Amelia's birthday, she decided that she wanted a frog cake for her birthday so I thought that it would be fun to let Ashley pick out what she wanted. Sadly, I have no cake decorating talents and so we went off to Albertson's to pick out a cake. Since Ashley is just 2 years old, she really didn't pick what she wanted so much as I just decided what to get her because it was so cute to hear her say "turtle cake." I tried again to let her pick out the ice cream flavor that she wanted, but all I could get out of her was, "cold" so I picked mint chocolate chip to match the green cake. Before we ate dinner, Ashley saw her presents sitting in the living room and decided that she wanted to hold them. We thought that she would try to open them before it was time so we kept telling her not to open them. When it was time to open presents, she sat on the couch with a present and DID NOT want the paper torn. Tamara tried to help get her started on opening and she just screamed when the paper was ripped. It was kind of funny to watch but she was really having a rough time with the whole concept. We tried to show her that there were fun things behind the paper but she wanted no part of it. After the first few presents were opened, she just threw them on the floor. Eventually, she opened some really fun things and then just wanted to play with her new toys instead of opening the rest of the presents. Amelia was really happy when Ashley wasn't interested in opening because she got to open things that I told her she wouldn't be able to. Definitely lots of fun memories!

Carnival

Every year, Flowserve holds a carnival for all of their employees and their families. They rent all kinds of fun rides and games and have a BBQ and have all kinds of yummy treats like popcorn, snow cones, cotton candy and nachos. This year was especially fun because both girls were old enough to ride the rides. We took the girls on the Ferris Wheel where Amelia had a blast but Ashley really hated the way it felt when it got to the top and started heading back down. At first it was fun for her, but by the end of the ride, her head was practically on my lap and you could tell that she really wanted to get off. It was a really fun time and it was great to meet some of Guy's coworkers and their families too. Guy also had a really great time climbing the rock wall.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh

That is that sound of our baby's heart beat! Yup, you read that right. We are expecting a baby in December. Guy is really hoping for a boy this time around and I am constantly reminding him that we made a deal more than 4 years ago not to find out until the baby was born. We didn't find out ahead of time with Amelia and I thought that it was a blast! We painted her room green and bought cute jungle bedding that would work for a boy or a girl. When I was pregnant with Ashley, we decided to find out, because the deal was that we would find out (or not find out) for every other baby. But I don't really think that it helped us get any more prepared. We still nicknamed her Uber and didn't have her name picked out until just before she was born. So, this baby has been nicknamed Pickle and is sometimes referred to as "boy Pickle" or "girl Pickle" depending on what clothing I have just bought or blanket I am making. I have about 7 more weeks until the ultrasound to convince Guy that it would be really awful to go back on his word. When I tell people that we aren't finding out if we are having a boy or a girl, Guy quickly responds, "Well, Vicki isn't finding out." Hmm, I don't think that would work to well.

Roommate Reuion Get Together

On Saturday, we got together with my old roommates and friends from USU. This is something that we started doing in 2001 when we were all starting to graduate, get married and move away from Logan. I had such a blast with them while we were going to school, that I didn't want to loose touch with them. This year, we got together at the Nunley's. In the past, it takes us hours to get caught up on each other's lives, but now that most of us are blogging, it feels like we have never lost touch at all. Amelia and Ashley had a blast playing with all of Abby and Landon's toys...so much so that I had to drag them away to eat lunch. For lunch, I made a yummy chicken salad sandwich filling (recipe courtesy of Aunt Connie...see next post for details) that we stuffed in croissants and had a yummy fruit salad to go with it. Our group was a little bit smaller this year, but it was still so much fun to see people that we don't get to see as often as I would like to. So, instead of just showing the picture from this years get together, enjoy the timeline of pictures from when it first began.

