The Riley Gazette

Parties!

2011-12-05T13:45:00.000-08:00

So I've got some catching up to do in the blog department. We've had two birthdays recently...Mikayla is now 3 and Victoria is 5! Mikayla had an Alice in Wonderland themed party...complete with Eat Me Cupcakes and Drink Me "teacups". We had a tea party with sandwiches, cookies, and hot apple cider and celebrated everyone's merry unbirthdays just the way they do it in Wonderland. Everyone was told to come dressed in their best Wonderland outfit. We had some really cute rabbits, alices, and mad hatters! We also had a pinata...which turns out is really hard to break nowadays. John had to end up doing it and it took him a while too. lol.

Then we celebrated Victoria's birthday with her very first sleepover! Three kids ended up spending the night and about three others just came to the party part. It was hard to get those kids to sleep but they eventually did...which was good because Victoria had a dance performance at the festival of trees the next night. We managed to fit them all on her queen size bed...good thing those girls are small. :) She had her jungle cake that she requested...i just colored the icing green and added plastic animals because i wasn't going to pay $20 for a pre-made cake. Though it was a hassle I'm glad she got to experience having a sleepover. I think she enjoyed herself. So the next night was her dance performance at the festival of trees. She had no idea what she was doing this year but her Uncle Tommy and my brother and his family were kind enough to come watch her perform. She's still enrolled in dance and enjoys it so we'll keep with it if she wants to.

Other recent events have involved my mother coming to visit for Thanksgiving. The kids enjoyed having her here and going shopping a lot. Even meeting Santa. It was nice to get some help around this huge house for a while. We also found the time to make a gingerbread house with the kids. It was a fun experience and I look forward to eating it...yumm! So there's a brief catch up. If i've forgotten something I'll be sure to post it later on.

Too Many Bubbles?

2011-09-14T12:30:00.000-07:00

Every once and a while we let Victoria and Mikayla use our Jacuzzi for bath time. John put some bubble bath in and walked away. 5 minutes later we come back to an overloaded bubble room! It turns out John used nearly the whole bottle of bubble bath. Oh well. Might as well let the kids enjoy it. You may also know that Mikayla loves playing with water. She helps to water our lawn sometimes. :)

Some stuff we've been up to...

2011-07-25T18:29:00.001-07:00

Victoria had her final dance performance for preschool in June. She did a Lion King dance and "the Harry" which is super cute! I tried to post a video but it didn't load. :( Instead here's a pic of her in her outfit.

So school is out for the summer! Which means more time with the kids...i mean more time cleaning up after the kids. :) Unfortunately, due to Victoria's December birthday she won't be able to start kindergarten this year, which means she has another year of preschool she has to do. Her teacher says she's going to be REALLY ready for kindergarten...which means she'll be ahead. Maybe she can test out of a grade or something? We'll see.

I've been taking the kids out every once in a while to Classic Fun Center where they can get some energy out. They mostly love jumping on the bounce castles, but they can also go to the Jungle or go to the waterpark. Hopefully they'll learn how to swim soon.

John has been busy still in his "west wing room." It is coming along nicely. Although it's also taking a lot of work. He just put new sub flooring in where the office will be.

Life as of late has been the same for me...the usual cooking, cleaning, feeding, boringness of motherhood. However, I do have some news...I'm pregnant again. Yay! I'm currently about 10 weeks along and yes I'm throwing up...yuck. The due date is Feb. 17. I was hoping for a "summer" baby so that we can have some summer toys here, but oh well. :) Anyway, enjoy the video.

Please Help

2011-05-29T10:42:00.000-07:00

These children severely need your help. They are so impoverished and starved they can barely smile . They run around all day and hardly eat anything. Your small donation of just a dollar a day can save them. They probably still won't eat or dress correctly, but at least they can have a new toy which will entertain them for a small amount of time. Researchers have named this one "Mime Disease." Characterized by the sudden urge to act like a Mime it begins with the facial makeup and continues into adulthood. You can help slow this process with your donation.

Disney World!

2011-05-12T09:39:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we were able to meet up with my side of the family in Florida and take our kids to Disney World. Of course it was loads of fun. Victoria and Mikayla both got to meet their favorite characters. Victoria's being Tinkerbell I was quite surprised they even had Tinkerbell around to meet because I don't recall her being their when I was growing up. So of course when we saw she would be around we jumped at the opportunity to meet her. Mikayla got to meet Buzz and Woody from Toy Story, which she loves. Her actual favorite is Dumbo, but we couldn't find him. I wonder why. Oh well, she went on the Dumbo ride. They also met Mickey and Minnie, Cinderella, Belle, Aurora, Winnie the Pooh, and Tigger. It was great for them to meet so many people that they watch all day. Gotta keep those princess dreams alive. It was blazing hot and the waits were forever long, but hopefully they took away some good memories from there.

The adults got to have some fun too...and by that I mean me at Harry Potter World. My parents watched our children so John, Marisa (my sister), and I could go. The coolest ride was at Hogwarts castle. It was like you were flying a broom! And I got some Slytherin stuff for me at the shops. Yay! Fun stuff. We ate at the three broomsticks for lunch and had butterbeer.We also met the Grinch, which John loves. So that was cool. This was at Universal Studios...not Harry Potter World. The last ride I went on was the Hulk one...because it made me feel sick afterward. Luckily, we were about done anyway.

Other days, we just hung out at the resort, which was quite nice. We got free mini golf and they had nice pools and a gym, which I only used once like the first day. Who works out on vacation? Not me apparently.

And that is basically it. It was really nice to see my family and get to spend time with them. Plus taking the kids to Disney World for the first time is great. Now they just need a "Twilight World" and I'm on the next plane back to Florida. :) Yes, I'm a nerd.

Tennis, Party, Tree Climbing, and Demo...not neccessarily in that order

2011-04-14T14:08:00.000-07:00

Wow it's been a crazy month! Between attempting to get settled and everything else I feel like I've been running around...but not.... I think what happened first was my little brother coming to town so I'll start there.

BYU invited the UNCW Tennis team to come play against them at BYU and coincidentally my brother Michael is on the UNCW tennis team so I got to see him! I thought we would be spending a bit of time together, but that was not quite the case. Mostly it was me watching a lot of tennis...which is ok...better than watching golf, fishing, or any other slow sport. I tried to get a few awesome pictures of him playing since he plans of becoming pro...although it appears I didn't get one of us together. Oops. I mostly talked with my older brother and his family as we were watching him play.

Ok so then, or somewhere in the month of April...Victoria started climbing trees...with NO shoes! She is quite the climber, but I figured since she's up there I better get a few pics before I yell at her for climbing the tree (jk...i didn't yell at her...just told her to be careful).

I think pretty much a week or so after we moved in John started "demo-ing" the old rooms in the house that are to become our office and library. It has been a lot of work. Right now it's just three old bedrooms that now is one HUGE one and boards and dust and old nails. It's blocked off thankfully. But he's been working hard and it should look awesome when he's done (as most things that he works on do end up looking awesome). So here's the hole in our new house...and actually since taking this picture the hole has gotten larger...and the room messier. Save me!

