She could even be a Rockstar!

Josey had a birthday party to go to last Saturday. It was a popstar birthday and it was at a little girls salon! Besides having lots of hot chocolate in tea cups and cute little finger foods, they got their hair done, their make-up done and a manicure. It was really cute and fun for Josey. These are her Rockstar pictures. She was very concerned that she needed to tell the stylist exactly WHO she wanted to look like and it was a toss up between Ashley Tisdale and Hannah Montana (probably because those are the only two that she knows). I guess luckily they are both blonde so they worked.



Josey has the thickest most amazing hair! But she also has a sensitive head and DOES NOT like it brushed. So I brushed it out really good before we went so that she wouldn't have any problems at the salon with the stylist. But we got there and she started getting very nervous to get her hair done I think and wanted to leave. As soon as I told her I would stay with her she was fine. So I got to sit at the party for two hours to make sure that her hair didn't get pulled. She is definately my daughter. The stylist tried to do something cute with her bangs pulled up and stuff but everything "hurt" Josey too much so we just pulled them to the side like always. Still cute though. She almost looked like she was wearing a wig, she has soo much hair.
The expression on her face as she was getting her hair done was a crack-up. The stylist kept asking her if she was okay because she looked like the most ticked off little girl. And when she sprayed her with hairspray and glitter you would have thought she got the black lung. It was SO funny! But after the party she kept telling me that it was the BEST party ever so I guess it wasn't too traumatic. You can't tell very well but her whole head was basically a big glitter ball. All her makeup was all glittery and they also put a big glitter unicorn tatoo on her upper arm (we didn't get a picture of it). This was after 8:00 when we finally got home and she was EXHAUSTED!
She looks so grown-up and beautiful in these pictures. But she also reminds me a bit of those freaky pageant kids and it creeps me out a little. Luckily the curls stayed for church the next day and her hair looked gorgeous for Easter.

Happy Easter

Well I never seem to have time on Sunday's before church to get any pictures of my kids and after church everyone looks haggard, so I decided to get everyone dressed up on yesterday to take some pictures. I bribed them with dying easter eggs if they would cooperate. So here they are in their easter dresses. Unfortunately I didn't have the energy to really do anyones hair and they looked much cuter at church the next day after everyone's hair was fixed and curled AND it was rainy outside and they were in very light dresses so I had to take most of the pictures indoors. But they are still adorable!




I think this bottom one is the best group shot. Everyone's face is relatively normal and looks cute.

Lilly looks so mischevious in this picture

I am so glad that I actually got a normal smiling picture of Maddy. They are rarely seen.
Of course Josey's pictures crack me up! She is such a funny kid.
This is my favorite picture of the bunch. The sun was in her eyes and she couldn't handle it.
As soon as we walked in the door, Josey's dress and shoes and hat and gloves were thrown off of her body and she was already upstairs changing clothes. But Maddy and Lilly wanted a picture with their baskets. Dying eggs. They got their reward.

Just a reminder, we are growing bangs out.

This was Lilly's reaction everytime an egg came out of the colors. She LOVED it!

Here are the easter baskets before they got hidden all around the house. Maddy woke up at about midnight and Dustin found her searching through the house looking for her basket. She was promptly put back to bed. But she and Josey woke up at 5:30 this morning raring to find easter eggs. I made them wait until Lilly woke up at 7.

So the deal was that the easter bunny hid some of the eggs inside for the morning but that most of the eggs were hidden outside for after church (because I wasn't going to have time to do a big easter egg hunt and get ready for church.) So we went downstairs and found the easter eggs and then headed off to church. Well during church I had to come home to "check on the easter eggs" and I had to adjust our plan given that it was TOTALLY raining. So most of the eggs got hidden around our house again and just a few were left outside.

It has worked out really well though because Josey got to bring home the class bunny for Spring Break and so we had an "easter bunny" for Easter. The girls have been convinced that Dotti either was the Easter Bunny or that she helped him hide the eggs and stuff. It has been really fun for them.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter! We miss you all. Now I need to go clean up the disaster in every room of my house......how does that happen?

9 years down......

Dustin and Jessica Moyes, March 20 1999
Well today is our 9 year anniversary and I wanted to do a special post for the occasion. Right now as I am posting this I am realizing that it was EXACTLY now that we were getting married 9 years ago in the Oakland Temple! How wierd is that?

