I've Been Tagged, Twice!!

Okay, this is so not like me, but now that I've been tagged twice, I've just got to get it over with. So, here it goes.....

1. Who is your man? Justin H Manwaring

2.How long have you been together? We've been married for 8 years.

3.How long did you date? That's the embarrassing question. We met in January, but didn't start dating until April and then got engaged in June. So.....2 months.

4.How old is your man? 30

5.Who eats more? Definitely me!!

6.Who said I love you first? He did and hasn't stopped!

7.Who is taller? Oh, that's a funny one. Anybody want to take a guess? Justin's 6'1" and I'm 4'11". He is!!

8. Who sings better? He does, although I wish he would do it more.

9. Who is smarter? Another obvious one, definitely him. There's no way I could be smarter than someone who is CONSTANTLY reading. He's amazing with the information he can retain.

10. Whose temper is worse? MINE. Hands down. He is always so calm, that's one of his best qualities.

11. Who does the laundry? I do. Sometimes he tries to help, but I just go behind and redo everything he does. I'm a little anal in that category.

12. Who does the dishes? I do most of the time, but he chips in and helps when he knows we have places to go or things to get done.

13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? He does.

14. Who pays the bills? We both do.

15. Who is better at the computer? Well, he's a Manwaring, does that say enough? It's definitely him.

16. Who mows the lawn? We both do. He mows while I trim. We make a pretty good team!

17. Who cooks dinner? I do, not that anyone really eats it, but I do cook it.

18. Who drives when you are together? He does. I hate driving.

19. Who pays when you go out? I love this one. Justin has never carried a wallet, (he prefers a giant planner instead), so I'm usually the one carrying the money, but he always pulls out my cute Vera and pays. I think it's so cute. We even had a waitress the other night comment on his cute purse.

20. Who is more stubborn? ME! (no comment)

21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? This is a tough one. I would probably say me, but that's only because I'm usually the one who's wrong. It all comes down to that smart thing again.

22. Whose parents do you see most? Probably mine, only because we live in the same town, but we do a lot with his family.

23. Who kissed who first? He kissed me.

24. Who asked who out? He asked me out and I turned him down because I was going somewhere with another guy, but I really liked Justin, so I asked if he wanted to come hang out later instead.

25. Who proposed first? He did.

26. Who is more sensitive? I would say I am, but I'm pretty sure most people would disagree. (like Angie)

27. Who has more friends? He does.

28. Who has more siblings? He does. He has 7 and I have 4.

29. Who wears the pants in the family? Uh, that would be me, but he likes to tell people he has hand.

I now tag Angie Daw, Esther Ogden, and, you guessed it, Sally Peterson (ha ha Sally).

Happy Birthday, Katie!

Today Katie turns **. Sorry I don't have a better picture or any others, but my computer is getting fixed and Ogden ruined part of the separate hard drive I store most of my pictures on and now I'm stuck using our old computer deemed for the kids.

I do hope you have a fun day. You're always so good at planning such fun activities for everyone that I hope you take time for yourself. We wish you the best birthday, Katie.

Happy Birthday!!

School is Finally Here!!

School has finally come. Well, for Ellie at least. Ellie started first grade today. You wouldn't believe how she can hold her excitement in, but I know she was excited. Last week when we went to find out who her teacher was, I asked her if she was excited and she said, "If I'm the only kid in the class I am." I can't believe her. She is so afraid of new things.

Luckily, her best friend had a birthday party on Monday. About 30 minutes before the party, she told me she didn't want to go because she was tired. I told her that was too bad and this was her best friend's birthday and she was going to go.

All my pushing paid off and she had a great time at the party. I was able to use it as an example and remind her today that she was afraid to go to the party, but once she got there she had fun and the same would happen with school today.

She ended up doing great and having a lot of fun. She came home and said all they did was color today. I'm glad she's learning something.

Ogden, Ellie, and Anna before the walk to school.
Anna doesn't start school until next week, but is pretty excited. She got to go to orientation today with her teacher and I don't think I have to worry about her being as nervous and frightened as Ellie, thank goodness!!

When all was said and done, I think she was pretty excited. Isn't she adorable?

We love Uncle Clay!!

This last weekend Clay and Jenn (who now have a blog!) came to take a break from school and work. The kids had so much fun playing with them . I walked downstairs at my parent's house and found Ogden cuddled up next to Clay on the couch watching a movie. He was in heaven and even shared the football blanket with him.

Anna, Clay, and Ogden

I think the kids favorite part of the weekend was Sunday night when Clay let them all ride on him like a horse. What a sport!! He was so nice to let them beat him to death. They were so wound up and wouldn't give him a break, but he just kept going.

