Gettin' around...

Need I say moore?

I know I am a tad bit late...

I finally down loaded our 24Th of July photos. To those who are not "Utah" savvy, that is a state holiday that is celebrated almost, if not, more then, the 4Th of July. Lots of fun, food, Rodeos, parades, and fireworks. July is my favorite month. And I live for the summer "holiday season," (4Th through the 24Th of July) like my husband lives for the winter "holiday season." Every town in Utah seams to have their town days some where in between our nations birthday and the day the Utah was first settled. So every day is alive with some type of rodeo, carshow, boutiques, culture festivals, swimming, boating, BBQ, farmers market, movies in the park, bands in the park, fireworks, and carnivals.

The top picture is of AnaLea on Gumpa's shoulders. Her cousins taught her to wavy the flag. She was having a blast! I remember when my dad use to put me on his shoulders. Specifically, when we were hiking through the Carlsbad Caverns. The last picture is of AnaLea and me watching fireworks. If anyone knows AnaLea, they know that she cant sit still for two seconds. When the fire works went off, she was mesmerised. That is, until Gumpa brought over some glow sticks. Then it was a see ya later fire works. Who can compete with glow sticks? Right!?!

What's a mom worth?

What's a mom worth?

According to one new report, $138,095 a year.

That's the figure in a report by Salary.com, which calculates the wages that would have been paid a stay-at-home mom in 2007 if she were compensated for all the elements of her "job."

That total is up 3% from 2006's salary of $134,121.

Moms who have jobs outside the house would earn another $85,939 for their mothering work, beyond what they bring home in existing salary.

The job descriptions that Salary.com used to determine a mom's salary includes 10 jobs that moms do on an average day: housekeeper, day care center teacher, cook, computer operator, laundry machine operator, janitor, facilities manager, van driver, CEO and psychologist.
Plenty of overtime In calculating a mom's wages, Salary.com looked at the "overtime" that both working and stay-at-home moms put in each week.

"Mom works multiple jobs and rarely gets a break from the action, working an average of 52 hours of overtime," said Bill Coleman, senior vice president at Salary.com, in a statement.

More from MSN Money to the Salary.com survey, stay-at-home moms work a 92-hour week, with more than half the workweek spent in overtime. Working moms, meanwhile, logged more than nine hours of "overtime," with an average 49-hour "mom" work week -- on top of their full-time paying jobs.

For the Salary.com survey, more than 40,000 moms quantified their hours per job description; Salary.com benchmarked the median salaries for each job to the national median salary for each position as reported by employers.

The final salary was calculated by weighting the salaries and hours worked in each role.

Ah...go YANKEES...

I know the first thing when you walk into AnaLea's room you think, "eye sore!" But hey, it works! The girl will sleep now! When I get a spare minute, I plan to go to Home Depo and buy a dark pull down shade for her room. That should make even darker then the Yankee's Blanket! Check out this position that I found the Lil goose sleeping in!

Photo of the day...

A ski resort in Utah, Snow Bird, put Chris team up on their website for the photo of the day. Snow Bird also sent the team a bunch of free stuff. If anyone knows Christopher, they know that this place is Chris "Heaven on Earth," being that one of Chris passions is snow boarding. Congrats Chris!

Proof that she can sleep....

Ever since AnaLea started crawling (Monday), life is to exciting for naps. Every time I put her down for a nap she cries, and cries, and cries.....when she goes to bed for the night she cries until the sun physically goes down. Then she is up at the crack of dawn! So Monday, I am off to buy some sort of shade or dark curtain for her room. Wish me luck! I hope it works. If any of you guys have any other ideas let me know! I do love the silly positions that she falls asleep in. Most of the time I find her in the sitting position, her blanket on her lap, and her head on the blanket. I sure love this little girl...even when she cries! Oh, another tooth broke through. She now has two front bottom teeth!

Its a birthday...

Happy Birthday Mom, aka...Grandma!

love,

Chris, Emily, and AnaLea

She can move....

AnaLea is crawling now! The other day we were in her room playing and she decided to crawl backwards under her crib. When she finally figured out that she had to duck her head down to get her head under the crib, she had a blast. She wouldn't come out from under there. AnaLea's book shelf is with in grabbing distance. So she sat under her crib, for a very long time, looking at her books and squealing in delight!

Memories...

I got this from Kinder. I thought it would be interesting (or possibly embarrassing) what everyone comes up with. So let's rehash the past....

1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!

2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses.

No she didn't....

AnaLea is learning to crawl but she doesn't go very far...she has to work on her muscles. Last Sunday, we woke up an hour before church started. So I quickly got AnaLea ready put her on the floor with some toys. I came back in to her room to get her for church and I discovered that some how (crawled, scooted, or rolled) across the entire room, pulled open the bottom dresser drawer and started to pull every thing out.

Swing...

A wonderful neighbor of mine gave AnaLea this swing set. She just loves it, as does her cousins Jason and Bree!

A blonde moment...

Keep in mind that my husband looks like this.....

Today we were on the phone going over things that he likes and needs. We had just finished going through the personal hygiene supplies when I asked him, "Are you sure that's it? No razors or shaving gel?" He started laughing. I felt so stupid. I wish I could pass it off that I was joking, but Chris knows me better then that. He knows when I am serious or not. So I had no other choice but to laugh with him!

When You're Gone

I always needed time on my own
I never thought I'd need you there when I cry
And the days feel like years when I'm alone
And the bed where you lie is made up on your side

When you walk away I count the steps that you take
Do you see how much I need you right now?