(Just before school got out our freshman year)

Anyway I thought it would be fun to post some of my favorite pictures over the last 12 years (I always love seeing peoples old pictures). Unfortunately I couldn't get my scanner to work so I just had to take pictures of the pictures which is why some of them are blurrier than others. For those of you that don't know, Dustin and I met our freshman year at BYU in Deseret Towers. We weren't in the same ward or anything (I got stuck with all the return missionary boys that roomed in Deseret Towers, just what every freshman girl is looking forward too) but we did see each other in the Morris Center often. I actually credit his brother Paul, who was serving a mission in Missouri, for brining us together.

(While we were dating at BYU. A few things to note in this picture 1: anyone that wanted to see what Dustin looked like with hair, here you go. And yes it was curly. 2: No comments about my bangs please, enough said. 3: Dustin was making that face on purpose.)

I became good friends with a girl that was from Missouri and knew Dustin's brother as a missionary in her home ward. When she came to BYU she started writing him. He told her to look for his brother Dustin who was also living in DT. So she found him one day and introduced herself and when I saw her talking to him all I could think was that I wished that I was talking to him. I thought he was SO handsome! As time went on I of course thought that my friend liked Dustin and Dustin liked my friend and we sort-of talked a couple of times but I didn't really make myself available because I thought that he was into my friend. Well I came to find out that he wasn't into my friend but that he had really wanted to meet me the whole time! He thought I didn't like him because I had been sort-of stand-of-ish, not wanting to invade my friends territory!

(This was our first formal dance date we went on our Freshman year)

He tells the story that we were actually in the same American Heritage class our first semester at BYU. Anyone that has taken that class knows it is about 1000 people. Well apparently I sat in front of him everyday and I never even noticed him! He says that he noticed me everyday and he would talk to his friend about the redhead that sat in front of him. We didn't actually meet until the second semester and he couldn't believe that the same redhead that sat in front of him in American Heritage was friends with the girl that knew his brother. How cute is that?

(This was a picture actually from our first date. Dustin made me pose like that)

Anyway after a while we finally figured out that we were both interested in each other and we started to date in February of 1996. We were inseperable. We wrote through his mission and as I define waiting.....I waited. But I knew through those two years that I was going to marry Dustin. I think that I even knew I was going to marry him from the first date we went on. I actually have it written in my journal to document it when I was 19 that I knew that I was going to marry Dustin! (what a nerd am I?)

(Dustin drove home from school with me frechman year and spent a week at my house.)

Our first date I found myself having to hold myself back because I felt so comfortable and right with him. I am NOT a forward girl and to be perfectly honest flirting and stuff wasn't something that ever came very naturally to me. But for some reason with Dustin on our first date, all I wanted to do was hold his hand and just be with him like I felt was natural.

(this was when we were both 19 and right before Dustin went on his mission)

We still had our fair share of ups and down. I think that we broke up half a dozen times before his mission and about a dozen times after his mission. But we couldn't stay away long. Something always ended up brining us back together.

(One of our engagement pictures.)

(This was on second honeymoon, we had been married about a month. Since we got married in the middle of the school year we took a real honeymoon when school got out and went down to Disneyland.)

(This was on our first honeymoon. A weekend at grandmas! Doesn't that sound romantic?! It was actually really fun and grandma vacated the place for us and she lives in the Santa Cruz area so we had a blast for four days and then went back to school.)

I can't believe that I have known Dustin for 12 years! Part of me feels like I have known him forever and there are parts that feel at times that I am just getting to know him. I look back at when we were first married and I thought that I knew him so well, and that I knew our relationship so well. Now after nine years I look back and realize how little I knew about him or our relationship and how much we have both grown and changed over the past decade. I am so thankful that I have him to grow and change with. He has taught me so much and been such an example to me in so many ways.

(first ultra sound. The funniest story is that Dustin actually got a picture taken with the ultra sound technician......not me with the technician but he wanted on with himself and the technician.)


(Feel priveledged that you get to see this picture of me because as you can see it is VERY attractive. I just can't believe how young we look. This was in the new married housing at BYU straight home from the hospital)

(You want to see young looking. Check out that picture! Don't we look about 12?)