April 2001

April 2002

January 2004

Aug 2004

November 2005

November 2006

June 2008

Chicken Salad

Chicken Salad

6 large chicken breasts seasoned & baked, cooled & chopped

1 large can crushed pineapple, drained

1 cup diced celery

3/4 cup diced green onions

3/4 cup roasted slivered almonds

salt & pepper to taste

Blending mixture

1/2 Lighthouse Ranch dressing

1/2 Best Foods mayonnaise

add nuts just before serving

Out with the old...In with the new

Sunday morning, I was officially released from my calling as First Counselor in our ward's Primary Presidency. Moments later, I was sustained as...First Counselor in the Primary Presidency. I still don't really understand why they had to release me to sustain me to the same calling but I went along with it. This will take a little getting used to since now I have the most experience in the presidency and I have only been in for about 7 months. But I am excited that none of my jobs will be changing. I still get to do baptism orientations and I have the honor of writing the Primary Program for Sacrament meeting.

On another note...Amelia's talk went great! When closing exercises started, I invited her and the two other children who would be participating up to the front of the room. Immediately, Amelia started saying that she wanted to talk but there were still announcements, birthdays, and a ton of other stuff to take care of before she could have her turn. She did wonderfully and I think that it really helped to take our little temple trip the day before so she would have a better understanding of what she was talking about.

Temple Trip

Amelia has been assigned to give a talk tomorrow on temples so I thought that it would be a good idea to take her to see the Provo Temple so we could get in the right mood to discuss what she wanted to say in her talk. She was so excited that there was an Angel Moroni on top of the temple playing his trumpet. It was a great setting to talk to her about all the work that goes on in the temple and why temples are so important. I hope that what she says in her talk has more meaning to her now. She kept telling me that she wanted to go inside and I had to explain to her that you needed to be 12 years old and have a recommend. Now she can hardly wait for that day to come.

The Loaner

When we bought our Durango almost 2 weeks ago, we noticed some scratches that needed a little bit of touch up. So, in our contract, the dealership wrote in that as part of the deal, they would do the touch up painting on those scratches. The original agreement was that I would take the Durango in on Monday to get it done. When I called first thing Monday morning to make sure that we were all on the same page, they told me that they didn't have any dealer plates so there wasn't a way to loan me a car while the work was being done. I called back on Tuesday and got the same story. But he told me to bring it in on Wednesday morning because they would definitely have the plates by then. So, I drove up to Orem first thing Wednesday morning and then they couldn't find the keys to the car (a Chevy Malibu) that they were going to lend me. So I got a Pontiac Grand Prix instead. After I got both car seats in and sat down to drive away, I noticed that the low fuel light was on. So the salesman gave me $20 to put some gas in it. The next problem that I encountered was the warning light telling me to check the tire pressure. Luckily, the first gas station that I stopped at had air and I just had to borrow a tire pressure gauge from the cashier. The front driver's side tire was down to about 15 lbs...just a wee bit low. After checking and filling all the tires (in the rain) I was off again but the "check tire pressure" light was still on. It took me a few more miles of fiddling with things to get it to turn off. As I was on my way home that afternoon, I noticed that the car started shaking at 60 mph. Traveling on the freeway was just a little bit scary. The driver's side mirror has a crack in it and you can't adjust it and the front passenger seat has been set all the way back and won't budge (making no leg room in the back). I would have expected a lot more from a 2006. I will be very happy to return "The Loaner" and get our Durango back.

Rocket Science vs. Coupons

While shopping yesterday for a few grocery items, I noticed a coupon attached to the box of baggies that I was buying. I decided to grab another box with another coupon because I just couldn't pass up a deal. So, now I had two coupons worth 20 cents each for a total of 40 cents off. Not a huge savings but extra money in my pocket is always better. When it came time to check out, I handed the cashier the coupons but they wouldn't scan. So, she continued to try and manually enter the amount to be deducted. But instead of subtracting the 40 cents from my total, she added 40 cents. This could have easily been corrected by taking off the 40 cents that was just put on, and then taking off the 40 cents that I was owed from the coupons. Instead, here is what she did. She took off 20 cents, and then 30 cents, then added 30 cents, subtracted 30 cents again and then gave me my total. Did you follow all of that? So far, she has actually only taken 10 cents off. I insisted that she still needed to take off another 30 cents in order to give me the full 40 cents that I gave her in coupons. By now, there were at least 2 more people in line behind me that really just wanted me to leave. The cashier finally gave me another 30 cents off just to get rid of me, but she still couldn't see why. So the question is, which is harder, rocket science or coupons? What this really teaches me is that kids aren't learning math in school...they are just learning how to push buttons on a calculator or cash register in this case.

