Welcome to the new 2009 edition of getting to know your family and friends.


1.What is your occupation right now?
Stay at home mom

2.What color are your socks right now? deep red

3.What are you listening to right now?
Looney Tunes, kids playing and puppy drinking water

4.What was the last thing that you ate?
Nilla wafer

5.Can you drive a stick shift?
Yep

6.Last person you spoke to on the phone?
Vicki

7.Do you like the person who sent this to you?
YES!!

8.How old are you today?
32 years, 5 months and 14 days lol

9.What is your favorite sport to watch on TV?
NASCAR

10.What is your favorite drink?
Pepsi

11.Have you ever dyed your hair?
Nope

12.Favorite food?
Really mexican food is good. Not sure I have a favorite. It changes from time to time.

13.What is the last movie you watched?
With the kids,Wall-E. A normal movie, Twilight

14.Favorite day of the year?
Any holiday with lots of family around.

15.How do you vent anger?
Normally I vent to Trent.

16.What was your favorite toy as a child?
A teddy bear and cabbage patch kid I got one christmas

17.What is your favorite season?
Winter


18.Cherries or Blueberries?
Blueberries

19.Do you want your friends to e-mail you back?(or in this case post on their blogs)
Yes I do

20.Who is the most likely to respond?
Stacey and Aimee

21.Who is least likely to respond?
Torri. (She probably will at some point. But she is busy with house stuff and not sure when she will get a chance.)

22.Living arrangements?
With my husband, 4 kids and my mom.

23.When was the last time you cried?
Last week when I had my two teeth pulled

24.What is on the floor of your closet?
I can't even begin to guess. lol

25.Who is the friend you have had the longest that you are sending to?
Verity

26.What did you do last night?
Played a game with Trent, Torri, Vicki, Tevan, Taron, Sam, Stacey and Tyson. :D

27.What are you most afraid of?
losing Trent

28.Plain, cheese, or spicy hamburgers?
Cheese

29.Favorite dog breed?
German Sherpeds

30.Favorite day of the week?
Flex fridays, means Trent gets to stay home with us for three days in a row.

31.How many states have you lived in?
1

32.Diamonds or pearls?
Diamonds

33.What is your favorite flower?
Rose


I tag Aimee, Stacey, Torri, Vicki, and Verity. :)

Suprise!

Well I had a toothache, so I went to the dentist thinking he would give me an antibodic to get rid of the infection. Instead he pulled two teeth. Not the kind of suprise I like. So now my mouth is sore and I can't eat anything at my brother's house tomorrow morning for our family christmas get together. *sigh* Oh well as soon as it heals I will feel better so that is good. And also as always Heavenly Father was watching out for me. I never would have gone if I had known that this is what would happen. I am terrified of the dentist. (stupid anxeity) But this way I had no choose which for me is better. It is a happy feeling knowing how much He watches out and helps me. I also want to thank Vicki for being there for me. I needed someone and you were just the right person. I love you!

Anyway, ramble done. Merry Christmas everyone!

Jingle Belle

We got our puppy yesterday. She is a 6 week old pure blood german shepard. And she is pretty. They kids wanted to call her Jingle (being christmas and all) Mom and I wanted to call her Belle. So you can see how her name came to be. :D Her are some pictures of our new baby girl.

Here is a somewhat full veiw of her. It is hard to get any shots of her while she is chasing the kids up and down the hall. lol

Here is her pretty face.

How sweet is this?

So cute!

My mom posted this. I thought it was SO cute. Go have a look.

Tricia and Daddy

Hooray!!

Paige is offically potty trained!! Just had to share our excitement. :D

Let it Snow....LOT!!!

Ok so it was only alot for us desert rats. But it was really coming down in Walkers Pass when we went up after the kids got out of school.