(Dustin graduating from BYU and we were headed to Portland for the first time.)

(This is my all time favorite picture of Dustin. I think I love all the pink surrounding him and his beautiful babies and how cute he looks holding little Josey. I always smile when I see it.)

(This was about 4 years ago at a wedding. It is just one of the only pictures of us fairly recently by ourselves.)

Through 3 kids, 16 moves, undergrad and law school, a dozen different jobs between us and everything else that comes with all that, I am so thankful to still be together and stronger today than we were nine years ago. I can honestly say that I love Dustin more today than I ever have.

my middle child

Josey is my middle daughter. Since I only have three I can actually say that I truly have a middle child. She is the most cuddly out of all the girls and the most sensitive and the biggest peacemaker in the family. But she also has a side I like call OCD. She is really a crack up. She is a kid that very much likes to have everything in order and controlled. She likes schedules and routines and really doesn't do well when we are more chaotic.
One thing about her though, that I can't decide if it is a positive or a negative, is her independence. When she wakes up with a bad dream she will go to the linen closet get a blanket and her pillow and come sleep on my floor without even waking us up (plus). When she wets her bed (which happens sometimes) she will get up and get a towel and put it on her bed and got back to sleep without even waking us up (minus, gross). If she needs a drink and I haven't got a cup for her fast enough she will take it into her own hands and find a cup if it means she has to climb up to the highest cupboard (negative, I don't want her to fall). And now she has a problem with bread crust....she WON'T eat it. I refuse to cut it off even though it wouldn't take me that long, I just think it is ridiculous and wasteful. I refuse to peel the apple and I refuse to make other food at dinner other than what I have prepared and I refuse to cut off crust on toast. So in true Josey fashion, if I won't do it for her she will just take it into her own hands. She doesn't ask me to cut it off, she doesn't protest she just goes to the garbage can and takes care of it herself (plus). I figure if it matters to her that much that she is willing to do it herself that is fine. So she made some toast today and I went to get it out of the toaster to put some butter on it and this is what I found in the toaster. A bite sized piece of toast. I put a regular size bread next to it so you could see the difference. She was very happy with her piece of toast that didn't have the crust on it even if she could eat it in one bite. What a funny kid.

Like Father Like Daughter

Lilly is at that age where she just copies EVERYTHING. Daddy got was home and watching tv and all of a sudden who plopped down next to him? Lilly of course. We both looked over and there she was just like daddy. So daddy started changing positions to see how far she would copy him.
Of course as soon as I got the camera out Josey wanted to participate as well. We are growing her bangs out which is why they are SOOOOOOOOOOOOO long!
Lilly is not the most naturally cuddly child. But if she sees someone else giving hugs then she will join in. So to get a hug from Lilly Josey had to hug daddy and then it was okay. Can you tell though that she wants to make sure she isn't going to be held there very long?
(and apparently I really need to wash my futon cover)

Could be a crackhead......

I know this is a little late, but I forgot about this video until I saw it on a friends blog again and started laughing so hard. I thought you might enjoy it!

holy afro!

This is what I get to see when I get Lilly up in the mornings and from her naps. Look at that hair! Is it not sticking up like five feet off her head? She actually got some ketchup in it at lunch as much as I cleaned it up she really needed a good bath. But I put her down for a nap anyway and she was scratching her head and sleeping and this is the result. Who knew that ketchup could be such a good gel?
You have to blow up this picture. It really cracks me up. He hair, the dress and her face! She is so darn cute!
I know you are seeing a little bit of a baby bum here but it was too cute of a picture. When Josey finally gets home from school, Lilly is SO excited and doesn't want to leave her side. She kept tackling her and smothering. I had to get a picture. And if you are wondering why my kids always are naked or dirty I don't usually have a good excuse. But we are starting a little potty training with Lilly. Only because she seems to want too. She loves to sit on the potty and the last few days she has been running around naked and tells me she has to go poo poo or pee pee. I didn't believe her at first but then when she peed and pooped on my floor (two separate times after she had told me she needed to go) I thought maybe we were onto something here. Yesterday she was running around naked and told me she needed to go peep so we went back and forth to the potty for like an hour and finally when I really HAD to get dinner going she finally peed all over the kitchen chair. Oh well!