So now the fun part, we had our first housewarming party this past Saturday. It was a great turn out and I believe most people had fun. :) We had a taco bar and drinks and then most of the time everyone chatted instead of playing rock band. There were probably 10 or more kids in the house...and then the adults. But since our house is so big I think I hardly noticed. It wasn't cramped at all. At one point a "ball war" broke out. Lots of plastic balls were being tossed from the third floor to the second floor. And it was mostly the adults playing because we are SO mature! I had a blast! And that's our most recent update...lots of stuff going on in our lives right now...mostly fun. Keep looking for more updates. :)

And we're home!

2011-03-22T13:05:00.000-07:00

We recently moved to Sandy, UT to our "final" home. By that, we mean the home our kids will grow up in and perhaps even John and I will get old in. It's a beautiful 8,000 sq ft (approx) home at the end of a quiet lane. It's got a two-car garage so we no longer have to shovel snow off our vehicles before heading out in the morning (yay!). It also has 3 kitchens (1 of which we converted into a craft room so it could pass FHA), 3 laundry rooms, 10 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, and a very nice patio. It really is an incredible home that we had to jump through a few hoops to get to, but it's totally worth it. We are currently having trouble filling it since we're broke from the purchase. lol. It's alright though. We've got everything we need and more. Still getting adjusted to our new life, but things are ok.

I recently had a miscarriage...we were planning on a third child this year, but it's ok. There's always next year. Perhaps we aren't really ready like we thought. Besides, I have a huge place to clean now. I should get a good schedule going before I start throwing up. :) And I suppose Sheldon is like our third child. ha ha. Here's Sheldon...our tortoise. And Mikayla pointing to him...she likes him a lot. Below, is Lady GaGa's inspiration...Victoria. We hope things are going well for all of you guys.

Oh, is it February already?

2011-02-08T13:08:00.001-08:00

As usual, it should come to no one as a surprise that I'm not keeping up with updates. So, here's some Christmas fun we had in California with John's parents...

Victoria's Birthday

2010-12-17T09:34:00.000-08:00

Victoria is 4!! This year we held a celebration for her at Jungle Jim's Playland. We invited about 15 kids and 10 showed up so it was quite busy. It was a Tinkerbell party so she had Tinkerbell cake and received some Tinkerbell related gifts. It was so nice to have it somewhere besides our house because we couldn't have had such a big party if that were the case. This way, all the other kids were able to have a great time too and I didn't have to clean up afterwards. :)

Victoria on one of the many rides at Jungle Jim's.

Later on that evening Victoria had her first dance performance at the Festival of Trees. She did incredible! We are so proud of her. I would post the video of her performance but it would take too long to upload. Just take my word for it. She's a good dancer. Here she is with some of her dance friends (Kennady and Kennedy, lol).

Top 10 Reasons why Winter is the best season

2010-11-29T13:35:00.000-08:00

10. It's beautiful outside. The snow really brightens up outside. In fact, the other day I thought our front porch light was still on bc the snow just brightened everything up! There's nothing like snow, especially because of...

9. Snowball fights! For some reason, even though it's extremely cold and all you can think about when you're outside is getting back inside you simply cannot resist when a ball of powdered ice comes flinging at you. Who wouldn't want revenge?! Not to mention, once you get started you forget all about being cold. No other season can you play with the weather...ever heard of a rain ball fight? Or a sunshine fight? Not gonna happen.

8. No Yardwork. It might not seem like such a big deal to you, but I hate doing yardwork out in a blazing sun. So when the ground is covered with snow and everything else is died off and I don't have to go outside to make my yard look nice (because it already does due to snow), I am one happy camper. Though, not literally a camper...camping in the snow is just insane.

7. Hot Chocolate. There is nothing like waking up and realizing your cold and then realizing you have the perfect drink to warm and wake you up. Hot chocolate. Speaks for itself.

6. Food. Not just food in general...but you know food you normally eat around the holidays. I'm talking about cookies, breads, hams, and all those other baked goods we put together. Makes a good excuse for heating up the house with your oven too...and you get a treat for doing it. :)

5. Hot Tubs. Yet another way to warm up and relax.

4. Snowboarding. Ok, I've only been twice, but I really do enjoy it. And I've learned to appreciate the fact that Utah really does have the best snow on earth. I used to play with snow (that was really just packed ice) and it is nothing like the snow here. And riding it down a mountain is incredible.

3. Christmas is coming. Once the snow hits I immediately start thinking of my preparations for Christmas, which is the best holiday as we celebrate the birth of our Savior. People are kinder and you can feel the spirit. People really stop thinking so much about themselves and start to realize the needs of others around them. It's a great feeling.

2. Football! I just love it when football season comes around. As if we needed an excuse to stay inside from the cold it just encourages us even more. Football is so fun to watch. And once February arrives, it's time for the Super Bowl, which means, even more good food and comforts of friends and family hooting and hollering.

1. And finally, the number one reason why Winter is the best season... Snuggling! I anxiously look forward to Winter every year for this very reason. Sitting with family around and big blankets covering us. It's just...WARM! And comforting. And great!

Well, I hope you enjoyed my list. And even if you don't like Winter (did you not read my list?), have a good one. :)
P.S. Don't eat yellow snow.

What happens when your kids no longer nap...

2010-11-15T11:00:00.000-08:00

Creativity begins.

A Ghoulish Halloween and a Puppy Birthday

2010-11-06T17:07:00.000-07:00

For Halloween this year Victoria was a witch (shown here with my vampire teeth): and Mikayla was a puppy. John and I were vampires (not shown) Our batteries died so we couldn't get a pic. Anyway, for breakfast I made them "ghost," which is what we call French toast in my house. It only seemed fitting to cut them into ghost shapes as well. :)
In today's news: Mikayla is two! My puppy is all grown up and actually has taken it upon herself to be potty trained! That's right! One day she just hopped up on the toilet and starting going and has been doing so ever since. She's great! Easiest potty training EVER! We held a birthday celebration for her at our place. She received lots of awesome fun gifts that she is enjoying very much. It's hard to keep Victoria away from them actually. We got her a puppy...which she loves! (Fake of course). But don't worry...she's spending lots of time with her other gifts too. Thanks everyone!

"Every dog has his day."

Spontaneous Combustion Excursion

2010-09-06T11:23:00.000-07:00

As Friday night rolled around we came to ask ourselves what we would be doing for labor day weekend. Generally, we work...not fun. But we decided to do something fun this time. So we decided we would go to Antelope Island for some good old fashioned camping. We didn't have our tent or sleeping bags, but we decided we'd sleep in John's new truck...in the back...with a blow up mattress. So that's what we did.Turns out there was a festival going on the same weekend. So we went there for a little bit.
Cute camping fun.
We also spent some time at the Great Salt Lake which was...salty and smelly. We mostly sat on the beach and ate lunch. We intended on staying Sunday night also, but around 5pm it started being ridiculously windy outside. We thought we would freeze if we slept outside overnight and thought it would be much nicer to just go home to our warm beds instead. So we left. Turns out a good idea because there were record lows for last night in September. Go team inspiration!