Clay, Anna, Ogden, and Ellie
They were obviously having a good time, look at Ellie's hair!! I know I combed it at least twice that day.
Thanks for the fun weekend Clay and Jenn!!

Where did this kid come from?

I often wonder where Ogden comes up with the things that he does. Few days go by that he doesn't have me laughing. He has this tacky "fire belt", as he calls it that someone who works with Justin gave to him that he absolutely loves. I've kept it around because it's reversible and can be black on the other side, but apparently he thought it was so funny to wear around his head.

This is my favorite. Ogden has lost one of his green flip flops, which we just replaced not too long ago because we lost his black ones. He loves wearing flip flops and refuses to wear anything else, so he decided that he would wear his green flip flop and pair it with one of Anna's orange ones. He thought he was so smart putting it together, and hey, I don't have to tie or buckle a thing. He doesn't really understand when I won't let him wear them to the store, though!

A Cousin Switcheroo!

Last Tuesday after my grandpa's funeral, Ellie got to go to Meridian with my brother and his family while their son, Owen, stayed here with us. Ellie came home from having a great time. I think she was a little spoiled with Esther. She had new shoes, a shirt, and jewelry, and got her hair combed in fun little do's every day.

I felt bad for poor Owen. Everything we had planned didn't work out too well. He still remained happy and had fun just hanging out at our house every day. We had planned to take him to a Chuakar's game one night, but Ogden was the only kid who thought that was a good idea. We promised him he could go fishing on Friday, which he was really excited about, and as soon as we got there, it started raining and we could see lightning all over.

Despite all of our disappointments, we sure enjoyed having Owen at our house. He's such a cute, sweet boy and has such good manners. I was so impressed at how nicely he would ask for things.

Anna, Owen, and Ogden just before Owen left us.

Eli's Coming..... and now he's here!!!

The much anticipated arrival of our new nephew has finally come. Ben and Kaylin had a handsome 9 lb 22 inch little, or should I say big, boy on Friday morning. We hope Kaylin recovers well from her cesarean and from her gallbladder surgery tomorrow. Congratulations!!

Welcome Eli Gregg Manwaring!!

Ogden just loves little Eli and pretty much all babies. He thinks they're so cute.

Why me?

Today was kindergarten registration for Anna. She wasn't quite as excited as Ellie was, I guess because she's pretty familiar with the whole thing since she went everywhere with Ellie last year, but I hope she'll be excited by the time school starts. Anyway, registration didn't start until noon today and I needed to get a few things from the store (soy milk for "Big Owen"), so I was planning to leave around 11. I didn't think we'd be too long and Ogden had just gone to the bathroom, so I figured we were safe to leave him in underwear. I did pack a change of shorts and underwear just in case.

So, when I finally got almost all of the kids into the car I saw my neighbors outside. I went to tell one of them something and all of the kids got out of the car while we visited for quite some time. By the time I got all of the kids back in the car, it was almost noon. I decided we'd just go to one store and then head over to the kindergarten center.

The store went well, surprisingly, and we made it to the kindergarten center a little later than planned. I think I picked a bad time to show up, though. It was crazy. There were people everywhere. We had to go from line to line filling out papers, and then wait in a really long line for almost an hour just to find out who Anna's teacher is.

The kids were so patient and I kept asking Ogden if he needed to go to the bathroom. He kept telling me "no" until we got to be about the third people from the front of the line. I told him he'd have to wait because I wasn't going to wait in that line again. I decided it would be best if I just held him so he wouldn't be able to go to the bathroom, and it worked. We finally found out Anna's teacher and I ran Ogden to the bathroom. I made him try 3 times to go, but he kept saying he didn't have to, so we went to meet Anna's teacher.

When we got into the classroom, the kids all ran over to play in the little play area while I talked to the teacher. I was so worried about Ogden running over there, but I didn't want to walk away from the teacher while she was talking to me. Well, pretty soon Ogden came out telling me he needed to go to the bathroom, which he didn't, because he already had! I was so embarrassed. I had to ask the teacher if she had anything that I could use to clean up an accident on the carpet. I know she'll never forget us. This is another one of those reminders that my mother-in-law was right when she said, "Dogs and children always keep you humble."

By the time we got done changing Ogden and finishing up the whole registration, it was 2:30 and the kids hadn't had lunch yet. I was starving, so I can't imagine how they felt. What a mess of a day, and then the teacher that I had requested for Anna ended up getting a job in Pocatello. I hope the school year turns out better than the registration.