My camera is running our of batteries hence the blurriness of the picture. And since the back screen doesn't work when the batteries are about out I have to guess where to take the picture and this was the result, a cut off chin.

time change= tired mommy

So I dont know about you all but the time change has been killing me.....STILL! I am not a natural morning person and I feel like I had just trained my body to be up by seven without feeling like I want to kill somebody. Then we had to move the clocks forward and now I can't get out of bed in the morning to save my life.....or to get my kids on the bus. So on Tuesday I seriously could not get out of bed AND my girls were still asleep by 7:45 and since the bus comes at 7:30 they obviously didn't make it. I told Maddy mommy wasn't feeling well and asked her to help with Lilly and that her and Josey could take a day off of school. I know, I know, not the BEST parenting ever. So I finally rolled out of bed at 9:00 and we went to the mall and walked around and played the day away and they were very happy. They kept asking me if I was feeling better now and Josey thought she was getting my cold. Curiously I don't think anyone will be getting mommy's "cold" anytime soon. But they were getting creative as I was working that afternoon entertaining themselves and they decided to give one of Josey's new bunny stuffed animals a surprise party. My girls seriously crack me up sometimes with the things they come up with. So they had decorations and presents hidden all around the room and they even had games planned for the bunny. Here they are playing some sort of game with the broom.
Here are some of the surprise guests and the presents hidden around the room.
And some of their very strategically placed decorations. They spent an hour just cutting out easter eggs to tape up on the wall. I even had to go into the room and hide and wait for bunny to come in and then yell surprise. I am sure bunny was very surprised. They had a good time though and it kept them busy!
Here is a random picture of Lilly walking around the house in my shoes. She loves to dress up and asks for a dress almost everyday and then HAS to have shoes with it. She found mommy's shiny shoes and she LOVED them.
Pay no attention to the mismatched chairs and table in the background, or the fact that I have one chair that is half black. It was a project gone bad. Now you know why we never entertain.

The newest trend: Flat Butt Big Hips

Does anyone remember being young and looking at some of those 30 something moms and thinking how they were stuck in the eighties? They continued with the permed hair and the pastel make-up? I was a kid in the eighties, specifically 3-13 so I can't REALLY say that I grew up in the eighties because I think that you really get imprinted on during your high school years and for me that was in the early 90's. But recently I have seen a VERY disturbing trend that has me realizing that if it hasn't already happened, there is some teenager out there that is going to watch me walk by and think, "That is a mom stuck in the 90's" very soon. Here it is:

Really now, what is up with the high-waisted pants everywhere?! While I think that this particular model actually looks cute in these pants and heels I can't say that there are many of us out there that can really pull this off post-baby. If you have even one hip these are going to make you have a flat butt and big hips.....always flattering.

On American Idol last night there were multiple girls who were sporting the high waisted pants and this combined with the fact that you can buy them on Target.com has me worried that these might actually enter mainstream! I was hoping that maybe it would be one of those crazy "star" trends and pass all us commoners by but now I am not so sure. I have been tracking the tappered pant just praying at night that THAT trend doesn't move past punk teenager (it's not working) and now I have to add high waisted pants to my plea. WHAT ARE THEY THINKING?

I will give one positive about high waisted pants. No more cracks! I don't necessarily like the ultra low rise pants either partly because they are annoying to wear and partly because I have seen one to many girls walking around the mall with either a little hint of crack in the back or too much chubbiness hanging off the sides with a shirt that is too sizes too small (you know you have seen them!).

But why do we have to bring back ugly trends? I know that fashion designers and retailers are looking to make a buck and so they don't want the style to stay where it is for too long but for the love of everything cute don't bring back something ugly just to change the style! I mean how long is it going to be before this comes back in style?
Ah, acid washed high waisted overalls..... lovely. But you know what? As soon as Fergie or JLo are spotted wearing them around you can bet that there will be some kid out there that thinks this is the greatest in new fashion. When in reality this is the worst of old fashion!

So, I guess I am finally resigning myself to being a mom stuck in the 90's because I CAN'T wear these. Party on principal because they are ugly, and partly because I have already looked pregnant three times. I don't really want to look perma-pregnant in high waisted pants. Oh well I guess I have to be old now.