Slap on the Wrist

2010-08-26T09:50:00.000-07:00

Yep, I suppose I deserve a slap on the wrist for not updating my blog more. "Life is just too busy" isn't exactly accurate...more like "anytime I do get a free minute I don't have updating my blog at the top of my list". So here goes, the important big things...

John's white truck died again. This time we opted to not get it fixed and instead John bought himself a "new" old truck. It's a 2005 Ford F150 King Ranch. He's in love with it. He spends lots of time cleaning it and "getting it up to snuff" as he would say. It's a four door so we can put our kids in there and as an extra perk...it came with a dvd player! The dvd player will not really to be used for driving around town, but we plan on using it a lot with an upcoming road trip that we have planned. As a side note...I LOVE road trips!

We still have all of our properties and we still hate being landlords. Once John gets a chance (he's extremely busy at work this month due to production of new drugs) he'll be getting all the paperwork done to have his realtor's license again and we can get some of them on the MLS. Hopefully that will get us some offers despite the bad market. We are really just at the point that we'd like to move forward with something else even if it means getting less money than we originally thought we would. If we are going to have another child (don't freak I'm not pregnant) then we will need a bigger place and so we'd really like to save up for the house that we truly want our kids to grow up in. Right now, things are just too crazy for us. It's time to tone down. Pray for us! Here's the Provo duplex that's still for sale...we are now asking $189,000 instead of our starting which was $225,000. A big drop in price, but still no offers. We had a realtor for a while, but he didn't help much.

The kids are still doing awesome. We love them to death and wish we had more time with them...a problem that would be helped if we got rid of some of our properties.... Mikayla is talking quite a bit. Half the time I don't know what she's saying but I listen anyway. She can be really funny. We're hoping to get her potty trained soon...just have to start. lol.
Victoria will be 4 this year. Crazy! She's going to be doing a combined preschool and dance school in a few weeks. I know she'll have loads of fun as she loves to dance and ALWAYS asks about school. She's very intellectual visually. She'll take random things and make letters or shapes out of them.
Ok so, I'm good for another few months right? Ha ha. I'll try to update more...if my schedule ever gets "uncrazy". :)

And then two months pass...

2010-04-28T09:26:00.000-07:00

Well, March happened. Not sure what we did, but then April John and I took a 3 week vacation to Thailand and Cambodia. :) First, we drove to California to drop our girls off with their Grandma and Grandpa Riley who were so kind to watch (and spoil) them for us. Then we were off. Here's what we did-

April 3-4: Chased the sun in the plane. We caught it but lost 14 hrs. It took us about 24 hours or so to get there. Also, joined a club in the air. ;)
April 5-9 Phuket, Thailand

April 5: Shopping (we did lots of this throughout the trip). I also took a Thai Cooking Class this day. I learned how to cook Tom Yum Goon, Kao Put Gai, and Chicken Satay. Then, we swam at the beach.

April 6: Caught a bus to Phuket City where we saw their Butterfly Garden and Insect World and also went to the mall. We tried going to a club this night, but clubbing in Thailand is a bit different than in America. So we went expecting to dance and people are just drinking with really loud music in the background. So we didn't stay long.

April 7: We woke up with a little bit of a scare this morning. All the hotel staff had left because there was an earthquake in Indonesia. Last time this happened the Tsunami happened in Thailand and so everyone left without warning any of the guests. Sad, but true. "Every man for himself." Since no one actually knew if a tsunami would happen we were basically waiting for word to evacuate with our stuff packed. After a few hours, everything was fine so we went with our original plans of the day which were to go on an Amazing Canoeing Day Trip. They took us kayaking and to lots of different islands. It was nice, but John got burnt and therefore...

April 8: John was sick due to second degree burns on his skin. He didn't put lotion on...or very little. So we rested a lot this day and got massages and then saw "Date Night" at the movies.

April 9: Travel day... took a flight to Bangkok and then went to the train station so we could get a sleeper train to Chiang Mai. We spent 5-6 hrs at the train station waiting for our train, so we were a little bored, but we met "Brock." Brock was from England and was spending his time backpacking Southeast Asia. He kept us entertained for a few hours. We call him Brock because we never actually exchanged names. At some point during our conversation we decided we would give each other fake names because it sounded fun. We named him Brock and he named us Simon and Petunia. lol.
The sleeper train was actually pretty nice. We slept in a bed on the train as we traveled to Chiang Mai and didn't have to pay for a hotel for the night. Plus, it wasn't very expensive.

April 10-16 Chiang Mai, Thailand

April 10: Arrived in Chiang Mai and spent the rest of the day relaxing and then shopping.

April 11: Went to the mall, then swimming at hotel pool, and finally shopping at the night bazaar.

April 12: This day we went on a zipline tour throughout the Jungle. It was called Jungle Flight and it was pretty cool. Ended the day with shopping again...shocking.

April 13: First day of Song Kran. If you don't know what this is then I'm sorry to hear it, but this really should be an international thing. Song Kran is how Asia celebrates their new year. It originally began as a "ceremony" where the elders would pour water on the younger as a symbol of passing on to the younger generation (or something like that), but over time it became a large national water fight! Basically, the entire country shuts down and everyone has an enormous water fight. Seriously. Not kidding. It is the coolest thing ever.

April 14: Water battle continues.

April 15: Last day of Song Kran. Watched concert and got wet, of course.

April 16: Travel day...flight to Bangkok, bus to Cambodia border, taxi to Siem Reap.

April 17-19 Siem Reap, Cambodia

April 17: Angkor Wat Day Trip. This is our tuk tuk driver that drove us around all day to see Angkor Wat.This is John at one of the temples.

April 18: Shopped, Swam, Ate.

April 19: Caught bus to Sihanoukville. Checked in to new hotel and swam.
April 20-22 Sihanoukville, Cambodia

April 20: Entire day at the beach, lounging and what not. Many people walk around with stuff or services when you're on the beach. I got a pedicure for $3, while on the beach. Awesome. John also got his nails trimmed (thank goodness).

April 21: Spent another day at the beach. Dinner on the beach at night was very nice. Also, another must...coconut shakes.

April 22: Basically, everything in Sihanoukville was beach so yes, another day relaxing at the beach.

April 23-34 Phnom Penh, Cambodia

April23: Caught bus to Phnom Penh. Last time to shop or get anything else we wanted...so that's what we did.

April 24: Caught plane back to San Francisco :( but we got to see our kids again :)

So that was our trip. We had a lot of fun and really enjoyed ourselves. It was much needed. Hopefully, we'll be making another trip like this soon. Maybe even with our kids next time.

