A star in the making :) hehe

i can't get a video to post so i thik i'll just post it to facebok

The oddities of Nebraska...

well it doesn't help that we also live out in the middle of nowhere. We are surrounded by cornfields and train tracks. A place where fry sauce among other things, is not even heard of. There are churches every block, most i have never even heard of. Walmart is pretty much the only place to shop and driving 3 hours one way for a date, night out, or shopping visit is normal. Everyone is so nice and will help you with anything you need. Members fight for you to be in their ward because there are so few to have. You get thrown a farewell party when you leave the ward because you get to know everyone in a few weeks. Very different from our last ward and a good thing too. Ive been able to make friends very very quickly. I had a playgroup to go to the third day i was here and made a few friends in my first week. Mady had almost 20 people at her party with most casual invites the day of. :) Although there is one thing that drives me crazy. Things are sideways. all of the hymn books are laying down lengthwise instead of standing up straight. The light switches are going up and down instead of horizontal. to so have 4 light switches standing tall instead of going left to right. and the worst of all is this.....



(I also thought these streetlamps were really strange. :) they also don't have any curbs here they are all rounded off.)

It took me a while to get used to. They do it because of the wind that gets going out here. Haven't really experienced it yet but I'm sure a tornado will be in the near future, just as long as john is home and the basement isn't flooded anymore. The bugs out in the country are horrible! And surprisingly so are the frogs haha :) they like to live in our window wells...






Well thats about it. So far i enjoy Nebraska. Lots of swimming to do with friends but winter may be a different story. one of my closest friends here is a teacher and so soon i won't be able to do anything with her. Winter may be a bit more difficult with no swimming pools to go to. Wish me luck with this little stinker :)

Mady turned two!

Mady's birthday was a good one. I had been very busy cleaning and unpacking up till then so i did most of her birthday stuff the morning of. It was a lady bug party and it was really cute if i do say so myself. I got most of the stuff for it in Idaho Falls before i drove here. Including her gifts. I wanted to nurture her big sister side for later use so i got her a Cinderella baby doll, a graco baby furniture set, and a little bag of baby accessories that has bottles and play lotions and all that. I think i did pretty good. On all the decorations and gifts i spent 50$. Less than a pack of diapers haha. We had 20 people there including us. Which is pretty darn good for being here less than a week :) It was fun and everyone loved my cupcakes so i was happy. Mady went from this to this so fast.... how?





Sorry they are sideways...
So here is a little bit about our fine little two year old.
*She loves looking pretty, whether it be with jewelery, accessories, or "makeup".
*She may not make sense most of the time but she loves to talk, talk, talk, and talk some more.
*she loves her dollies. She feeds them, rocks them, shushes them, burps them, and throws them. hahaha
*Mady loves to eat although her frame may not show it. Takes after mother in that she also loves sweets.
*Mady loves Disney especially Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Sadly we don't have TV anymore so she can't really watch it.
* Mady loves to Help me in whatever i do. She is a total copy cat. When i clean, she has to. She follows me around by holding onto my pants. when we eat together she will take a bite when i do and if i take a drink so does she. Quite silly
*Mady loves more than anything to be outside. She loves the park and the swings and slides. She loves swimming the most. She has figured out that it is water and decides to call it gink. Which is drink. She loves going to the pool whether it be my tub or an actual pool.
*Mady is fearless except for when it comes to loud noises. Like thunder. One night on the way home from town. There was a thunder and lightening storm. At first Mady was loving it. Saying wow and oh! with us and saying how cool it was. Later when i noticed she was quiet i looked back. Mady had her head in her hands. We were wondering if she felt sick or something. Well she didn't think the lightening was so cgoooool anymore so she thought if she couldn't see it it would go away. I made the mistake of taking her shaking little hand and had to hold it the 15 min to home. Very uncomfortable from front seat to back but she was just too pathetic and precious.
*Mady loves music and loves to sing and dance like no other.
*Mady loves our new place, the bugs, the puppies (horses in our backyard) and the oooo ooo (the train that passes about every 10 min)
*Mady loves to kiss. Give kisses to us or her babies. Sometimes i worry about her kissing and the future :)
*Last but not least about our little Mady. Mady has quite the temper. If any of you have watched her, when she doesn't get her way she finds stuff to throw at you, screams at you, and hits you as much as she can. She is also really good at the looks of anger, whining (which she also does really well), Ignoring, rolling eyes, and all those teenage looks.

Well that's a little about Mady. There is too much to her to write down. She is quite the character. I love her so much and cannot believe she is 2 already. Where has the time gone? She is such a big girl and still so little. Love you Madylena. Happy birthday.
Here are some pics. I was pretty proud of myself. I made the cupcakes, did the decorations, and made Mady's dress and ladybug barrettes.

birthdays, driving, unpacking, and oddities...

Well where to begin... We had a pretty fun time in Utah. More sickness yet again this time. John couldn't handle lagoon. That means no theme parks in the future... goodbye Disneyland dreams. Then we went to the water park and I got fried to say the least. I thought i had heat exhaustion and i probably did but i also got strep throat on top of that. I have never had strep throat before that. So after a couple days of a fever of 103 i decided it was not heat exhaustion haha. After the fun weekend with the Reid's i headed home. By the way that was the first time i ever drove to and back the condo!! congrats to me i survived driving in salt lake! It made the 10 hour drive to scottsbluff seem like no problem, I could handle anything. (by the way I'm typing this blog post in my bed from my new mac laptop, I love it so much!!!!) :) hehe Anyways. The weeks at home were packed full of family, shopping, packing, weddings, and parties! It was fun and crazy busy. Here are some pics from Ethan's bday party... thrown mostly by me :)










Then after the Bday party was Carlan and Ashlee's Wedding. It was really cute and old fashioned. I really loved sharing their special day with them. Here are some pics from that.












Then there was a week of fun and sun then the next Saturday I had two more weddings to attend. Then i had to say goodbye to my family. I wouldn't have cried at all if it weren't for my dang mom crying :) Love you all!!! so far that is the only thing I miss, just like I thought I would. My wonderful awesome family!
The drive wasn't too bad. My legs went numb a lot and my whole body hurt like crazy, but Mady did better than i expected. We left at about eight. I had to give her some smarties starting at about 10. We stopped for lunch and gas at noon. Got back in the car and Mady slept for about 3 hours. Then it was a few more hours of smarties, singing songs, handing back toys, and then we stopped for dinner and got here an hour later. The house was crazy hot and a total disaster. I had three days of crazy sweating, unpacking, and cleaning. I worked my butt off, but not literally because for some reason i gained weight during that time. The worst part was we didn't have hot water so i couldn't take a bath or shower. I literally dripped sweat for days... haha sorry I'll stop now. The house is coming along and soon I will post pics of our house all put together. I had every room but one done after the three days and that is still the only room not done haha... we are waiting for someone to come pick up their couches so I can clean and unpack. The bugs here are awefull!!!!! I'm just barely starting to not be so paranoid about seeing bugs out of the corner of my eye. We sprayed like crazy inside and out. I have also had to vacuum and pick up probably hundreds of dead bugs.... gross. I'm not a country girl, but go figure, I'm living in it. My next post will be Mady's Birthday party. Then i will post about the oddities of Nebraska. And then i will post pics of the house. And maybe talk about Johns new job somewhere in there haha. For now i'm off to bed. G'Nite YALL