While we're young and beautiful..

Ha! I just have to laugh at my title..because I totally don't feel that way today. However, last weekend was a youth (16-18) winter formal for our Stake and Kurtis and I went as chapperones. I usually don't agree to these dances but when Kurtis asked me if I wanted to go I responded, "I get to wear a pretty dress???" And was therefore excited to go. So we got all dolled up.. I wore my bridesmaid's dress from my cousin's wedding, Kurtis in his manly duds and Sarah in her Valentine's dress (clearance from Old Navy!) and headed to the dance. I immediately took off my shoes (because I'm practical) and put on socks I'd brought. So much easier. We danced around with Sarah who got ooooh's and aahh's from the girls and stole the evening and even got to dance a few alone when someone graciously offered to hold our clingy child who promptly fell asleep. She was a bit scared by the lights and loud music I think. Anyway, we also had our picture taken... and I have to say I think it's the BEST dance picture I've ever taken.. period. Its got my favorite man and woman in it and I look great! I couldn't ask for more. Thanks to my wonderful husband who forced me to go in the dance circle for the first time ever, making my horrible dancing look good and for being such a stud on the dance floor! These dances are so much fun when you're older..but they help keep you young and beautiful. :)

New tricks

Gotta really clean up the house now.. Sarah can crawl! She's still getting the hang of it but she can move! She can also pull herself up on just about anything.. as seen here (you've got to tilt your head, sorry!)

She is also moving a lot in her crib, as I mentioned in a previous post and is finding the most interesting positions to sleep in.. she almost always ends up sideways like this

And speaking of clean, I knocked over the Cheerios the other day and figured, 5-second rule and put Sarah on clean-up duty. I think more Cheerios were smashed in the effort but she enjoyed it! Has the pendulum of cleanliness swung too far in the other direction? Naw...

Our valentine

Valentine's day was pretty low-key this year. Our neighbor graciously offered to take Sarah for a couple hours while we went out to lunch. It was supposed to be her nap time but our neighbor just couldn't let her cry it out..oh well! We had an OK lunch at an OK Mexican place (my choice, I thought it would be good) but it was nice to get out on our first official date alone since..Sarah was born I think!

We made Valentine's for all the cousins with Sarah's handprint and Grandma Tucker sent Sarah this cute bib and a bear that she LOVES! All in all, as long as we got to spend it together, that's all a girl could want for Valentine's Day. Notice the Cheerio on the chin.. love it!

It happend to me

Yesterday I was looking up something online and I get a message from some antivirus program saying my computer was infected. Well, I'd never heard of the program but up came the Windows protector-sheild thingy screen with it so I figured it was a Microsoft thing. We have a antivirus program already through our internet company but I knew it hadn't been updated in a month because we didn't click the balloon that said "click here to update" and take care of all your troubles.. well.. we should have clicked that balloon last month.

So this new program, Security Tool, pops up and says I have like 45 infections or whatever on the computer. I knew our computer has issues, it's so slow and the screen is slowly losing it's pixels, so I believed the program. I go to update the Charter antivirus software but I get issues with it and eventually go back to Security Tool, and look into it. Well, all of a sudden I get bombarded with WARNINGS from Security Tool saying these infections/worms/viruses are going to hack into my passwords and steal credit card numbers. I believe it like a fool and decide to spend the $50 to register Security Tool and PROTECT my computer. I could barely fill out my credit card info without tons of those WARNING screens coming up urging my to protect my computer. As soon as the payment goes through, the list of viruses on the Security Tool screen start deleting. OK, I think..it's working. A little too fast maybe? I didn't do anything to set it off...hmmmmmmmm...

So I call Kurtis, freaked out, tell him what happened and he tells me to call the company and call the credit card company to cancel the charge. NO! I think, then our computer will be UNPROTECTED! But I called the company (they sent an email with information about the payment, the company, who to contact..it looked real) and I get a Russian-sounding man on the other end. I explain what happend and he responds, in like 10 seconds 'Yes that's normal it deletes them right away. Thank you, goodbye.'  RUSSIA??? I know we're outsourcing jobs but RUSSIA? hmmmmmmm... something is fishy here..

I called Kurtis back, told him about Mr. Russia quick-talker and he looks up the number, which tells us IT'S A SCAM! AHHHH! (cue scary music...) DARN IT! I'm so mad at myself for falling for it! It's a scam antivirus virus program that tricks you into thinking you have viruses and gets you to pay for it so it'll stop bombarding you with those WARNING messages. I never even thought there was something like this! 

Needless to say, it's a beast to remove. Nearly a day later, multiple restarts, 3 removal programs, 2 successsful scans, and a cancelled credit card, I have removed Security Tool. I felt so bad because I didn't really play with Sarah as I was attempting to fix my errors and I yelled at her a few times for being so whiny.. I'm sorry baby girl!

Lessons learned: don't freak out and make rash decisions, don't trust anything you don't know about, update your antivirus software and bad things can happen to you!

Look what I can do Mommy!

I put Sarah down for her morning nap. She was wide awake of course but usually will calm down and go to sleep after 10 minutes or so. This morning, she talked to herself and played as usual. But after a half hour, I heard a familiar banging...and upon entering the room I found her like this:

She's NEVER done this on her own. She's NEVER even rolled over in her crib. She can pull herself up if she's sitting but she's always been content to just play on her back or side in her crib. Apparently she really didn't want to take a nap this morning! I guess I better get moving on babyproofing the house!

Beware!

With the crazy changes in weather here and gutters that were never cleaned at the end of the fall, we have accumulated lots of snow that turned to ice resulting in this:

Notice the icicle in the middle is about as long as the window. It's gotten longer today. Every once in a while there's a CRASH and I get all freaked out, only to realize that it's just an icicle that fell. I feel sorry for the mailman..

The backside has 2 rows if icicles on either side of the gutter. And notice our winter wonderland..we got another foot of snow earlier in the week and only missed 1 day of school compared to those wimps out on the East Coast..    :)

Daddy's going to school!

Where, we still have no idea yet but he got a new backpack from a rewards program at IBM and decided to try it out. How the idea of using our daughter came to him is beyond me..I was in the kitchen and I hear this "No, sit down. Put your hand in." coming from him in the living room and I looked over to see this. I can't believe she fit in there and willingly sat quietly.

It's all fun and games...

until you faceplant in the snow! The other day we ventured out with Sarah in her snowsuit to play in the snow. She enjoyed being pulled around in the sled until..she tipped over.

The art of eating

Sarah's been enjoying eating more these days. She still doesn't really like fruit, but is coming around to it. She has a brand new booster seat which I LOVE. And yes, we have enough utensils but Daddy taught her to bypass those troublesome things and just get it straight from the source!

To the loves of my life...

In honor of Valentine's day I'm attempting to do something special every day for my family.. and I just wanted to share with the world how much I love them! My favorite thing to do is watch Kurtis play with Sarah. He is a wonderful father and a natural at it. I love that he is such a softy and hates to hear her cry. He can always make her laugh and she gives him the biggest ear-to-ear smile when he gets home from work. They are pals, those two, and I love them! oxoxoxox forever!