Top Twelve...

So, I haven't posted for a really long time, which for those of you that know me, is nothing new. But I mostly haven't posted anything because we've just been kind of busy, so I have arranged the top 12 (I couldn't pick just 10!) things that have happened since my last post. I hope this doesn't get too lengthy!! Here we go (in no particular order)...

1. We went to Disneyland the last week of April/first week of May. It was really last minute, but we had a fabulous time. Bella had a hard time with it at first - it took a while to figure out that you have to get OFF the ride and stand in line again. You don't get to just sit there and ride over and over. When she finally figured that out, she was pretty good. We spent 4 days at Disneyland, a day at SeaWorld, a day at the beach, and a couple of evenings in Old Town San Diego.

I took this picture and originally Bella was in it at their feet. I cropped her out to show the creepiness that these two were! They never even paid attention to the kids in the picture with them, this was their consistent pose. It was hilarious!

Evan was, as usual, very chill for the entire trip!

2. Ryan took his 3rd actuarial exam. Hi studies his tail off for these and finally took it on May 13th. Things are always tense a couple weeks before, so it's always nice to have them over with. Scores take 6-8 weeks, so we're still waiting to find out how it went. Should be soon though. So, onto the next one, I guess!

3. Ryan's sister, Jenna, got married on May 22 to Alan Colver. We had a fun time with their wedding, and with my brother's wedding just around the corner, it was a crazy couple of weeks. Both had planned to have their receptions in the Jubber's backyard, so we spent hours and hours and hours cleaning it up and making it look acceptable. And then the weather was bad for both of them, so no weddings outside! They both turned out really great anyway. I didn't take very many pictures (shame on me!) but here's a couple.

My mom made their wedding cake. Props to her cause it looked awesome!

4. My brother, Ryan, got married on May 28th to Sarah. I was a lot more involved in the planning of this one, so I made sure I got pictures of all the decorations!

The candy bar

The centerpieces

The cake... again, props to my mom! One day she's going to pass this skill along to me.

Terra caught the bouquet, so she and Sarah posed together!

Gettin' a little loopy late that night while cleaning up...

5. Evan learned to sit up and crawl. Yay! Now he's all over the place, and don't we just love that! Oh, and I'm learning just how dirty my floors are! He's such a cute little bugger though and I love watching babies learn how to do new things. It never ceases to amaze me.

He even practices in his sleep!

He also accomplished all this right on schedule with anemia. Bella had it as well, and it really stunted her progress. Evan didn't seem to even notice. When we went in to his 6 month appt., the doctor tested him just to be sure since Bella was anemic, and lo and behold, poor Evan was low. I was surprised because he had been doing such a good job with the crawling and growing teeth and stuff. But we started him on some iron so he should be doing even more soon.

6. I have a newfound love for Call of Duty.

I know, I know, that's not usually what girls do. But they needed a fourth player one night, so I started playing and I found it to be kind of fun. I think about it a lot now. :) I need to get the Call of Duty out!

7. Bella has finally decided that she wants to learn. I know, this doesn't sound like much, but Bella has never really liked learning stuff. Oh, except for memorizing half the lines and all the songs from her favorite Disney flicks! But she now says most of the ABC song, counts to ten, and knows most of her colors. It may be an accomplishment late in coming, but I've come to learn that I have to celebrate whatever she decides to do because it doesn't come around very often!

8. Father's Day came and went again. Since we're a little bit broke, we didn't do much, but I got Ryan a few of his favorite treats and he didn't have to share them at all!! My mom and all my siblings pitched in to get my dad the Spanish Rosetta Stone. He's been wanting it forever so that was really fun. We went down to the British Import store and got Ryan's dad some of his favorite treats from there. It was a fun day.

9. I had another birthday! And I must say, it was one of the better birthdays. Which isn't saying much. It's just that Ryan has worked nights since we got married, and it's hard for him to get time off. So I usually spend the eve of my birthday by myself, putting kids to bed and stuff. Last year, I even made my own cake! This year, Ryan brought me some beautiful flowers (a day early just to make it a surprise!). Then he made me a cake all by himself. I couldn't have been more proud. He went shoe shopping to get me shoes for my present. Then we went and saw Toy Story 3 with my family.

The guys at work are sent home by seniority when it gets slow, and Ryan is second in line for that. So, when they went to send someone home, the guy who usually gets to go first let Ryan go because Ryan had told him it was my birthday. So he got to come home early and was home by 7:30. So we spent the evening together and just sort of hung out. I know these things don't sound like much, but I am usually the queen of crappy birthdays! I know that sounds like I'm whining, but it's true! Plus, since things have been kind of rough for us lately, it was really sweet for Ryan to go so far out of his way to make it a good day.

10. Bella started potty training!

So, this really is exciting! I put a picture of Tinker Bell because her panties are all Tinker Bell. It didn't feel quite appropriate to take a picture of her in her panties and post it all over the internet (!!), so this will do! She was getting into this pattern that every time her diaper was wet, she wanted a diaper change. She would follow me around the house telling me so until I did it! Well, this got annoying, so about a week and a half ago, I asked her if she'd like to just wear panties and not have to be wet anymore. She said yes, so I put some on her. We've tried days with panties before and it hasn't gone so well, so we've gone back to diapers. I figured this would be the same sort of thing but I thought I'd go for it anyway. And she's done so awesome! She's had a couple of accidents, which is to be expected, but overall, I think she's totally ready. And hooray for us, only one kid in diapers right now! Perhaps it's time to have another...

11. My projects

This is the quilt I made for my cousin for her new little baby girl. I made another one for a girl in my ward with exactly the same pattern, just different fabrics. I've always really enjoyed making quilts, and I'm currently working on expanding my sewing abilities. I'm working on another quilt for Evan, some bumper pads for his crib, a skirt, and a new dress. We'll see how they turn out! If they are acceptable, they'll probably show up on another post.

12. I joined Weight Watchers! I probably shouldn't share this with the world, but I'm kind of excited about it. Ryan's mom has been doing it for like 3 years and it's really worked for her, so that was kind of my birthday present from her. It's been all right so far. I gotta say, it's amazing how much I was overeating!! I LOVE FOOD. Yikes, this is gonna be so hard, but I'm really determined. I don't have a ton of weight to lose, but I do have some that I would love to get rid of! I'm already figuring out a lot about my bad food choices! I've never had a problem with the working out end. I think I do that more than enough. So it was always a mystery why I couldn't lose the weight. Now I know. Food is an amazing part of it! So, hopefully over my next few blog posts, I'll be able to report some good numbers!

Well, that's all. If you've stuck around for all this, congratulations. And as I always say, hopefully I'll get better at being consistent with this!