Videos of my Squids

2010-02-28T09:59:00.000-08:00

First video is of Mikayla taking her second step. I got it on my camera phone so the quality is not that great, but it's what I could grab the quickest. She learned to walk by dancing. :)

This is Victoria at the hardware store. Looks like John's not the only one that gets excited to go. And I must say, we find this hilarious. Our kids LOVE to dance.

Mikayla Broke Her Arm

2010-02-01T09:39:00.000-08:00

It's true. Mikayla is not as resilient as Victoria. A few weeks ago we went to California to welcome home John's younger brother from his mission. We flew in Friday evening and they took us all out to Round Table Pizza. Mikayla was cranky because it was actually an hour past her bedtime so when she walked off the bench and started crying I assumed that was why. After all, Victoria falls ALL the time and she's always been fine. Plus, she's a stick. If she falls you would think she would break. So naturally, Mikayla is fine. We all went back to the house and Mikayla went to bed...still crying, but like I said she was tired.
The next morning we all get up and as I'm changing Mikayla for the day I notice that she's not using her left arm. Then it dawns on me...she WAS crying more than the usual cranky cry, everytime we touch her arm she starts crying, and she wouldn't even hold a toy in it. So I took Mikayla to the ER and sure enough the X-rays reveal two fractures in her left arm. Some vacation huh? However, she's adjusting quite well and is recovering in her lovely green cast.One thing that I've noticed about the ER's that I like is that both times I've had to bring in Mikayla to the ER (the first being when I found out she was allergic to penicillin) they have seen her immediately. So if you ever have to go to the ER just hope that you're a baby. As well it should be that babies go first, it was just a broken arm...we could have waited. And in fact I was expecting to, but I guess nobody can deny helping a cutie like her.

Christmas 2009...I know I'm late

2010-01-04T13:26:00.000-08:00

This year we were graced by my family who drove all the way to Utah from NC to visit us for Christmas! It was great to see them especially since it's been a few years. We got to play games together, catch up on life, and just generally have a good time...after all, that is what the holidays are about eh? From left to right: my dad, my mom, and my sister Marisa.
My (little, or maybe just younger) brother Michael and I.We received lots of great fun stuff this year as usual. The tangible gifts were great, but the memories were better. For example, my older brother Daniel and my sister-in-law Kristen gifted us all a trip to Brighton Ski Resort to go snowboarding. This was my second time going snowboarding and it was way more fun than my first because I fell less. And it was nice to have that memory to share with my family.
Mikayla didn't get much this year because she's only one, but we don't think she minded. Victoria is really good at sharing things with her also and so she assumes that whatever Victoria gets is hers as well...which is kind of true.
For Victoria this year, we got her one of those motorized cars that cost like $300 in the store. But, of course, if you know anything about us Rileys you know that of course we did not pay that ridiculous price! John used his good bargain hunting skills and found one at DI for $25. It needed a new battery which costs us around $50. We then cleaned it up and made it look new. It used to have these stickers that I called "moo stickers" because it looked like cow print, but now the car is totally cool. Victoria's reaction? Just what we had hoped for (see video)...

Victoria's Birthday

2009-12-09T10:42:00.000-08:00

Victoria's 3! Time's flying by with this crazy one. We held a small celebration for her at our place with friends and family. She loved all her presents and exclaimed "Cool!" every time she opened one of her gifts.
The next day we took her to "Jump On It," which turns out it all the way in Lindon (I didn't realize it was so far away from us). It is basically a place with a bunch of trampolines right next to each other and a few blow-up slides. Victoria had a lot of fun there and I'm glad we were able to take her.

A Random Mixture of Updates...

2009-12-03T16:08:00.000-08:00

John is still busy.

Katrina is still busy.

Victoria will be turning 3 tomorrow! We'll be taking her to "Jump On It" this Saturday.

Mikayla can officially walk, although she mostly chooses to crawl because that mode of transportation is still faster for her.

We're still trying to sell our Provo Duplex. No luck. We fear this means we'll be landlords forever.

And, we're still blessed and have much to be thankful for...including all those that read our blog! So thanks to all our friends!

Just in case you were wondering...

2009-11-18T11:01:00.000-08:00

Mikayla says "Mama, Dada, Hey, and Uh-oh!" She also says, "Ah!" Which usually means she's screaming at us to look at her. She can now stand on her own (without holding onto furniture or people). We are waiting for her to take her first step. Should be any day now. So there's Mikayla's update.
Victoria will be 3 December 4. I've been wanting to take her to this place called "Jump on it" because she LOVES to jump and climb everything so we'll probably take her there as the day gets closer. She doesn't do much new, except learn new words and she's getting really funny. The other day we were "knocking on her head" and she looked at us and said "Come on in!" For more of Victoria's funny jokes check out our quote board to the left. We try to keep it updated.

Mikayla's First Birfday

2009-11-10T13:44:00.000-08:00

This past Friday, Nov. 6th Mikayla turned the ripe old age of one. Yay! We made it a year with our little bear! And to celebrate we held a small party with the great grandparents, unlce, aunt, cousins, and a few friends. As per tradition, Mikayla had her own cake...and dove in delicately. Mikayla would like to thank all those that provided gifts, those that came to her party, and anyone that's brought her a smile. We can't wait for another year with our precious bear (and Mommy hopes she never stops snuggling...at least until she's 10).

Victoria gave her the gift of throwing an old tape around her. She liked it.

Mikayla eating the present wrappings.
Yay!And of course, the cake!

Halloween Party!

2009-11-04T09:41:00.000-08:00

This year we decided to throw a Halloween party. Why? Halloween has become pretty boring. Since when do people stop giving out candy and why do people not trick or treat anymore? In all the years I've been in Utah only a few groups of kids have come to my door each year. Not to mention, there is nothing for us to do. Why not celebrate a holiday that gives out free candy and let's you dress like a complete idiot? It's a great holiday!So anywho, we through a party. We started with Fear Factor. Challenge #1: Dig around blindfolded in our mixture of who knows what in search for a spider ring. We only had one quitter during this one. Challenge #2: Eating Challenge. Challengers ate their slice of mystery meat (SPAM, which I've actually never had myself but have heard that it's not so good) and piece of this fruit called tamarind (which tastes good, but looks like poop). Once again, one quitter during this one. Challenge #3: We were down to 5 people. Challengers started by gulping down their "Jello drink", racing with their cup to fill it up in the well and bring it back to fill a bowl with water above the blue line, and then racing to the finish line where people pelted them with silly string. This was a timed challenge so that their would only be one winner. The winner won a shirt that said "I'm sorry I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am" and two king size candy bars. The winner was...Emily Nelson (whom actually dressed the same as me...we didn't plan it!"
During Fear Factor, while we transitioned between challenges, we held a costume contest. People voted for who they thought had the best kid costume (Thing One and Thing Two won),

scariest (Tie between the Pirate and the Construction Killer), and most creative (Shrek and Fiona).
Lastly, we held a haunted house. It was low budget and not really scary except for a few kids were scared. When you first came in spiders fell from the ceiling. I came out of a coffin to scream at people and John chased them out with a chainsaw. Overall, I think it was pretty fun. I hope everyone had an enjoyable time!