There was snow on the mountains when we got up this morning, so right after school Trent, the kids and I along with Torri her kids and Tevan headed up to Walker Pass to play for a bit. It started snowing alittle right after we got there. After about 45 mins it was really coming down, so we waited for a snow plow and headed home. It was a short trip but I think everyone had fun.

Tevan helping the kids climb up to slide down some.

Tricia getting a look at this white stuff

This is Rees. Just giving you an idea of how much it was snow there at the end.

The kids had a great time


Now we hope that some of that snow makes it down here to our valley!!

Boy Christmas Program

This last Friday was the Christmas program at Faller. The boys did great and had lots of fun. Caden's class sang Ring, Ring the Bells and Jingle Bells. Rees' class sang Santa Claus is coming to town. It was hard to get a good picture of them but we got a video. So that will be fun to watch.

Caden

Rees

Rees caught sight of us!

Gather around the christmas tree!

We decorated our tree yesterday. It was fun! Here are some pictures.

Here is us getting started

The kids were "helping". With four of them it was hard to tell if it was helpful or not.

Next comes the ornaments

And last but not least Grandma put on the star

Pretty if I do say so myself

Christmasy Tag!

Welcome to the Christmas edition of getting to know your friends. Okay,
here's what you're supposed to do, and try not to be a SCROOGE!!! Change all the answers so that they apply to you. Then send this to a
whole bunch of people you know, INCLUDING the person that sent it to
you......Tis the Season to be NICE!

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? paper, as long as Trent is doing the wrapping.

2. Real tree or Artificial? REAL!!

3. When do you put up the tree? Sometime in Decemeber. We don't really have a tradition for this yet.

4. When do you take the tree down? The day after New Year's or so.

5. Do you like eggnog? I like eggnog. But I am good with it just once a year.

6. Favorite gift received as a child? My first car. I never got to drive it but I liked it all the same.

7. Hardest person to buy for? My sister

8. Easiest person to buy for? Trent, my mom and Torri. I can come up with millions of ideas for them.

9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes, two actually

10. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail if I actaully send any.

11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Not really sure that I have gotten a really bad present.

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? It's a Wonderful Life!

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? August.

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? Can't remember doing that.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? fudge

16. Lights on the tree? yes. I decided I like the white ones.

17. Favorite Christmas song? Away in a Manger.

18.. Travel at Christmas or stay home? Stay home

19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeers? yes, wanna see?

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? star

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? morning

22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? That is goes by so quickly. The last few years I haven't felt like I really got to enjoy it.

23. Favorite ornament theme or color? My tree is got alot of penguins on it. lol

24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? We have our big dinner on Christmas Eve. So Christmas Day is normally leftovers.

25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Neopet toys. lol

I tag both my Moms, Torri, Aimee, Stacey, Verity and anyone else who wants to do this.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I just want to tell everyone I hope they have a great Thanksgiving with lots of good food and great friends. I am thankful to my Heavenly Father for each of you and the blessing you are to me. I am forever grateful that I am not one of those people who hates it when their in-laws are around. I wouldn't have been able to make it this far in my life without Vicki and Torri. I love you both so much! I am grateful for all my sister-in-laws and their friendship. I am glad we can be friends. For all my friends who read this I love you and am so glad I know you. I know my kids won't read this but I want them to know they are the greatest blessing I could ever have been giving. Each one of you are a light in my world. Trent you are my reason. Thank you for being you and loving me.

*hugs* to all! Have a beautiful day!!

