Monthly Archives: November 2008

Our Thanksgiving & Black Friday

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Our Thanksgiving turned out wonderfully! It was just our little family, my mom, my brother & the missionaries. I’m happy that they wanted to spend Thanksgiving with us. They got to watch 1 football game & 1 Disney movie, so we watched Wall-E. Elder Foy, who has been her for such a long time and has become one of our favorite missionaries finds out today if he’s going to be transferred. Hopefully he gets to stay a little bit longer. I’m sad that my niece Alana & my nephew Vani & my sister Jessie would’ve been here though.

It was a pretty relaxed day. The food was delicious and even as I type this I’m considering going in the kitchen and making myself another plate….. gotta love those leftovers! I thought about the things I’m mostly greatful for and I think first and formost I’m so thankful for the gospel in my life, my husband & children and all of my family and friends. I was thinking that last year at Thanksgiving I wasn’t even thinking about the Gospel and didn’t have that in my life to be thankful for….. amazing what a year does.

This morning Gino and I were up at 5:30am to hit the madness. I really didn’t expect our Walmart in our little town to be as crowded as it was, but we pushed our way through and got the Blu Ray player that we wanted ($128.o0!) and then 7 1/2 hours later we were on our way home. I was exhausted, but we had fun together. It was nice just for it to be Gino and me ~ no kids with us. One thing I really wanted was deep red curtains for my kitchen sliding glass door and I found the perfect ones at Linen & Things, which is going out of business so they were cheap! Well, I get home and go to put them up and wouldn’t you know it…. they fit my living room window, but they’re way too short for my kitchen. So now my living room is going to have deep red curtains, because all sales are FINAL. Then I went to get Sleeping Beauty out of the Walmart bag so I can see how cool it looks on Blu Ray and we left the fricking bag at Walmart…. so, I was pretty irritated when I got home.

Tonight is the Ashland Christmas lighting festival. I’m not sure if I really want to go, but I have a feeling Gino will be dragging us all out to it.

I’ve been MIA from my blog for a good reason!

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I haven’t been blogging lately, and there’s a reason! I’ve actually been productive. I’m on this kick to be organized all throughout the year of 2009. In order to achieve this new goal I have to start a little early. My office stuff is almost completely 100%, perfectly ORGANIZED! Huge accomplishment! This next week I’m going to be focusing on my closet and the kids’ toys.

I should’ve taken a before picture of my office area, but I will post an after. I’ll do a before & after post of everything else I accomplish ~ the big thing is going to be the garage…. it’s scary.

My mom is on her way up right now and should be in here in about a half an hour. I’m excited to be able to spend time with her. It’s so weird how I went from seeing her at least once a week to only seeing her a couple times a year. Jayden is REALLY excited to see his favorite Grandma. I actually asked him who his favorite Grandma was (I know, I’m terrible) and he told me my mom was. Then I asked who his favorite Grandpa was and he told me that his dad’s dad was his favorite Grandpa.

Friday I’m hitting up the Black Friday sales. I’m going to try to do it small this Christmas, which is going to be SO hard for me. Christmas is a really big thing for us, and I am going to try to bring back more of the spirit. If anybody has any ideas on some Christmas spirit things we can do please, please share with me!! I’m tired of buying a ton of stupid toys that Jayden doesn’t even pay attention to just so he can have lots of presents to open. I want whatever it is that we buy them for them to appreciate it, and I don’t want them to be overwhelmed with so many presents that half of it goes unnoticed. So… this year, simple for us.

Tomorrow’s Thanksgiving ~ I’ll try to come on and give a nice Thanksgiving post about the things I’m thankful for and how our day went. In the meantime I hope that everyone has a safe & Happy Thanksgiving.

2008’s Thanksgiving with the Hurds

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I didn’t really take pictures yesterday, which is kinda sad. It was the annual Thanksgiving with the Hurds. Last year I got MANY pictures. Great pictures, but this year felt more like a zoo than a family.

People invited their friends – we had the hostile families that don’t really get along (me kinda included in that).

Everybody drinking beer. Not too into that.

It just didn’t feel like it felt last year. There were 45 people there, and it was hectic.

I really do love my Grandparents and I’m trying with my dad and I’m trying to not judge and to accept people for who they are. That really is a hard thing. I will say this though. I didn’t care that people were drinking – and I was uplifting and kept a smile on my face and truly tried. It just feel like a zoo.

So, I wasn’t in the picture taking mood. No pictures this year from Thanksgiving with the Hurds.

My Night With Edward…..

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Was AWESOME!!!!!!!!!! So, Emily and I went together and met up with Kari & baby Brady (he was such a good baby through the movie!!! YAY for Kari) and ended up seeing a few other girls from our ward there, so we all sat together. There were a few parts in the movie that I giggled, okay LAUGHED! But, all in all I really did love the movie. It moved so fast, which to me was a bit of a downfall, but I am happy with the actors, which I didn’t think I would be. It was really high schoolish, but that’s what the book was intended to be. Then a bunch of us old people became obsessed, forgot about that small detail and made the story into what we pictured it as… and I never pictured it being so high school. I can’t wait for New Moon to come out! Tonight I’ll be seeing it AGAIN with Gino. Then we can start listening to New Moon on CD ~ Gino’s into the Twilight Saga ~ come on…. you know you wish your husband was involved with it to 😉

Don’t mind the quality of the photo…. UGH it was taken with my crappy P&S and the quality SUCKS…. but we so had to have a picture of our night out!!