How we lost $210 to stupid people...

2009-10-20T20:46:00.000-07:00

Ok so here's the story and yet another reason why we no longer desire to be landlords. Every year we usually need to find new tenants for one of our places. This one is for a couple that wanted to move into our Riley house basement. They saw the place, signed a contract, and paid their $400 deposit about mid-July and were to move in in September. Mid-August comes around and they come over to get keys and let us know if they want anything moved out (i.e. couches that we provide). They say they'd like one couch removed.
Fast forward to one day before they are supposed to move in. We get a phone call from them saying they are no longer comfortable with the place and would not like to rent from us anymore. They promise to find replacements and to meet all our conditions as laid out in our sublet clause of the contract. This clause also clearly states that $200 will be charged for subletting. They are aware of this and in fact bring it up. They find replacements and everything goes smoothly until we return the remainder of their deposit ($400-$200). We can't be entirely sure, but we think the husband was not aware of the required charge and the wife was because we only spoke to her during the transition. Needless to say, the husband was angry that we would charge them for subletting because "they never moved in." Arguments continue...blah blah blah.

Ok, break in the story to explain why we charge this fee: 1) We have to deal with BS like this (excuse my french). 2) We need to make copies of new contracts, have an interview with new people, approve new people to make sure they are sane, travel back and forth from Salt Lake to Provo to show new people the place, continue to talk to old people about this and that, get old people's new address to send security deposit back, move couches AGAIN, etc. You get the point! We did a lot of stuff because someone changed their mind.

A few days later we get another phone call from them saying "We're going to take you to small claims court for not giving us the money back." Frankly, we think this is a bluff and also do not care either way because the contract says in black and white that we charge it. They have no argument in court. So we don't mind either way.
It turns out they weren't bluffing. Ok fine. We will win no problem. Our pre-paid attorney agrees. But we lost money right?...
Court was today. In small claims court you can mediate or wait for endless hours to litigate. John, with our attorney, decides to mediate to see if they could work this out because this is a waste of time really. Basically, the attorney calls him an idiot (by calling him kid over and over...i thought that was humorous because he was acting childish) and wants to go forward with the case. John, on the other hand, does not want to be there all night waiting for his turn with the judge so he continues to mediate with them. After being called kid over and over they probably realized they would lose if they went forward with their argument and so they agreed to accept $225.
How this happened...they were suing us for $360 total. The original $200 from their deposit plus $160 in court fees. Back and forth arguing with dumb people doesn't get you far... everyone was getting frustrated and just wanted to go home. John and the couple decided on $210, but the husband would not get over a measly $15 more dollars. So the attorney, so fed up with everything, pulls out $15 and ends it. Now everyone can go home. We could have won the case and gone home owing them nothing, but our time is valuable and we just wanted them to leave us alone. Sometimes I wonder why they let retards reproduce. It's really not fair to the rest of us. So, here's to paying people to shut up. Cheerio. Now I can play my video games in peace.

Jace's Birthday

2009-09-23T11:09:00.000-07:00

This past Monday we were all able to meet up with my brother and sister-in-law to celebrate my nephew Jace's birthday at Jungle Jim's Playland. We took Victoria there last year for her celebration just with us and she had fun and so she had fun again! Jace and Victoria were able to go on a lot of rides together. Mikayla and Ellie were able to have some fun too though. In fact, they had a crawl race and never finished...thanks to the many distractions, but it was still cute. And they're off...

Peekaboo! We're on the market!

2009-09-18T09:13:00.000-07:00

We finished! Sort of. We have finished most of the exterior paint. There is about one days of work more to completely finish, but nonetheless, we decided it was presentable enough to put the P Duplex on the market. We hope that we can sell it soon and that some of our troubles will alleviate. We are asking $229,000, which may be a bit high. Truthfully, we're not sure. The housing market is not good right now, but we have made it look really nice and we think based on the rents people can charge that it is worth that. If not, then we'll either keep it with renters or accept a lower offer. It's kind of just a waiting game now. Wish us luck.

In other ados about nothing, Mikayla plays peekaboo all by herself and it's really cute. She holds the blanket up, waits a few seconds, and then drops it down awaiting my response. It's so cute! Maybe all babies can do this...I don't know, but I thought it was pretty unique since I don't recall Victoria doing this. Here it is...enjoy.

Life as it is now

2009-09-08T16:05:00.000-07:00

It's been over a month since I've posted on our blog because we've been so busy. Thus, here's a very breif update of what's been going on with us:

We've decided as a family that we're tired of being landlords. The last straw was after an incident where our LDS neighbors gave us two days notice and then left us with an entire month of no renters. And the chaos never ends. People argue the contract, complain when things don't go there way, bail on the last month of rent, etc. Not to mention how much time it takes to maintain all the properties. We know it's not the best time to sell our houses, but the remainder of this year and next year we will continue to be really busy trying to get the properties ready to sell. We plan on keeping the Riley house for the time being while we decide where we should be and where our business ventures will lead us. Our first goal is to put the Provo Duplex on the market...so we've been giving up most of our Saturdays (and Labor Day) trying to get the exterior finished painting. Here's the before picture of the Provo Duplex.

And the progress...we're painting it brown and blue, with accent white.

A few months ago we bull dozed our backyard...attempting to level it. I don't have a before picture, but just imagine a forest. Ok, it wasn't really a big forest...but there were about 4 or 5 huge trees in the middle, plus everything was unlevel.

Also, we believe it was last night...we were robbed. We stupidly keep some of our power tools lying right in the back yard. Anyone in our neighborhood could easily see what we have and come and take stuff in the middle of the night. Frankly, I'm surprised it didn't happen until now. What was stolen was a power washer (thank goodness we were done using it), a compressor, and a gas powered chainsaw. We are most dissapointed about the chainsaw because we had just got it this year to finish cutting down more trees in our backyard and we weren't done with it. So now, it's probably sitting in a pawn shop and without a serial number we can't do anything according to the cops. My tax dollars at work...doing nothing!

So that's the brief summary. We'll continue to be busy working to get our houses presentable for the market. We really want to be out of this business. It's taking a toll on our family and so we've shifted focus. Please keep us in your prayers...we need it. If you want details feel free to ask.

