Happy 1st Birthday Allison!

Well, my daughter is now a sweet one year old! I am so happy to be her mom and I enjoy seeing her smile every day. The only downer is that she is sick today. I finally took her to see her doctor two days ago after having cold like symptoms for about 3 weeks. She was ultimately diagnosed with RSV, an ear infection in both ears and a sinus infection! Luckily she has gotten on antibiotics and is feeling a bit better today. She even got her appetite back and ate breakfast and lunch. Soon she will be enjoying cake!

We had planned a family party for tonight but unfortunately had to cancel it because she is contagious until she gets better. My dad is still coming over to visit and have dinner and cake with us!

Happy Birthday darling baby girl!

(Our camera was broken by Tim so these pictures are from my cell phone taken on her birthday in her new red dress!)

The ups and downs of teaching piano.

I started teaching piano to my niece a few years ago and really enjoy it. After teaching her for a while a neighbor asked if her daughter could take from me and that also worked out well. I feel like I am a pretty decent teacher and do not charge very much, but I do require that the parents watch my kids during the lessons since I obviously have very young children.

Well, since then I had 3 students from one family and the mother did not regularly come to babysit and we had to chat about it. My kids need someone to watch over them if I am to give my full attention to teaching. She was surprised and a bit offended I believe and decided to drop out although I had made it known what I needed. She then changed her mind and did come and babysit and we both tried again. Well, it ended up not working out because her kids did not want to practice and did not want to come each week.

Now I have 4 new students all from one family with 2 teenage girls who are supposed to babysit my kids and up until this week (3 lessons worth), my daughter just cried in the basement almost the entire time until I would finally go and get her and just keep her with me. I had a nice chat with the mom this morning and luckily she was really easy to work with and we were able to work it out a little better today. I did not hear a peep from Allison the whole time! Also, when the mom talked to her teenage girls, one did decide that she didn't want to invest the time to really babysit my kids and has decided not to take lessons which is fine.

Since I had such great experiences with the first 2 students, I thought it would be a breeze for everyone. I have now learned what will work and what will not and how it needs to be for me and my children to feel comfortable :) Since I do not need to teach piano to support my family, it is more like a hobby and I want it to be enjoyable!

25 Random Things

I posted this on Facebook and thought I would add it here as well:

1. I got my nickname Nellie Pigs from my boss Scott at Discovery Zone in high school. He asked me if I had any nicknames and I told him that my parents called me Nellie. Then he asked if I was ever teased about my name and I said that every once in a while the Goodro boys would call me Janelle Pigs. So he put together the two and would call me on the overhead speaker all the time, “Nellie Pigs, please report to the office, Nellie Pigs!”
2. I am not a baby person. I love it more and more the older my kids get and the more interactive they are. I am still looking forward to the day that I can play board games and card games with my kids.
3. I had 2 boyfriends for a year and a half each and didn’t marry either of them.
4. My favorite color is red but I really like pink and if I could have my own room again (not that I intend to!) I would decorate it in pink. It is such a bright and happy color!
5. My daughter’s room is the first thing you see when you walk in our house. It is not conventional at all and is supposed to be a front sitting room or office but I didn’t want to move Tim downstairs when he is so young so we turned the room into a bedroom. Since we only had 2 bedrooms upstairs, this was the best solution we could come up with and I was surprised Justin went for it! Tim did spend one night downstairs in the room we prepared for him, but I hated it and he ended up in our bed by 3 AM.
6. I have 3 different degrees from 3 different schools. An associate’s degree from UVSC, my bachelor’s degree from BYU and my master’s degree from Walden University.
7. I prefer to do these types of ‘get to know yous’ when they ask specific questions. It is a bit of a pain for me to think of 25 random things and then I always think later that I should’ve added something different and I analyze it too much.
8. I have lived in 4 different states and Justin and I might move to L.A. for 1-2 months this summer for a little rotational program. I think it would be awesome!
9. I love to travel and I have been to many states, especially since we lived out of state for 2 years. I would really like to travel to Europe but it will probably happen when my kids are grown.
10. I had a sister die of SIDS when she was 2 months old. She was just younger than me and I don’t really remember her.
11. I really enjoy playing the piano and because of my musical abilities, most of my callings have involved music. I have been the Sacrament pianist, R.S. pianist, Enrichment night pianist, choir director, choir pianist at least twice, primary pianist and primary chorister. I am currently the choir director and teach the sunbeams. I would love to be in Young Women’s.
12. I like milk a lot more than soda and usually order milk at restaurants. If they have chocolate milk (not just milk mixed with chocolate syrup) I order that instead.
13. I met my husband in December 2000 and we went on our first date in November 2001 and nothing ever happened. We then started dating October 2002 and were married in 2003. He was definitely my good friend before my boyfriend.
14. I lived in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. We evacuated on Saturday afternoon to Austin, TX and stayed there for a week before flying home to Utah for 5 weeks. Justin still had to work and was relocated to Virginia so we weren’t around each other much during that time period. Our apartment was fine and was the apartment complex that faired best of all of the complexes the company owned. We let some people stay in our apt while we were gone. I never went back although Justin went back for 1 day to get our stuff. I loved moving home and having my mom take care of me because I was very ill with my 1st pregnancy.
15. I am not a great decorator, but I believe I am getting better at it!
16. I absolutely love Disneyworld and Disneyland. When I lived in Orlando for 6 months, I went 13 times!
17. Planning food storage is such a big task that I have a hard time getting started on it. I have a little bit, but nothing like I should. Rotating food just seems like a pain so if I do decide to really do it, I will probably just buy things that will last for 20+ years and then just throw it out and buy more at that time and so on. Tacky I know but it just seems a whole lot easier!
18. I love getting 9 hours of sleep at night, it is the best!
19. I have bizarre dreams every night about places I have never seen before and I’m usually on some sort of adventure. Justin is often in my dreams but my kids are rarely a part of them. If it involves a place I have been before, then it is usually greatly modified.
20. I love $5 holiday t-shirts from Target. I have at least 10 of them, probably more!
21. I love holidays and traditions.
22. I love amusement parks and would go several times each summer if I could. I especially love going during the off season when they are not crowded and not so hot!
23. I would love to live in Bountiful. I just love it there!
24. I can’t wait for my husband to be done with school and be around more often. Only 1 ½ years to go!
25. I love any open type vehicle like scooters, motocycles, dune buggies, convertibles etc. I don’t love going really fast, I just enjoy riding with the wind blowing my face and hair. I do have a little scooter that’s red and I really enjoy it during the summer.