Seven years ago today...

I met Guy Van Horn for the second time. The first time occurred some time during the 1998-99 school year at Utah State when he helped my roommate diagnose her car problems but then I never saw him again until June 3, 2001.

I had been away for the weekend, and when I got back to my apartment in Logan, the place was packed full of a ton of people that I didn't know. I didn't feel like being social at the time and so I went and hid in my room until I could tell that the party was breaking up and I could safely come out. When I did come out, Guy was the only one there that I didn't know. He stayed around for a while and we all talked and laughed and then he went home, right across the street. Since the wards had been combined for the summer, we were now in the same ward and my roommate, Megan, had invited people over to play games at our apartment on Sunday night and he was one who came over. The next night was going to be a full moon and so Guy came over to see if anyone wanted to go for a ride in his truck up to Constellation Canyon to have a look. I was the only one of my roommates who wanted to go so it kind of turned into a first date even though it was never intended to be that way. I don't know if we were ever officially dating that summer but we did know that we liked spending time with each other. I moved back home to West Valley on August 15th, and that started our long distance relationship. We spent a load of money on calling cards so that we could talk to each other every night and a ton of gas traveling to see each other every weekend.

A year of dating went by and Guy decided that I wasn't going to wait forever and so he proposed on a little drive up Green Canyon on June 2, 2002. He wanted to do it on our 1 year anniversary of meeting but I couldn't get the day off from work. We had talked a lot about getting married but it was all hypothetical and I thought that it would never happen because Guy had still not found a permanent job after graduating in December 2001. But everything really fell into place for us...it was definitely a test of our faith. Guy got a job offer from ICON in Logan on September 13...just 12 days before we got married! Which means we only had 11 days to find a place to live. Luckily, we found a little old house to rent at the bottom of Old Main Hill about a week before we got married. I moved a load of our stuff and a new mattress up there the weekend before we were married and then my wonderful family took a load up and all our wedding gifts while we were on our honeymoon. It's crazy to think how great things worked out.

Collings Reunion Pictures

Collings Family Reunion

Every year, during the first weekend in June, my mom's brothers and sisters get together for a little campout at my Uncle Kevin's property/"The Cabin" in Fairview. Luckily we got our Durango just in time so that we would have to try and pack all of our camping gear into our little car.

This year, my Aunt Lori was in charge of the activities and she chose to do a Fiesta. Last year it was my Mom's turn and she did a Luau which was a ton of fun. We spent Friday night just settling in to camp and visiting with everyone there. Saturday we set up the kiddie pool and Amelia and Ashley went swimming for a little while. We also worked on a new picture collage to hang in the cabin that included updated pictures of everyone in the family. The last time that we did a collage was seven years ago so there were quite a few people that were not in the collage. I wish I would have gotten a picture of the finished project but I guess that will have to wait until the next time that we are down at the cabin. For our evening festivities, we had a yummy taco bar spread with fresh cooked tortillas, an ugly shirt contest (which Guy came in 2nd place), a penny dig, costume parade, and pinatas for the kids and the adults. The night was of course capped off with a camp fire and marshmallows and s'mores. Sunday morning we had our annual "pig out" breakfast with just about everything that you would ever want. My Aunt Linda made a yummy hashbrown and egg casserole in the dutch oven and my Mom made French Toast in the dutch oven. Both were devoured just as soon as they were done. Aunt VaLene made pancakes with homemade buttermilk syrup made by my Mom and we cooked up sausage too! There was also some fresh cut fruit to go along with everything. After that, camp slowly starts to break up. A group of people also went down to the pool for one last dip before heading home. It was so much fun that I really didn't want to go home. But I think the girls were ready to get back to a familiar environment. Ashley was suffering from horrible allergies and she got sunscreen in her eyes on Saturday that she never fully recovered from. Luckily they both slept on the way home and gave us some peace and quiet for just a little while.

Ashley loved to climb to the top of the slide but coming down was a whole different story.