True

What a blessing it is and what a way to strengthen my testimony. I know it is true.

Standing Tall

Kiki was full of energy this week. So this is how she showed it. She tells me I am strong all the time because I don't mind her climbing all over me but the truth of the matter is that I am just already sore from the gym that added pressure of a 40 lb little girl doesn't make that much difference. I love her all the same.

Laughing

Kids make me smile. I love this one in particular. Kade, while he can be a bit of menace, makes me smile every time I see him. Every time. I love his laugh in the video, I could hardly keep from laughing. They did this for about 10 minutes before they moved on. I was happy to get a little bit to keep with me.

All Smiles

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmKnQjBf8wM&feature=player_embedded
This made my day today...sometimes is the dumbest things. I needed it after the accounting exam I am sure I just totally bombed.

Kissing Rugby

Last night I got kissed by 7 guys. Yeah, you read that right. 7. I played kissing rugby. All in all I had a blast! It definitely made my night entertaining.

Enjoy this video clip of what was going on. You might notice me...jeans, short in black and green. looking good, huh?

Cuteness

So I will freely admit it, I pick favorites. I do. I have favorite kids. Since I work with kids a lot I see a lot of them and there are some that I am more than happy to not see for a long time and some that makes me just happy to see!

These are two of my favorites. Milo who is just barely a year old and Livy who is 8 and half, thank you very much. Milo gets more excited to see me than his grandparents or aunts and uncles. That is what his parents told me the other day. How that warms my heart! He gets so happy and we have so much fun together. I just think he is adorable.

Livy says I am one of her best friends. Which, makes me laugh. Each week she tells me all about the new things going on in her life as we do a new craft project. We have done painting, drawing, clay, scrapbooks, aprons, hair things, stained glass and are gearing up for holiday activities. I love that I get to try out new stuff with her and that we get to enjoy creating together. Although I do have to listen to some Miley Cyrus on occasion, it is her favorite, and you have to make concessions for your best friends! haha!

On an outing to the park one afternoon Livy and Milo were experiencing the slides and Milo looked so completely unsure that I had to take a video. I love it.

Oh

So I have been a slacker lately. I have taken lots of pictures of things with the intention of blogging about them. Then, I don't. I just get so caught up in stuff that at the end of the day I just want to head to bed and sleep. Can I just say that the middle of October seems a ridiculous idea but I keep seeing the dates and realizing that I have sped through a whole year without really realizing it!

So, in honor of that, I am going to write out these blogs I have been meaning to write and post them over the next few days. Sure, I'll blog about the work party tomorrow night and all the fun stuff too.

But, so as not to leave you with nothing to show for this little post, I will leave you with a super cute video of Saige.

At least a cute baby video or two can make up for my lacking.

Saige and Caius

Second cousins meet for the first time...and how cute! We especially enjoy the part where Caius puts his toe in her mouth, haha!

It was great to see Ben and Shanae and to have to chance to hang out with Robin and Neal. I didn't end up getting enough sleep but that happens I suppose.

Stand by Me

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2539741

it will be worth your time. I promise.

Cute Kids

This was a cute video of 9 month old Stella...her sister Lili was making all the background noise trying to get her to laugh and spit. I had fun with the girls, but a 9 month old is a little hard with her two big sisters. They were all so good though.

More Pictures Tomorrow!

Oh, What a day!

I have so much to Blog about, but for now I will just give you one bit of the day.

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Today I taught Logan how to crochet. Yes my friends, he now can crochet. As we sat and watched conference sessions he was working his fingers to the bone. A friend took a movie that just made me laugh so I had to share. Don't look at how messy the hair is on me, I had been cooking and threw it up quick to cook and forgot to take it down and no one mentioned how bad it looked until I saw this! So shame on them for not saying anything.

In fact Logan got so confident that he starting talking about making prom dresses for his daughters to wear to prom...yeah, right!

Body Movin'

So, my Elders Quorum President (for non-LDS friends, in charge of the guys group at church) is a body builder. We are great friends and he invited me to got see him compete this last weekend. So Logan and I took a deep breath and went for it.

