An Historic Day

I will tell you right from the top that I did not vote for President Obama, but I can't help but feel I have just witnessed an historic day for our country. It made me proud to be an American to watch this peaceful transition in power. To know that it was done by the voice of the people (although not my voice) has to be greatly respected. For this is what America is all about. I feel blessed to be an American, where I do have a voice.

I had the opportunity to watch this at school with Megan, in her classroom, and when we came home after school we had a chance to chat. I asked her if she understood what had happened today. She explained that we got a new President. I explained to her she had just witnessed a day in history. Something that will be written about in history books for years to come. Something they will teach her own children about. Our country elected its first African American President. That did not seem to phase her much, for color of skin means nothing to her. And for the first time I feel it is the same for our country. It is about time!

I am excited to see what President Obama is able to accomplish over the next four years. Hopefully it will be a lot of good things. And while I did not vote for him, he has my support and prayers in his behalf. For that is what America is about!

A-Z Tag

I got this tag from my friend Sara and it looked like a lot of fun:

All you need to know about me from A to Z!

A--Attached or Single: VERY Attached to Dave, 13 years married (15 years if you count dating and a mission.....yes, I am one of the few and the proud!)

B--Best Friend: Dave, my sister and mom, and a bunch of other great women ( you know who you are)

C--Cake or Pie: cheese"cake"

D--Day of Choice: Saturday- a day to sleep in and spend with Dave and the kids.

E--Essential Item: My cell phone, I love to talk. My perfume, I love to smell pretty.

F--Favorite Color: burgundy

G--Greatest Accomplishment: Being a wife and mother, and surviving with a smile and sense of humor my medical difficulties after the birth of Emily (which have now been resolved)

H--Hometown: Orem, UT(Greensburg, PA until I was in the third grade)

I--Indulgences: pedicures, eyebrow waxing, going out to eat

J--January or July: July- love the 4th, Barbecues and fireworks are the best! We try to make our trip to Utah this month too!

K--Kids: 2 Girls Megan-8 Emily- 5 1/2

L--Life is incomplete without: Dave and the girls

M--Marriage Date: October 20, 1995

N--Number of Siblings: 3 (two brothers(one twin), one sister)

O--Oranges or Apples: Oranges- I do live in the Sunshine State, and it is on our license plate =)

P--Phobias or fears: Not being the best mom or wife I could be, something happening to my family.

Q--Quotes: "Tomorrow is a new day fresh with no mistakes in it."-Anne of Green Gables "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."-Dr. Suess

R--Reasons to Smile: Hugs from my kids, kisses from my husband, DISNEY WORLD!

S--Season: Summer! I love hanging at the pool and the beach. Although I don't love hurricane "season"! =)

T--Tag 5 Friends: Anyone who wants to play (Deborah, Casey, Mindy, Marilee, Vicki...anyone else?)

U--Unknown fact about me: I broke my ankle tripping off a curb at the library,with two kids in the car, hurrying to story time. The fire truck and ambulance showed up to help, sirens and all. How completely embarrassing!

V--Very favorite stores: Kohl's, Sam's Club, Target

W--Worst habit: My disdain of doing, and putting away laundry

X--X-ray or Ultra Sound: Ultra Sound (some of the happiest moments have come from that)

Y--Your favorite food: Any type of pasta, Chilli's Chicken Tacos, anything I don't have to cook ( I love to go out to eat)

Z--Zodiac: Capricorn

**Did you learn anything new?
**Will you play?

Gymanstics Winter Show for Megan

It was also Winter Show week for Megan. She loves taking gymnastics. Every semester she just keeps getting better and better.

This is Megan with her flowers her Dad gave her, and her medal for completing the semester.

This is Megan's Class

The next post is some of Megan's routines for show week. As you will be able to tell she is dressed differently. We tried to get her to do it in just her leotard, but she said she was too cold. These pictures were taken at the end of the show. I guess she had finally worked up enough sweat to keep warm. Oh well! =)

I know this has been a lot of blogging for me over the past few days. I am finally caught up with all the life events we wanted to share. Now I have to tend to the many other things I have neglected to get this done.....do I have to?! See you all soon! Thanks for reading!

Enjoy!

PS

If you can't hear it, pause the music on the side.

Emily's Gymnastics Winter Show

Emily has been taking gymnastics these past few months and they just had their winter show. It was fun to watch her show off some of her new skills.