My Conclusion

So I am on a medicine that is really helping. I am feeling so much better then I have felt in quite some time. And yet I can't make myself do somethings. Most importantly go to church. I have been really upset with myself about this and pondering and praying about it for sometime. Well here is my conclusion. I am scared. I am scared of doing to much and back sliding. I don't think most of you know how bad I was at the being of the year. April was a REALLY bad month. Mostly due to a medication I was tryin that I reacted badly to. But just think about the worst thing you can about mental illness and that is where I was. So I think I have been hiding some to keep from over doing it and back sliding anywhere near there again. I am SO happy that I finally feel able to do so many things that I haven't been able to do in years. I am not 100%. I guess I will never be without my anxeity and I can deal with that. Heavenly Father has given us all trails and this is one of mine. I just don't want to be unable to do anything like before. Church is hard for me for many reasons. I have a hard time with a crowd of people. I worry alot about what people think of me. This may be silly but I can't help it. I let all of it get to me. Getting the kids ready, keeping them calm durning Sacrament meeting, getting them to class. I know I need to get to church not only for me but for my kids. I want to get to church. So here is the reason I am putting this here. I think saying this outloud (so to speak) will help me start to deal with it. Also it will be nice for some encouragement (if anyone feels so inclined). I am going to try my hardest to work past this fear of backsliding. I want to get to church. I will make it. Thank you for listening. :)

Moments!

So my cousin sent this one to me and I thought about it for awhile before I put it here. But I do like the tags and I am always interested in learning more about all the ladies in my life. So I guess that means I need to start this one. So here goes.

What was the happiest moment of your life?

I don't think I can narrow this down to one moment. The best I can do it five.

Kneeling across the altar from Trent.
Hearing each one of my babies cry for the first time.

What was the saddiest moment of your life?

Letting go of Trent and closing the door, knowing I wasn't going to see him again for two years.

What was the scariest moment of your life?

I think that would have to have been when they gave me a medicine to help with the nausions feeling I had after having Paige. I hate throwing up so I took the medicine. But it did something bad to my anxeity. I have never felt more gross in my whole life. It was a really scary thing to know my anxeity was so bad but not be able to explain why.

What was the most embrassing moment in you life?

NO WAY am I sharing this. lol I am fairly cetain that the only person who is aware of this moment has forgotten all about it. And I am not sure if I ever told Trent. Yes it was that bad. And the worst part is it wasn't my fault. This goes with me to my grave.

What was the most exciting moment of your life?

Not sure what the most exciting moment was. I think it was waiting for Trent to get off the plane after his mission. But I was VERY excited about spending two months in Hawaii with my aunt.

I tag Vicki, Torri, Aimee, Stacey, Verity and my mom. :)

Crazy Eights!

8 Things I am passionate about:
1. Trent
2. My kids
3. Family
4. Church
5. Love conquering all stories
6. Being nice to others
7. Helping others
8. Being a good friend

8 words or phrases I use often:
1. I love you!
2. Baby
3. Calm down!
4. Kiss me.
5. Rees Albritton
6. Caden David
7. Victoria Paige
8. Tricia Diane

8 things I want to do before I die/on my wish list:
1. See my mom baptized. (Yes I think this is a real possiblity)
2. Understand my sister better
3. See my children baptized and married in the temple
4. Spend more time with my husband
5. Keep my anxeity under control
6. Own a home!
7. Know that I have made some kind of diffrence in my kids lives.
8. Feel better about myself

8 things I've learned in the past:
1. We never know as much as we think we do about a situation
2. Forgiveness is possible
3. Having children is the greatest blessing one can have. (I kept this one from my friend's she put it so well!)
4. Don't assume things. The old saying it true.
5. No one else really cares if your house is spotless
6. Trent really does love me. I may never know why, but it is true
7. Just because you forgive someone doesn't mean you have to put yourself back in a bad place.
8. The past is the past. Move on!

8 things I currently want or need:
1. A HOUSE!
2. A HOUSE!
3. A HOUSE!
4. A HOUSE!
5. A HOUSE!
6. A HOUSE!
7. A HOUSE!
8. A HOUSE!