A Trained Monkey or Two

2009-07-27T15:12:00.000-07:00

So about a week or so ago I declared Victoria officially potty-trained! Yay! No more diapers...for her anyway. She does have a few accidents every once and a while, but I'd say she's pretty good. What did it take? Lots and LOTS of stickers. Particularly the green ones. She has taken a liking to green and always wants a green sticker.
And, Mikayla is now crawling! She's not crawling on her knees all the time, but she does sometimes. She mostly drags herself everywhere, but I don't care. I'm just glad to see her moving about finally. Now she can at least try to get the stuff she's not supposed to. :)

4 years

2009-07-15T09:10:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow will be John and I's 4th anniversary. Yay! We made it! I guess 4 years isn't really that long, but when you consider that 41% of first marriages end in divorce in the US I'd say we're doing pretty good. :) We will be going to eat somewhere (ask John where) and then we're going to watch Harry Potter! I'm way too excited for this movie seeing as I'm 24 and probably shouldn't be dressing up like I'm going to Hogwarts, but you're only as old as you feel I suppose. So let's just pretend that tomorrow I'm really 11. Besides, I've been waiting way too long for this movie.
Anywho, I have discovered that 60% of second marriages and 73% of third marriages end in divorce in the US. So, basically...if you don't get it right the first time your screwed. I think people just expect to marry the perfect person and well, I hate to break it to you guys, but that guy doesn't exist! John and I have had our fair share of good fights, but I think we both realize that everyone makes mistakes and that helps. If only everyone could do the same, maybe we'd all have better relationships...so, here's to marriages! Mazeltov! And here's to Harry Potter finally coming out...cheerio!

Poker Face and frogs

2009-07-08T13:30:00.000-07:00

Victoria's favorite song right now is "Poker Face" by Lady GaGa. Whenever it's on the radio she sings it and at home she dances to it. Here's a video of her dancing to it and if I can get a good one of her singing it I'll post that too. We think it's funny.

Also, Victoria is still learning to pronounce things correctly (of course) so things come out a little wrong sometimes. The other day she was watching her Baby Einstein DVD and saw a frog on there. She started screaming "Frog! Frog!" Not a big deal usually, but when Victoria says "frog" it comes out sounding a lot like a vulgarity that I'm sure you can figure out. Well, for some odd reason instead of just saying "Frog!" she was saying "Frog me!" So of course we all turn to look at her like "What did you just say?" And well, yeah. Oh the joys of motherhood and translating for your daughter.

Roughin' it

2009-06-29T12:47:00.000-07:00

This past weekend we took our first family vacation (that wasn't visiting other people) to Yellowstone National Park. We had so much fun. We left Friday morning and 6 stops (it takes a lot of stops when you've got a 2 year and 8 month old) and 9 hours later we arrived only to be rained on. Nooooo! The rain was not supposed to happen, but we hoped that Saturday and Sunday would be better. We set up camp and cooked our first tin foil dinner in the rain. Then, of course, we made s'mores.

Later on, we went to bed and it was freezing cold. I had a hard time sleeping because it was so cold, but luck was on our side and Saturday was a bright and sunny day. We ate some granola bars and fruit and set of for a day of exploring. We saw a lot of awesome things, including animals walking right on the street with us. Need a ride? My best picture I took was of a grizzly bear. We were driving along and saw all these people pulled over and looking at something. We asked what they were looking at and well, here it is: the grizzly bear. It was so awesome to see one up close like that. The ranger, however, was getting mad because there were so many people that the road was being blocked. Plus, I'm sure he was worried about our safety.

John enjoyed seeing the hot springs the most and was disappointed that we didn't get to swim. They wouldn't let us because the water was too high and too cold. :( That night we had another tin foil dinner, but unfortunately I got food poisoning. I threw up that night, but I still had fun. We drove home Sunday and hopefully we'll get to have another vacation soon.

Best Buy...no place for kids

2009-06-23T10:43:00.000-07:00

Last night we all went to Best Buy. John was looking around for a surround sound system. Victoria was bored of course. So she resulted back to her running around and jumping off of things. I found these chairs we could sit in. They were black leather. Inbetween the two chairs was a coffee table. Victoria climbs the coffee table and jumps into the empty chair. She does this a few times. No harm done. And then...CATASTROPHE. Victoria lands her face on the arm of the chair. At first I thought she was laughing. She's always jumping off things. But then I realized she was crying. I lift her up to find that her eye had been cut. It's pretty bad. John and I then debate for the next 5 minutes whether or not we should take her to the hospital. We decide it's not bad enough to take her because she stops bleeding, but now she has this huge cut eye. Sad, but she's truly a pirate now!On a happier note, Victoria is potty training herself! :) A few days ago she asked to go and she's been in underwear ever since. She's had a few accidents, but she's learning and she pretty much takes herself. If she has to go she just jumps on the potty and then asks me to come wipe her. Yay for me! Unfortunately the toilet at Best Buy scared Victoria by flushing while she was on it. Scary for a child! So I couldn't get her to go there even though she said she had to, but at least she didn't have an accident in her pants. The true test will be night training. Anyone have tips for nighttime training?

Victoria's "New" Bike

2009-06-18T18:44:00.001-07:00

Victoria likes riding bikes. Ok, most kids do. So we wanted to get her a tricycle she could ride around on. Or at least try to reach the peddles on. I was at the store and saw one that was really cute. It had a little bucket on the back to put stuff in too. I didn't see a price tag anywhere indicating the price, but I figured it couldn't possibly be more than $25 so I bought it for her. However, to my surprise it rung up as $45! What?!!!! That is expensive for a little tricycle. So I brought it home and asked John what he thought. He thought it was nice, but agreed with me that $45 was a lot for it. So, being the resourceful people that we are...we returned the bike and I bought a can of purple spray paint instead. John went to DI and bought a used, but nice bike for $5. I then spent the next few weeks cleaning and spray painting what is now Victoria's new bike. Yay! I think I did ok. It doesn't look brand new by any means, but it does it's job and for the short time Victoria will be using it she doesn't know the difference, which is one of the reasons why kids are so awesome! Total investment = $10. Which means I saved $35. Booyah!

Reading

2009-06-03T13:41:00.000-07:00

9 days. That's how many days until I'm the ripe old age of 24. In my ward here I'm still really young, but of course like every year that passes I feel as if I'm getting "old." Every year people ask me what I want for my birthday and I usually say "I don't know," because well, I don't. I never can remember exactly what I want when people ask. It's not like when I was a kid and I could tell you loads of things I wanted. Perhaps, it's the realization that it costs money for others to buy you things and you don't want to ask for a car, which is what you really want, but it just so happens to cost a bajillion dollars. I think this happens to all of us, but I'm realizing that even at 23 I'm still figuring out who I am. So the point I'm making? When I figure it out I'll let you know.

When I was growing up I didn't like to read because I didn't want to be coined a bookworm/nerd. But you know what? I like reading. So there! The problem is that if I start reading a series I have to finish it...which is kind of annoying to be honest. I wonder if there is ever an ending to these stories. For example, I just finished reading "Uglies" by Scott Westerfeld only to find out that I have to go buy "Pretties" now to find out what happens next. Complete cliffhanger! It's a great book and I do recommend it, but can't authors just write one huge book and get it over with? I can't stand the waiting! And also, I believe there is another book after "Pretties." Also, the Harry Potter series. I know it's supposedly over, but I still want to know what happens next! On top of that, I'm told I should read the Twilight series. Ok, the movie was good. I'll admit it. But I'm not all that into vampires. Just like I wasn't that much into magic when I started HP, but now I'll be wanting more info until I get it. And what's even worse these characters aren't even real!