Remembering Grandpa

Last Tuesday my grandpa Ogden passed away and yesterday was his funeral. He would have been 80 on the 25th of August. It was a very nice funeral with many memories of my grandpa. The one that really got me was when my Uncle Stacy talked about how he always liked to chew on his grandkids ears. That is my favorite memory of grandpa and although it sounds nasty, I always loved that special attention he gave me. He will be very missed but I am glad that he is with my grandma now.

This is a picture of my grandpa with his children and their spouses at my grandma's funeral in March.

Left to right: Roland and Pat, Dad and mom, Lanny and Ann, grandpa, LaDawn and Tom, Kelly and Susan, and Stacy and Tracy.

After a very nice funeral we went back to the church for a luncheon. It was nice to spend time with all of our Ogden relatives.

While everyone was waiting around I found this perfect picture of Jen with some of the kids. I think it is so adorable.

Jennifer, Anna, Zack, Avery, and Ellie

Welcome Little Emily!

Yesterday morning my sister, Camille, delivered her fifth child. An adorable, 8 lb. 4 oz., 20 inch little girl. They named her Emily. I'm so excited to see her. I told Sally the other day that I've never been so excited for a baby to be born. Congratulations Hillam family!!! Camille, Barry, and Little Emily. Doesn't Camille look great! She's the cutest little mother I've ever seen.
Emily just after she was born.
I've started calling her "Little Emily" already. I'm assuming that's what she'll be referred to in our home. Now our kids get to distinguish between 2 Emilys, 2 Bens, 2 Owens, and 2 Megans.

Blake Turns the Big 3-0!

Holy cow, you are old, Blake! We hope you have a great day! We dug through our files and Justin's mission album to find some good pictures of you, but this was the best we could come up with. You've aged well. Have a great day!

These were the good 'ole days playing ultimate frisbee in Cleveland. Do you remember those "dorky" purple and white socks we wore?...man we were desperate for attention.

Blake with our kids, of course, at the Dino museum. What a great uncle.

The Dunk Tank

Last night our ward had our annual summer dutch oven cookout. We had really good food, fun games, and a great turn out. The most popular activity of the night was the dunk tank put on by the young men and women.

I was over at the cupcake walk with the girls and discovered Justin was very wet. I figured he gave into a little peer pressure from some of his YM and took the "plunge." The girls and I ventured over to check out all of the action and decided to take a shot at dunking someone as well.

All night Ogden had been telling us he wanted to go swimming in the swimming pool. We tried to tell him he was too little, but of course, he was very persistent. Justin decided to let him sit on the plank and fall in with him. We thought that might make those throwing the ball a little softer and kinder, but no, not a chance. They didn't care who Justin was holding, they were going to dunk him no matter what. I don't think it was as fun as Ogden had anticipated, he wasn't too happy when he came out, but we all got a kick out of it.

I wanted to get a picture of him them on the plank but I forgot my camera. Luckily Angie brought hers and snagged a few photos for me. Thanks Angie.

Justin and Ogden after getting dunked.

Well, Ogden wasn't the only one wanting to take the plunge, Anna wanted to as well. She was so excited to do it, even though she wasn't tall enough. After waiting in a long line of kids to be dunked, she finally got her turn. Justin had to hold her hand the whole time so she wouldn't go under too far.

Anna waiting for the plunge. She was so scared. I thought she was going to make Justin take her off.

Anna finally got dunked. She wasn't too happy about it once it happened, but once I told her that the person who threw the ball to get her down was her best friend, she felt a little better about it. She thought that was pretty neat.

Justin pulling Anna out of the water.
It took us a while to cheer Anna up. I think the water was pretty cold. Our kids were the youngest kids who ventured onto the plank, and once they started, there were a lot more kids lining up. Ellie thought that she was the smartest kid because she didn't get wet.

Ellie, Justin, and Anna after Anna's dunk.

Happy Birthday Amber!

Today is Amber's birthday, I won't disclose her actual age but I think it is safe to say (because it may make her sound younger than she really is) that she is a product of the "unforgettable" 80's (barley).

Amber, we hope you have a wonderful birthday. We love you and appreciate everything you you do. You are such a great mother and wife.




Isn't she the cutest 27 year old you have ever seen? ooppps....sorry Amber.

Happy Birthday, Avery!

My niece, Avery, turns 3 today (Friday). She is such a little princess. We hope you have a super fun Tinkerbell birthday party and that your brothers treat you extra special. Have a great day, Avery. You're such a sweetheart. We Love you!

Happy Birthday, Avery!!!