8 Places I want to see/visit
1. Hawaii with Trent
2. Carlsbad Caverns
3. Yellowstone
4. Hawaii Temple with Trent
5. Alaska
6. Disney World with my kids
7. More temples
8. My aunt more often

8 favorite restaurants:
We don't eat out very much. So this is a very short list.
1. La Fiesta
2. China Gardens
3. Texas Cattle Company
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

8 TV shows I can't live without:
We don't have cable so again a short list
1. FRIENDS
2. Firefly
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

8 things that happened yesterday:
1. Took mom to two doctors appts in Lancaster.
2. Drove to Lancaster
3. Went to Toys-R-Us
4. Picked mom up from one place and took her to the other dr.
5. Went to Target.
6. Drove home
7. Stopped in Red Rock Caynon so the kids could get some energy out
8. Took to many of my anxeity pills(this was an accident) and went to sleep

8 things I look forward to:
1. Twilight!
2. Christmas!!!
3. Thanksgiving
4. Tax return
5. Visiting with my aunt again
6. Advent Calendar (Neopets thing)
7. Torri and Scott getting there house. (I have many reasons for this one)
8. Finding a new book I love.

8 things I love about the fall:
1. Cooler temps
2. Halloween
3. Paige's birthday
4. The colors
5. Warm clothes
6. Comfy socks
7. blankets
8. Pumpkin Bread

8 things I need to work on!
1. Saving money
2. Cleaning house
3. Making it to church
4. What I think about myself
5. My weight
6. Doing more fun things with the kids
7. Being a better friend
8. Eating habits

*Update*

So the man was driving under the influence. We had to make an offical report with the police today. The little girl he put in the car wasn't in a carseat and she was about 3. The police officer told us thank you for calling and taking him off the streets. So the bad sitution turned into something better. And we are happy for that. :)

Some days are better then others

After a very annoying appt across town, my mom, the kids and I were driving down China Lake toward Ward. Some guy pulled into the idiot lane behind me. So I said something about this guy is an idiot or something. I slowed down so he could go around me cause I wanted to get over to turn. He gets right beside me and starts flipping me off and pointing to the back of my car. Well we have a yes on 8 sticker still on our car. So I was like whatever. I mean it was a bit upsetting but people are stupid so whatever, right? So he turns onto Ward and I wait my turn and turn onto Ward. He is barely crawling in the right lane. So I get in the left lane and start to speed up cause I was afraid he was going to get in front of us or something
Well he is flipping us off the whole time and as I get close to him he swerves over in my lane and then turns in to a driveway right there. So mom tells me to turn around. So I go back and it is a parking lot for a day care. Mom calls the cops and tells them what just happened. Mom said she thought he was drunk. So they tell us to wait there and a cop is on the way and if the guy should leave watch which direction he goes. So we wait. The guy comes out with a little girl and goes and we wait Finally mom calls the police dept. again to see what it up and they tell her that the cops are with him right now. and he is drunk! They said they were sorry we sat there for so long but that was why a cop hasn't come yet. So we leave and a bit up the road we see flashing lights. So we drive up there and sure enough 3 cop cars and a women there to get the little girl. The dispatcher told mom thank you for getting a drunk driver off the road and he will be charged DUI, child endangerment, and attempting to hit us.

Hope everyone else had a better day!

Something to think about

Go have a look at my mom's blog All 8 of Us

I am very proud of the effort, thought and caring that she put into this. I happen to agree with her as well. :) Thanks Mom. I love you!

Mommy's babies

Ok so they aren't really babies anymore but every mom will agree that our kids will always be our babies right? Took these pictures at Paige's party. I am feeling very sad tonight at how big they are getting. I needed to do something to make myself feel better and these came out so cute. :) The one of Rees makes me really happy because I ask if he would take a picture with me and he reached up and kissed me while Trent took the picture.

What twilight character are you?

Take the Quiz and Share Your Results!

7 Facts Tag!

Ok Stacey tagged me with this and I forgot about it until now. So here goes.

Here we go 7 random/weird things about me.

1. I am deathly afraid of cockraoches. Like sit on the ground and cry and scream afraid. No idea why but I can't seem to get over it.