This is Emily with her medal they gave her

This is Emily's Class

(Her best friend from preschool was also in her class-sitting next to her)


Now sit back and relax and enjoy the show!

*which has to be in its own post thanks to photobucket and blogger =(

The hardest yet best job on the planet!

This year I have made a New Years resolution to be a better Mom. What a daunting task! Some days I am great, and some I am not so great. This year I am going to try and have a few more great days and a few less not so great. Hey, baby steps, right?

Being a mom is the hardest yet most reward thing I have ever done. It makes me appreciate my own Mom so much. She is wonderful, patient, and always giving of service, a great listener, and always there when I need her. I love her so much. On days when my kids are not being quite so great, it makes me want to call her up and tell her I am sorry for anything and everything I ever did to make her life harder. And believe me I am sure there was a lot. I just hope I can be half the mom, my mother is. I just have to remind myself one day at a time!

Here are a couple of fun videos from YouTube about moms. They bring a smile to my face, and I hope they will to yours. These are for all Moms, and anyone who has ever had a Mom. Enjoy!

PS
To hear the videos you will need to pause the other music on the sidebar on the right.

Our "Excellent Adventure" to Ohio

For the first time in about 10 years the Ladle side of the family got together for the holidays. Both of my brother have moved to Ohio, and all of us invaded for the holidays! We had a blast!

Our journey started at 4:15 AM after three hours of sleep and we headed for Cincinnati. We traveled on Christmas day so there was very little traffic, and also very little food. Not a fast food joint opened in sight. But that was okay as we had packed a lot of food in the car because we knew this would be the case.

Our girls traveled so extremely well. We only stopped twice for about a total of 40 minutes. The girls had fun with the treats Mom brought from the dollar section at Target. We brought Dave's laptop with tons of DVDs, we listened to books on CD, listened to music, colored and drew pictures, and played games.


We were on a mission, to surprise all the family who thought we were arriving a day later. We wanted to make it before the beginning of Christmas Dinner, and there were only two people who knew we were coming. We knocked on the door about 15 minutes before dinner and sang a rendition of "We wish you a Merry Christmas" and surprised everyone. (We made fantastic time as well making the trip in just under 12 hours) It was so fun! There are very few times in life when you can truly surprise people, and this was one of those times.

This is all of the cousins after Christmas dinner. Seven granddaughters and one lone, but extremely cute, grandson. We took a formal family picture a couple of days later. The first one since Brian (my twin) got married 9 years ago.

We told Megan that when she turned 8 she could get her ears pierced. We went to dinner at Dewey's Pizza in a mall down by the river, and we passed a Claire's boutique. There was a sign in the window free ear piercing, and Megan was sold. After dinner we all went back and witnessed this life changing event. She was a little nervous, but they did both ears at the same time so it only hurt once. She had quite the entourage cheering her on outside the window, there were 17 of us!

See she is even smiling after having it done! Look at those beautiful ears!

While were were in Dayton we went to a huge Air Force Museum. We saw tons of airplanes and the girls even got to sit in the cockpit of a couple of them. They really enjoyed that.

Now I debated and debated as to whether or not to include this in this post. But it was so interesting I just could not leave it out. This statue of Christ is outside the Solid Rock Church between Cincinnati and Dayton. We passed it many times during out trip going back and forth. And at night it would be a lit up. My brothers say they use it as a land mark when they do the traffic. "Traffic is backed up to the big Jesus statue." I guess it is the same thing they do in Washington DC with the temple. "Traffic is backed up to the Mormon Temple."

This is a little closer picture. It is an amazing size. This is one of the most interesting things I have ever seen.

This is the Ladle Family Cousin Clan (Left to Right)

Rachel (David's), Dallin (Brian's), Audrey (Brian's), Elisabeth (David's), Lydia (Brian's), Tiffany(David's)

Being the only grandson in the bunch Dallin deserves his own picture! What a cutie!

We had a great time with lots of laughs and fun. We decided that this has to happen again soon, not in another 10 years!

Christmas comes EARLY!

Lori hooked up a deal with Santa to allow him to come a day early to the Jolley house. The reason you ask? We decided to drive to Ohio on Christmas Day to surprise everyone. But more on that in the next post.

Megan asked for a "girl bike" with no training wheels, and boy did Santa deliver! She loves it and has had a lot of fun riding it.

Emily asked for a "talking doll house" (see below) this year for Christmas. She has really enjoyed it too. A girl can never have to many dolls or doll houses. Especially ones that can talk!