The Start of Solids

2009-05-15T11:46:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't been keeping up by posting, but Mikayla finally started solids a few weeks ago. The doctor told me to wait until she was 6 months old so I tried, but she really REALLY wanted to try what we were eating and who can deny such a beautiful baby her desires? We started with baby cereal and she took it well. This week I started her with some vegetables and a fruit. So far, she dislikes green beans and likes peas, carrots, baby cereal, and prunes. I am so amazed at how much she eats. She eats an entire jar in a sitting and still wants more. For Victoria to have ever accomplished this feat would have been incredible. Sadly, at Mikayla's 6th month check-up she dropped to the 5th percentile in weight. Victoria is in the 2nd percentile. Because of this I'm convinced that other babies are just too fat. Seriously, I know my babies are small, but 5th percentile, really? Ridiculous.
Victoria loves helping me feed Mikayla. She sometimes likes to act like the mommy and other times likes to act like the baby. She's 2. I'd give her a break, but her mood swings are killing me. I swear she has bipolar disorder. Here's her in her "mommy moment."

And a little "not-so-mommy moment." (Look at her head). She did this when Mikayla's mouth was full and she wouldn't take anymore.

My Little Angel(s)

2009-05-04T11:23:00.000-07:00

Victoria has always been such a well-behaved monkey. They say that if your first one is good your next one will be a "monster." So naturally Mikayla was destined to be a colicky nightmare. I was preparing myself for this. I expected myself to be begging for sleep and silence. Well, I'd like to know who "they" is because Mikayla is even more well-behaved than Victoria. She hardly ever crys and is always contempt to just look around if I'm unable to play with her. I must be lucky. I love these babies. Happy Mother's Day to me...everyday!

Snowboarding and Easter Galore

2009-04-16T12:09:00.000-07:00

I've always wanted to try snowboarding and I finally got my chance this past weekend. The old Elder's Quorum President (John is the new one by the way) got us these free lift passes. Generally, they are pretty expensive and we thought we better take advantage and go. John had been a few times before so he had a lot of fun. I fell a lot, as to be expected since it was my first time, but it was still awesome. I hope I get the chance to go again sometime. My second run down was a lot less falling and more boarding. So yippie!
For Easter, Victoria got to go on an Easter egg hunt this year. We were going to take her to the one they have in the park every year, but of course we were snowboarding. So we did one for just her. She liked it. Here's a video.

V in bib

2009-04-10T09:30:00.000-07:00

I have not done a post in a while and thought it's about time I should. A few weeks ago John and I were playing video games. While another game was loading we looked over into the kitchen and bust out laughing. Victoria was nude except for a bib she had tried to use as pants and a towel she was covering the rest of herself with. This is the result.As for an update on Mikayla, there is none! Just kidding. She's doing great. She's continuing to grow and will soon share clothes with Victoria. She's much better on her stomach than Victoria was so perhaps she'll learn to crawl sooner. She hasn't started solids yet because the doctor wants to hold it off at least until 6 months due to the benefits of breast milk. This was not good news for Mama who looks forward to the days when she won't have to have a baby on her all the time. Future updates for us include: Easter and snowboarding (something Katrina has always wanted to do). Until then...a message from Michael Scott of the Office: "They say you should never hire your friends, which is true. So I hire my best friends and this is what I get?"

Mikayla laughing

2009-03-18T13:07:00.000-07:00

Mikayla is a ridiculously happy baby. We love how happy she is all the time. If we ever want to hear her laugh we just let her jump on our bed with her sister (yes, we allow our kids to jump on the bed). Hopefully you can hear her laughing. It's so cute. Enjoy.

Again! Again! The first day of "Fake Summer"

2009-02-25T12:59:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was what I considered to be the First day of Fake Summer. Fake Summer is when it looks really bright and sunny outside and a great day to go to the park, but when you step outside the wind is blowing freezing cold air in your face. I did not realize this until after I had packed everyone up and got everything together to go to the park. So we head out despite the fact that it's a little too cold for Mikayla. Sure enough we're only at the park for about 5 minutes and Mikayla starts crying because it's too cold. I felt so bad because Victoria was having so much fun going down the slide and saying "Again! Again!" I tried to keep Mikayla warm, but I ended up having to leave and Victoria was not happy with that. So what I have to say is..."Curse you Fake Summer!"

I have some good news. Our memory card saved some of Mikayla's photos that I thought were lost. So really, except for most of the ones from her birth we have all the pictures we've taken of her. Yay!

Sad news

2009-02-16T10:15:00.000-08:00

About a month ago John's laptop all of a sudden stopped working. We had no idea why. It was sudden. This saddened us because we had a lot of stuff on there. We mostly wanted the pictures back because we had no prints or a backup copy of them. So we took it to PC laptops to get fixed. After a week they finally got back to us and informed us that we needed a new hard drive. The tech tried to get the old information off, but he couldn't. John's laptop had all of Mikayla's pictures on there and some of Victoria too. I'm so sad that we lost all Mikayla's birth pictures. We now only have about 5 or 6 photos of Mikayla since her birth. This is one...she's sad because we lost her pictures.

Vintage Photos of Victoria

2009-02-07T17:50:00.000-08:00

I guess it really can't be "vintage" since Victoria is only two, but I found some old photos of Victoria that I thought were cute so I'm going to post them. I have photos of Mikayla as well, but they are on John's laptop which is being repaired right now. I haven't forgot about Mikayla don't worry. As soon as we get the other laptop back I'll post some of Mikayla.The story behind these two photos is that I went upstairs I believe to take some garbage out. Victoria who is probably 6 months or so starts crying and climbs into her car seat. When I get back downstairs she is crying and looks at me like "Don't leave me. Take me with you." I thought it was so cute and smart of her to think to get into her car seat because she thought we were going so I took the camera out to take some photos. She immediately stops crying and does what I call "the model pose."

This one is of Victoria just hanging out on the couch. I thought it was cute.

We hate plumbing!

2009-02-03T10:46:00.001-08:00

The worst part about having homes is taking care of the plumbing. So far this year we've had a busted pipe at the Provo duplex, all the plumbing to do so that their are no leaks there as well, a leaky faucet at the Riley house, a clogged drain and broken pipe at the Salt Lake house, and a clogged drain in our laundry room. John usually tries to take care of these so we can save money, but we gave up on a few of them and just called plumbers. Apparently, the problem in our laundry room here took care of itself so that saved some money. Yippie! We're taking care of the Riley house faucet tonight and the last thing will be to fix the pipe at the SL house and then hopefully NO MORE because we quit! We hate plumbing!

Some tips for buying products

2009-01-19T14:03:00.000-08:00

Ok to be honest I'm a little bored...and tired...but I don't really want to take a nap so instead I thought I'd leave some hopefully helpful tips for things that I recommend buying and some I do not. We'll start with the things not to buy since it's fresh in my mind.