2. When I was in high school, I dreamed of being on a Pro womens soccer team.

3. My dream job would be to be a stunt driver. Driving really pretty cars, really fast. Oh yeah!!

4. I get on one food and it is all I want to eat, all the time. For awhile we ate ALOT of chicken and rice. Now it is cheesey garlic bread.

5.I HATE to bother people. I would rather sit all by myself then be where I might be in the way or not wanted. And I can imagine I am a bother without anyone telling me I am. So alot of people think I am standoffish

6. Trent and I payed a total of $50 for all three of our wedding rings

7. I have sprained my left ankle a total of 20 times with lots of twisting it in between.

Not sure if those are interesting or not but that was all I could think of. lol

Paige's 3rd birthday!!

We had Paige's birthday party on Satruday but due to rain we had to move it from the park to Grandma's house. We didn't have any activities plan because we thought they could play at the park. But they had fun running around the house chasing each other.

Her cake

Opening her presents

Happy Birthday to Paige

I can't believe she is 3!

Halloween Fun!

We had a good time. We went to the church for the trunk or treat. After that Vicki, Us and our 4 kids, Torri and her 3 and Thane and Cori and their 2 all went trick-or-treating over by Vicki's house. It was alot of fun with all those kids. They had a great time being together and so did we. :)

Here are pictures of my little characters. ;)

Here is Optimus Rees. :D

Creepy, crawly, Caden

The birthday girl as Snow White

Our little Trici Mouse

Hope everyone had a great a safe Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Hope everyone has a great Halloween. Can't wait to see the pictures of all the kids. Be safe, have fun. We love you all!


P.S.
Our little girl is 3 today! *sigh*

Our first date.

15 years ago tonight Trent and I started offically dating. You can tell two things from this picture. A- I wasn't a member of the church yet, as you can tell by my dress and B- I was very nervous, as you can tell by the fact that he is still holding the corsage. Both facts that still embrass me today. lol Hard to believe it has been so long. We look so young. When we left that night my mom called my aunt and then my grandma to tell them that she had just meet her future son-in-law. Something that she loves reminding us about still. I guess it must have been written on us somewhere. My mom wasn't the only one in my family to see it. Anyway, here is us so many years ago not knowing what was in store for us, not knowing what we were starting, not knowing that an eternity of happiness was waiting. I think that is the strangest part. Remembering standing there, and not realizing that my future was standing right next to me. I was just trying not to look as nervous as I felt. lol Ok enough mushy stuff. :D

Happy Birthday Mommy!

Satruday also happened to be my mom's birthday. My aunt made her a really pretty cake.

The kids had fun helping grandma open her present.

And mom got to have fun at the zoo also.

She said she had a nice birthday. I sure hope so.

Boo at the Zoo!

This weekend we took the kids to the Chaffee Zoo in Fresno for Paige's 3rd birthday trip. The zoo does this thing called Zoo Boo. The kids can go trick-or-treating all around the zoo while seeing the animals. We left on Friday and went to my Aunt Carol's house to stay the weekend. Then Satruday evening we headed to the zoo. Vicki and my mom both went with. It was great fun to have both grandmas, Aunt Carol and my cousin Johnny go with us.

Here they are trick-or-treating.

Paige and this little goat in the petting zoo sure took a liking to each other

Most of the kids at the zoo were dressed in their costumes. All of us just wore Halloween shirts. Here are my boys in theirs.

Pretty waterfall. :)


There was a mantaray pool that we could touch the manta rays, sting rays, horseshoe crabs and a few little tiger sharks as they swam by. Caden wouldn't even put his hand in the water but he did like looking at the sharks. Tricia just wanted to splash the water, who cares what is in there. Rees and Paige tried to touch the manta rays but when Rees saw a shark coming he would grab me hand. "Mom get it out of there"

One of the zoo workers was "riding" this octrich around the zoo. It was really cute.