I’m in a rut – but here’s an update

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I haven’t had much to say lately. I’ve been sick with a cold for over 2 weeks now. Today’s the first day I woke up w/out a horrible sore throat, so that MUST mean that I’m on the road to recovery…. finally.

Next week is Thanksgiving and my mom will be coming up and bringing my niece, Alana. I am sooooooooo excited to get Alana and Ella together finally. Last year Alana was up for Thanksgiving, but they were just little babies.

I’ve been overwhelmed these past few days and today I’ve got a lot of tackling to do. It’s anti-procrastination day over at Flylady.net and I’m going to stop procrastinating and get some stuff done. I just have to do a nose dive into it all.

ELLA UPDATE:

She says the following now:

What’s that?
Who’s that?
Love
Shoes
JJ
Jay
Jayblah
mama
dada
baba
Ben
more
all done
thank you
oh wow
princess
No No
Don’t!
Mine!

I think there’s more, but those are the ones that are on top of my head. She talks all day long. This girl never stops. She’s climbing up on top of tables, trying to putt drawers out so she can get up on the counters. This girl is one determined and smart little cookie.

JAYDEN UPDATE:

Every night before bed HE reads me a book. He’s been doing amazing with his reading… I’m so proud of him. He’s been working on his Articles of Faith and has #1 done to a T, and we’re on #2 this week. If he can get it down we’ll move on to #3, but I have a feeling we’ll be on #2 for another week. We say it at night before prayers and in the morning before prayers. He’s done with soccer (I’ll get pics and video up soon) and he’s still doing amazing in his piano and is still working hard at Karate (or in his words Kung Foo).

I don’t understand sometimes why God blessed me with the most perfect, amazing, beautiful babies. I’m so lucky and blessed to be able to be their mom.

Photography

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I’ve been working on something lately and finally have it to a point where I’m ready to share it.

I’m doing photography now and have a photography blog. It’s where I’ll post my photo shoots.

There will be a link off to the side underneath MY OTHER BLOGS.

http://amandagaribayphotography.blogspot.com/

Beautiful Mama To Be

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Today I had so much fun taking pictures of my friends Ty and Tamara who are expecting their first baby (it’s a girl!) in 2 weeks!!! I’m extremely jealous at how tiny this girl is for being 9 1/2 months pregnant ~ she’ll have no problem gettin’ that baby weight off.

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Daddy & Jayden’s Little Secret

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High School Musical annoys more than anything, but Jayden has loved the first 2 and really wanted to see the 3rd one. That was until it actually was in theaters. I asked Jayden if he wanted Gino to take him and he got really defensive and said, “NO WAY!” I figured that some boys must have made fun of the movie at school so he felt like he couldn’t see it anymore, and that made me sad.

Today Gino and Jayden got up really early to go see Madagascar 2. They were having a special showing at 9:30am for a local boy that was recently diagnosed with an aggresive form of brain cancer. All proceeds from the movie would go to his family to help with travel costs back and forth from Portland where the 7 year old boy is getting treatment.

Well, they got to the movies and it was sold out. Jayden was so upset. They had opened up another movie to support this boy and the movie was High School Musical 3. Jayden was mad and wanted to go home. He told Gino, “That movie is for girls!” Gino knew that Jayden really wanted to see it, so he told Jayden, “J, it’s okay. We can go and see it and it will be our little secret…I won’t tell anybody.” And Jayden smiled and agreed and danced all through the movie LOL.

Patience

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Love is patient.

I read that and almost cringed. Patient???? I am not very patient. I am not very patient at all, but I love. I love my children with all my heart and soul. I love my husband. Yet, I am not extremely patient with them, and that makes me sad. The people that I love the most in this world are the people that I should be most patient with.

In prayers every night I pray that I might have more patience for my children. I’ve never thought to ask for patience with my husband, but I have realized that I should. He deserves it just as much as my precious children do. I’ve noticed ever since I’ve asked for help in this area that I’ve dramatically changed. I have much more patience than I had before with the kids.

I want the people I love to feel loved, so I guess I start with patience.

I got tagged by Rachel

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1. What is your husband’s name? Gino
2. Who eats more? Gino
3. Who said, “I love you” first? I did on accident getting off the phone.
4. Who is taller? Gino
5. Who is smarter? Um… ME!
6. Who is more sensitive? Me
7. Who does the laundry? For the most part me – but if needs laundry done he’ll do it.
8. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? If you’re standing in front looking at the bed I’m on the right
9. Who pays the bills? Me.
10. Who cooks more? Me. Gino used to cook every night, but now I’m the cook.
11. Who is more stubborn? I think me.
12. Who is the first to admit they are wrong? I don’t think we ever admit that we’re wrong… it’s an issue.
13. Who has more siblings? We have the same amount – I have 4 sisters 1 brother & Gino has 2 sisters 3 brothers.
14. Who wears the pants in the relationship? I think I do.. but Gino probably thinks he does.
15. What do you like to do together? Gossip and watch movies
16. Who eats more sweets? I think we’re about even on this ~ we both don’t eat too much sweets
17. Guilty Pleasures? Picture frames, candles & bath stuff – oh! and clothes ~ for Gino hands down video games and clothes
18. How did you meet? at my mom’s work
19. Who asked whom out first? Um… we just sortof hung out as friends and then it escalted
20. Who kissed who first? Gino kissed me out front of Mountain Mikes in Jackson
21. Who proposed? Gino. And the word shit was involved…. he was nervous
22. His best features and qualities? His smile, his commitment to his family, his love for us, his eyes, and how he can cook… and I too, Rachel, love that Gino can open up jars for me LOL

I am tagging ~ Aimee @ Momzoo, Kimberlee, Tammy & Emily