Healthy Living

I decided that I want to lose a little weight by summer so that I fit into my summer clothes better and feel better. I started this on my own but then my brother Rusty and my sister Liz joined in with me. We each have individual goals and we are not competing against each other, but we are just keeping each other in check by doing a weekly weigh-in. Our weigh-in is on Friday morning so that if we happen to eat bad during the weekend, we can do better during the week and make up for it!

I did really well at first, but I have found myself falling back into my same sweet tooth bad habits. Especially with Justin's birthday party, his birthday and Valentine's coming up this week, it hasn't been the best week to lose weight! Oh well, at least I am not giving up and if I have a setback, I am going to keep trying.

I heard a really good talk at the beginning of January on New Year's Resolutions and goals and the whole point of the talk was that we shouldn't give up even if we have setbacks. We should just keep trying and not give up just because things don't always go perfectly! It has really helped me to keep trying even when I have a bad day where I eat non healthy food all day long!

Allison discovers ice cream!

Tonight we gave Tim some ice cream and he left half of it melted in his cup on our end table in our family room. We didn't notice right away but finally realized that Allison had found it and was enjoying herself immensely.....sooooo funny!

Going out to lunch

Today Justin called and asked if I'd like to bring the kids and go out to lunch with him! I was excited because this is something we rarely do and it is always fun. We stopped at his work and he decided to have us come in and meet some people he works with which was fun and then we went to Carl's Jr. Tim had more fun playing than eating and Allie enjoyed watching all of the kids play. Being a holiday today, it was very crowded but still fun. Luckily Tim wanted to play on the little slide and all the rest of the kids were loving the big slide so it worked out great!

Then we came home and Tim slept from 1:30 until 4:45 when I finally went in to make sure he was okay and not sick. I don't think he's sick but he needed some good R&R I guess. He probably would have slept longer if Allie didn't go in there and wake him up...she loves going in his room!

It's been a good day!

By the way, Allie is starting to walk....yay!

Decorating ideas.

So, I have decided that I want to re-decorate my family room. I used to have my sailboats and lighthouses upstairs but I have decided I've moved on and will put them in the family room downstairs. I want to get something a little more modern so I have spent some time in the last week checking out Michael's, Target, Walmart, Hobby Lobby, IronWorks and I'm heading to Tai Pan Trading on Wednesday too see their selection. I need to refill my 3 shelves and put something on my fireplace ledge and entertainment center. Any ideas or store ideas would be appreciated. I love dark reddish brown colored items! If anyone is interested in coming over and giving suggestions, that would be awesome! Now if I could only get rid of my black piano and get a piano the same color as the rest of the room.....wishful thinking!

Allison dress fashion show!

Here is Allison wearing most of her dresses. Since I was starting to put away clothes that are too small and putting away Christmas stuff, I decided I better take her picture in some of my favorite dresses, enjoy!

Christmas dress!



Santa Baby!



Valentine dress!



Sailor dress!



Purple dress!

Merry Christmas!

A few days before Christmas we visited with Justin's extended family when visiting his grandma for her birthday on the 21st. Then on the 23rd we went to the Martin family party at the JSMB and had a nice time. On Christmas Eve Justin went hiking all day and I went to help my sister-in-law Andrea who had surgery the day before and then I went to my parent's to set up my mom's present, a curio cabinet. I then hurried to the McMurray's for a wonderful turkey dinner and then back to my parent's for PJ's.

Christmas was a fun day for us! Tim was sooo excited and we loved seeing his excitement this year! He got a racetrack and some new little cars, a Thomas the train tent, and a Thomas the train laptop for the big gifts. Allison got a musical table to push buttons, a doll, a piano and some bubbles. Justin got a sleeping bag and some snow tubes from the kids. I got my entertainment center (again!) and a little massager, movie, and a necklace and bracelet from my kids. We hurried before the snow got too bad to my parent's and had aebleskivers and swedish pancakes for breakfast. Then we opened gifts and watched The Pink Panther waiting for my grandparents to come. They never showed up so we went to McMurray's and had a relaxing afternoon! We hurried and left when it really started to snow and really beat the big storm by getting home at 6:30 PM. Overall it was a fantastic and fun day with family! Here are some pictures:

Tim with his race track (favorite present!) and Thomas the Train tent



The loot!



Justin with his snow tube from the kids!



Justin with his Best Buy gift card, thanks Jer!



Allie with her new rattle!



Tim hiding in his Thomas the Train tent!

Tim saying Thank You!

Lately when saying Thank You Tim has decided to drop the You and just say Thank. He doesn't say thanks in the traditional way, but just thank. I find it hilarious and Justin tried to correct him but I told him to just let him say it that way for a little while and it will correct itself! My little boy cracks me up all the time.

Also, many people comment on this but those of you who don't get to be around Tim, almost every phrase he says ends with a little raise in his pitch. Everyone in church knows when Tim is talking because he has such a unique way of talking. I love my little boy!