We really did have a great time. It was alot of fun for the kids to see all the animals. They liked seeing all the costumes and the trick-or-treating was a big hit.

P.S.
I will add some more pictures to my photobucket.

Second Place!

I enter this picture in our city fair and found out today that I won second place in its division. Not to bad. I am pretty happy.

Kids say the smartest things!

Trent took Paige with him to drop the boys off at school this morning. While drive to ran and errand after dropping them off Paige was in the back chattering. "Look there is two lights" "I see a truck" Normal kid stuff. Then while stopped at a light, Paige said. "Daddy?" Trent said yes. "There are alot of people in California" she informed him. He was quite shocked that our almost 3 year old could make such imformed statement. We didn't realize she even had the concept of what California was. Anyway, just wanted to share this cute comment and my clever daughter. :)

High school tag

1. Did you date someone from your school? Yes and 15 years later he is still stuck with me. :)

2. What kind of car did you drive? Didn't drive until after high school

3. Were you a party animal? No

4. Were you considered a flirt? I don't think I was.

5. Were you in band, orchestra, or choir? No

6. What was your most embarrassing moment of high school? You want us to share this. lol Ok here goes. I have always been rather big chested, which means alot of cleveage whether I want it or not. Anyway, one day at luch a guy friend of mine started tossing ice at some of us and he managed to toss a piece right in my shirt. So I had a piece of ice in my...um.... cleveage and not a real easy way to get it out. So yeah you can imagine how fun that was. lol

7. Were you a nerd? No. I was somewhere in between nerd and popular.

8. Were you on any varsity teams? Yes, soccer team.

9. Did you get suspended/expelled? Oh my No.

10. Can you still sing the fight song? If I thought about it for a minute I am sure it would come back to me. Yep, I can sing it. lol

11. Who were your favorite teachers? Mr. Bell (Math) and Mrs. Shaffer (Art, actaully that was my favorite class all the way around but that is another story)

12. What was your school's full name? Sherman E. Burroughs High School

13. School mascot? Burro

14. Did you go to homecoming, and with who? I went my Jr. year with Trent Ratliff. :D

15. If you could go back and do it again, would you? Not really. I had the best and worst times of my life in high school quite literally. And I don't really have any need to relive any of it. The best parts are still with my today and the worst I have worked hard to put behind me.

16. What do you remember most about graduation? Missing it. It is the one thing I regret most in my life. Not getting a real senior year. (This is a result of the worst part)

17. Where did you go senior skip day? Didn't get a senior skip day.

18. Were you in a club? No

19. Have you gained some weight since then? Oh my goodness yes. I laugh at myself quite often when I see picture from then. I so thought I was fat in high school. If I had only known. lol

20. Who was your prom date? I only went my Jr year and Trent was my date.

21. Are you planning on going to your 10 year reunion? I wanted to go but it was about a week after I had Paige and with having a c-section I just couldn't.

22. Looking back, what advice would you give yourself? I think I would have tried to stick it out. I am not sure in the sitution I was in that I could have made it through my senior year but I do regret missing all the things that go with it. All in all I think I did the best that I could. And my sophmore and jurior years were good.

I tag my mom. :)

Caden's first field trip

Caden's class went to Murray Family Farms to visit a pumpkin patch amoung other things. Although it was a long trip, it was really a fun place. There was a huge maze that they called the spider maze. When you got to the end there was a big activity area with a hay pyraimd to climb, a small ball pen, and a big spider that you could move the legs. The kids got to go to a petting zoo. We had a hay ride to the pumpkin patch where each child got to pick a pumpkin to keep. After that the kids had lunch in a big shady picnic area. Not to bad for $5.

Caden in the spider maze.

Big spider in one of the dead ends

Caden and Trent at the top of the hay pyramid

When we asked Caden what his favorite part was he said petting the goat.

Your hay ride to the pumpkin patch

Here we are with your pumpkins