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It was so odd to see him all greased up and wearing...next to nothing. But he is definitely a well-muscled man. I hope you aren't too shocked by the videos. :)

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Logan and I have been on a kick of trying and doing new things lately and this body building thing is just one of those. I am having fun trying and doing new things and just having fun. It seems like we get stuck in ruts and I am glad that we have decided to branch out a little. Next on our list? A concert! I am so excited. We are going with a bunch of friends to see OneRepublic, Augustana, The Hush Sound and one other act that I have already forgotten. But I am so excited because I know and love The Hush Sound...and can't believe they are coming here! I have another month to wait to see them, but I can't wait all the same.

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Keep me in your prayers for the next few days, or send me good vibes. I am finally trying to sell off my old car and buying a new one and there is one I am really hoping works out and it would be a huge answer to my prayers if it was. So if you could do that I would appreciate it more than you could know.

CHUG!

So, last night I accomplished something that anyone should be proud of. I won the Chugging contest at FHE. I beat every guy by at least 30 seconds. I am the undisputed root beer chugging champ. haha! That is totally something to brag about, isn't it?

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Afterward Logan, Jason and I went out and decided to use the hatchet to help explode the already shaken extra cans of root beer. I felt like a 17 year old guy, but it really was fun. I had to laugh.

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Then as always, rock band. I am getting very good at this fake guitar stuff. :) I apologize about these videos, they were taken on my phone because I forgot my camera at home and wouldn't you know it was the one day the guys were like, "Nichole, get your camera!" I love my boys.

Jason is on the guitar and Logan singing like he is a rock star! haha. Don't worry I took a turn doing some of all of it.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game

This Saturday I was roped into going into a Raptures baseball game. After asking and me avoiding and then asking again, pleadingly, I caved. Logan had tickets to the game and volunteered to take his younger brother and his two nephews. Seem a little suspecious? yeah, that is what I thought too. But somehow I was convinced.

So me and the boys went to the game.

How cute is his nephew? Poor Logan had to go to bathroom so many times durring the game. It may have been the large sprites that he bought the boys.

Jason joined us for the game. Yes, that meant it was me and 5 boys. So much fun! I was the prettiest one there.

Durring the 7th inning stretch Logan helped the kids sing take me out the ball game and it was funny, but cute to see the boys all singing.

What an evening. It was a great way to unwind and try to recoup from the last few days. My eyes are a little puffy and such, perhaps it is from the 1.5 hours of sleep I have had in the last 48 hours. I think I will be sleeping a lot in the next day or so.

Kickin' Trash

PS: I am working on the promised posts (Don't worry Liz and Liv, I haven't forgotten!) just had a busy few days. But they are coming...

Logan the Builder

So, our friend Logan likes to build things. Well, maybe that isn't really true. Logan can build things and will do it if you ask him to. So in the process of redecorating his condo (which Tricia and I are doing for him) he decided that he needed to build a shelf to go with his rustic themed living room. And then that turned into a music cabinet for Tricia's class room (she teachers choir and math in middle school) and bookends for me.

So we made a date to go to Home Depot (Logan's store of choice for wood, says it is the best place in town) to get supplies. Let me tell you, shopping for wood can be fun. More girly than I think Logan thought we could make it. But make it girly we did. I managed to get one good shot from our excursion.

After that we rearranged some pieces at Logan's place and experimented with the pictures we bought for him that will hang further down the wall than they are in the picture. And yes Ladies, the color was Logan's choice and the wood frame work was all done by none other than Logan. At 6' 2" with dark curly hair and a boyish grin, he is still single. Sad, no? Not to worry, I have a plan to remedy that situation soon, and it is working nicely.

After some serious shopping and arranging we did what we do best, some guitar hero. It seems to be our activity of choice lately. While Tricia (who is in MoTab) and Jason jam on the guitars Logan and I belt out the song. So listen up for my non-rock version of "Sweet Child of Mine".

The Amazing Nichole

Yesterday was the most clumsy day I have had in a very long time. I had a hole in my lips, no reflexes and no balance.