[ Chorus ]
When you're gone
The pieces of my heart are missing you
When you're gone
The face I came to know is missing too
And when you're gone
The words I need to hear

To always get me through the day and
make it okay
I miss you

I've never felt this way before
Everything that I do reminds me of you
And the clothes you left, they lie on the floor
And they smell just like you
I love the things that you do

When you walk away I count the steps that you take
Do you see how much I need you right now?

When you're gone
The pieces of my heart are missing you
When you're gone
The face I came to know is missing too
And when you're gone
The words I need to hear
To always get me through the day and
make it okay
I miss you

We were made for each other
Out here forever
I know we were, yeah yeahhh
All I ever wanted was for you to know
Everything I do, I give my heart and soul
I can hardly breathe
I need to feel you here with me, yeah

When you're gone
The pieces of my heart are missing you
When you're gone the face I came
to know is missing too
And when you're gone
The words I need to hear
will always get me through the day
and make it okay
I miss you

Avril Lavigne

Check out this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8d6nWYfuiM

I don't think I like July anymore...

I've finaly learned what life is all about.

Hanging on when your heart

has had enough and giving

more when you

feel like giving up!

I'm out...for a few days again...

So my daughter and I return from a festive 4Th of July retreat up at Oakley, Utah, to find out that my daughter contracted hand, foot, and mouth disease, is growing two more teeth, and might possibly have an ear infection. I'm exhausted! I don't have time to post....the doctor told me that this will be a ten day affair. My house is a disaster. I have gone on two back to back trips and I still haven't put a way the stuff from the first trip. So wish me luck! I AM GOING TO NEED IT!!! Emily is signing out for a few days!!!!!!!!!!!

p.s. who ever would of thought that the 4Th of July, my favorite holiday, would make me miss Chris so much. I felt numb the whole day. I never missed Chris more then I missed him on that day. This year just SUCKS! Chris, you have double duty next year! I don't think that it will be too hard for you. You are the sentimental one. I know next year's holidays will rock!

Missions and tomato fields...

Hey everyone I was told you don’t get enough info about what is going on here well I have a few stories to tell you of the last few days. On the 30th of June I went on a mission for a few days with the Infantry guys. It was pretty cool, most of the details I will save for later I don’t want anyone to worry too much about me. We went to a couple of villages in search of Taliban fighters I talked to a lot of really nice folks and ate some authentic Afghan food. (I’m still feeling the effects of that food that is why Emily is sending me some Pepto.) We slept on the outskirts of the villages on the ground or in the trucks where ever there was room. For me it was on the ground huddled closely with my trusty M4 rifle and my body armor. One of the nights while I was on guard duty with my Friend Pete we saw some wild wolves come out of the mountains. I was up on the MK19 (which is a really cool automatic grenade launcher) with my night vision goggles and Pete was watching the night vision cam on the front of our truck when we saw the wolf come by us again and walked over to our interpreter and sniffed him, I asked Pete “Do you think we should kill the wolf?” he said “naw he won’t eat much because there is not much to eat.”
I laughed, well the wolf sniffed him and then left. Pretty cool huh? During those few days I went on a lot of patrols with those infantry guys and I loved every minute of it, it was fun. We walked through a lot of crappy terrain, and tomato fields I also lost 7 pounds during those days because of how bad I was sweating. It got super hot during the day and freezing cold at night, but that is how it goes in the mountains of Afghanistan . One of the most spiritual experiences of my life happened over the mission as well, the company commander of the infantry company I went with was an LDS member that asked me for a blessing right after getting information that he and his soldiers went on a very dangerous mission, no Mom I didn’t go on that one, during the blessing the spirit prompted me to tell him as long as he stays close to the spirit no harm would come to him and his soldiers and always ask for the Lord’s advice in prayer and he would be guided in the right direction. It was amazing. The spirit was so strong I almost fell over because my body became so weak. Soldiers in my observation during battle either draw nearer to God or draw further away from him. I feel like I am getting closer to him because when we go out on those patrols and through the villages we have no one else we can rely on to guide us in the right direction. Let me explain some of the pictures, the first four pictures are of my pre road trip to where we went. I always take a picture before hand, then one picture in the truck and one of some of the trucks heading out with us. After that is a picture with one of the towns we went to in the back ground. I have a picture of me pumping some water for a nice cold bucket shower and then the picture after that is my bed next to our MRAP (that is that big truck). After that I put a picture with me and some of the villagers, also a picture with me in a tomato field waiting for the go ahead to enter the village, there is also a picture of my friend Emerson sitting in the same tomato field but you can’t see his face just him from the back. Then the rest are just some random photos.
Well I think about everyone everyday, and I miss my wife and baby girl so much. That is about it for now.
Later

Brothers in arms...

On this Independence Day, lets not forget our Soldeirs who are going through hell to protect our freedom!

Happy 4th of July

"O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife,

Who more than self their country loved

And mercy more than life!"

~America the Beautiful

LATEST RELEASE from THOMAS KINKADE!

In 2008, Yankee Stadium,the greatest cathedral in the game of baseball, will close its doors forever. Here is my tribute to the passionate history of America's "favorite pastime".
-- Thomas Kinkade

Yellow Stone...

Here are a few pictures from our adventure at Yellow Stone. I didn't get many pictures because my camera died and we didn't stop very many times.