Tricia, Logan and I went to lunch (at 3:30, so I don't know if it is still technically lunch at that time) at a great place called Hug-Hess a German restaurant here in town that we love. It has this great chicken pasta salad with this amazing raspberry vinaigrette, to die for! Well in adding the dressing, which comes on the side thankfully, I went to shake it and the lid was not all the way on. Needless to say it went everywhere. All over the table, booth, floor and mostly all over me. So I am sitting there drenched in vinaigrette, then I spill my water all over myself. Then later, ice cream down the the front as well. Tricia and Logan laughed so hard each time something else happened that they were all most peeing their pants. Almost. The begged to take pictures of my misfortune and I declined. Then Tricia sneakily took a picture to which I chased her down the stairs and fell. I should have just stayed in bed.

While there are only pictures on Tricia's camera, you will not see them. I will not share that total humiliation more than I have. Instead enjoy the difference in how my friends think.

Donny Osmond

Well I am a lucky girl. My friend Tricia in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and she got me some tickets to the Pioneer Celebration Concert featuring the Osmond family tonight. It was crazy! A dream of mine has always been to see Donny Osmond live, and tonight was that night.

There were no camera's allowed in so you will just have to take my word for it or catch a re-run of it on BYU-TV. But it was a tribute to all things Osmond and some great pieces of music from Motab. The Osmonds sang some of their old school hits like; One Bad Apple, Yo-Yo and medley's of the ones no one can forget. You can't go wrong with "She's a little bit Country, He's a little bit Rock n' Roll..." Marie wore this one dress that was completely sparkly that made us laugh and Tricia in the choir was telling us how nervous Marie was about wearing it because she thought it was just too much. All in all it was lots of fun. Donny was all I dreamed of.

For this great evening I got my awesome friend Logan to join me. Now what a great friend he is, he got off work early to come, got dressed up (slacks and button up shirt, no tie required!) and went with me. I couldn't ask for a better friend at the moment, and yes he is ONLY a friend. No attraction between us. Really, it is a brother/sister thing. I cook for Logan (have I mentioned that? I cook three meals a day for him. No lie. He pays me and it works out great for me!) and all things are great fun with him. Plus, he got a new song to sing for his American Idol audition in a week!

So, I only got a few pictures of him and me so you will have to enjoy these. And I am posting a sampling of what Logan can do on the mic so when you see him on AI you can say "hey, I remember seeing that guy on Nichole's blog!"

A Day in the Life

I wake up no later than eight, OK so it was 8:30 yesterday. I woke up, and was greeted first thing with texts. Yes, I admit it, I am a text-a-holic. The texts helped me plan my day though.

I went to work about 9:30 and got done at 4pm. I cried once during the day, I was a little over emotional, for all the normal reasons. But it never clicks until after the fact. why is that?

Went home and got more texts. From all kinds of people, including one from my mom with pictures of an insanely pregnant sister, Robin. She is due any day now. We are all excited about it.

I made salmon cakes to help cheer up Melinda and part of next weeks menu for my client for whom I cook all their weekly meals. It pays pretty well too. And it is a good way to try out new recipes. We ate fresh salad from our garden with the salmon cakes and brownies with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Very well balanced meal.

A new friend came over and hangs out for a little while before Logan comes. He gets a ticket for rolling through a stop sign, silly boy. We headed to a BBQ and dance.

We hung out at the BBQ and dance till we are bored and then head back. We drive through the canyon and enjoy the beauty of the night lights on the water of the lake. It was nice calm drive and it was some great conversation with some great guys.

Enjoy a game of guitar hero at Logan's place before my new friend and I head back to my place.

Lots of fun, no? I thought so. See, I have a pretty boring life. Enjoy the video of some of our guitar hero fun.

Bubbles

One of my favorite jobs that I have is that I do childcare at a gym a couple days a week. The advantage of it is a free membership and personal trainer (which I love!) and I get to play with the kids. I miss not having little ones around. So this worked great for me.

The kids love bubbles so we got a gazillion bubbles bubble machine and then put a fan behind it to fill the room with bubble so everyone got to play with the bubbles. The kids of course love it!

So I thought I would post a video of how much the kids love it. Brandon is the little boy running around crazy, he is super funny. He will come up to me and stand there for a minute and say, "Ok, you can tickle me now." Straight faced and everything! That kid cracks me up.

This job has been a blessing. It makes me miss kids but it reminds me of how much I love them too.