5 hour energy
Never ever buy this. It does not work! I like energy drinks ok and have drank them in the past (mostly because they taste good and give me a good boost) and yes they do kind of poop you out by the end of the day so it would be great if a product didn't make you "crash" after drinking it. So John decides he will try it. It costs us I think 3 or 4 dollars for a shot sized drink. John drinks it one morning and I think that perhaps we'll get a lot done. Do you know what he did for 5 hours? He sat in front of a laptop and browsed the internet. I'm not even kidding you. In the words of Napoleon Dynamite, "It's a piece of crap. It doesn't work."

Swiffer Mop
I had the opportunity to try this a few months ago because an old tenant left their's behind. I place the wet napkin thing where it's supposed to go and it doesn't hold very good, but I try mopping the floor anyway. I get a little done and what do you know it's covered in filth and I already have to change out the napkin for a new one. I finally finish cleaning the floor after replacing the napkin about ten times, which aren't cheap. Not only that but it doesn't pick up very well. I end up pushing things around the floor rather than picking it up. Not to mention it's hard to manuever.

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser
This is the most flemsy sponge ever. Sure it eventually gets some stuff off, but it's only because I'm scrubbing so hard I feel as if my fingers are actually the thing cleaning it. Plus, it breaks itself apart so easily you'd have to buy a new sponge each time you clean something.

Now for some things I do recommend buying:

Samsung Appliances/TVs
Did you know Samsung makes appliances? I thought they only did TV's. Well they do both and I must say they do a great job. Our nice TV is Samsung and we love it. I think I like my Samsung microwave even more though. My favorite is the 1 minute button. All you have to do is put your food in the microwave, press the 1 minute button, and leave the room. It's awesome. There's also the popcorn button which NEVER burns my popcorn...EVER! I used to hate guessing how long to place my popcorn in for, but Samsung has solved my problem. Also, the potato button cooks potatoes perfectly. So buy Samsung stuff.

Easy Off Oven Cleaner
Do you remember looking at commercials of cleaners and saying "yeah right! Nothing cleans that well." And you're right, most products advertised do not do that well, but Easy Off really does clean well. In fact, when I used it on an oven that an old tenant left sooooo dirty I thought it would never look good, it cleaned it so well it looked like new. So I took it home and used it on another dirty oven and it looked virtually new as well. Trust me, just follow the directions and use it.

Oxi Clean
As much as I hate Billy Mays always yelling at me through the television set to buy his product I've been informed by John that Oxi Clean works really well on carpet stains. I haven't seen it for myself, but John says we're to use it where Victoria spilled hot sauce on our carpet. So, we'll see.

Well that's all I can think of for now. If there's more I discover I'll pass it on.

Three cheers for us!

2009-01-16T10:38:00.000-08:00

We have officially finished the duplex remodel...except for a few minor things, but it was enough to sell a contract. Here are some after pictures. The new kitchen has new tile floors, updated cabinets, brand new dishwasher, brand new plumbing, new paint, and a one-year old fridge.

The new living room has brand new carpet, new heating element, and new paint. It used to have this hideous green carpet and was all white (pretty boring). The bedroom also had new carpet, but we didn't have time to paint it.The bathroom received brand new tile floor, new vanity, and a brand new window (the old tenants broke it and decided not to tell us). All in all, it was a long and tiring process and took way longer than expected, but we're happy to be done with it. Our kids were with us while we were remodeling and poor Victoria was bored out of her mind. We tried to keep her entertained while we worked, but it was hard to do. I can't believe she puts up with us...although I guess she doesn't have much of a choice.

December 2008 Challenge

2009-01-06T10:16:00.000-08:00

December's challenge ended up being a disappointment. For the longest time we've been trying to get our laundry room finished. Before it had this hideous red carpet, was painted all white, and things were EVERYWHERE! All of the stuff when we first moved in wasn't even ours. So December was it. We were going to finish the laundry room and get organized because to be honest the laundry room is sort of our storage space. The laundry room has been painted and most of the flooring is done. Unfortunately, we had to order more tiles before we could finish, which took two weeks to get in (I ordered in the middle of the month). And so of course, the floor did not get finished in December, which means that everything isn't organized and put away either. Not only that, but the tenants on the right side of our Provo duplex decided to bail on us about the 4th of the month. We thought, "Well, it's ok. We'll just find new tenants." It turns out it's hard to find tenants when the place is over a hundred years old and doesn't look so up to date. So about mid-month we decide it's just time to remodel that side. We hope to sell the duplex this year and so it was now or never for a remodel. So the challenge officially got switched in the middle of the month to the remodel. Well, with it being such a big undertaking and with the holidays we were unable to finish before January. To this day we're still working on it, but we hope to be done with everything today and we have some interest so we're hoping to sell a contract as well. Wish us luck!

Victoria's Birthday

2008-12-09T14:54:00.000-08:00

Victoria is now officially two! Yay! Two years have gone fast. On Thursday December 4, 2008 John and I took Victoria to Jungle Jim's Playland where she was able to ride on their rides as many times as she chose. Her favorite was the one in the background of the first picture. It spun you around in an airplane and would go higher if you held down the lever. Victoria sometimes did not realize how to get higher, but she loved going on that one and went at least 5 times.
Then, Saturday December 6, 2008 we threw her a Bug Party. She had some friends over and we did some games. From left to right: Mila, Jace, and Maverick.

First they played "Put the Dot on the Ladybug" which is exactly like "Pin the Tail on the Donkey" except for it's a dot and a ladybug. Then, they all went on a Bug Hunt and collected bugs that I had hidden. Whichever bugs they found they were able to keep.

Next they ate bug cake which I made to look like bugs. And of course, the presents. Victoria enjoyed all her gifts (and is still enjoying them) and had a great time playing with her friends. Happy 2nd Birthday Victoria!
Also, here's a picture of Mikayla at Jungle Jim's Playland because I know a lot of you would like to see how's she's coming along.

November 2008 Challenge

2008-12-02T10:24:00.000-08:00

Last month's challenge was kind of a combined challenge broken into three parts: things to be done before Mikayla arrived, things to be done after Mikayla arrived, and things to do in general. We were successful in completing the following: installing most of our doors with latch plates, planning Victoria's upcoming birthday party, following through on Thanksgiving plans, clearing our yard of trees that we had cut down, and taking care of a lot of our Christmas gifts. Also, my challenge was surviving the month with a newborn...which I successfully accomplished. We did sell our Crown Victoria too. Yay!
Victoria really loves her new sister and is nice most of the time. She has however figured out how to climb into her old crib and now tries to wake Mikayla up when she's sleeping. So I've always got to watch what she's doing. The other day we caught her in the crib with Mikayla's binky in her mouth and a blanket on her. We fear she is regressing in her development. We've been setting up for Christmas as well. Victoria has a "Little People Nativity Set" curtousy of her Grandma Pereira. Sunday while she was napping I set it up. John reminded me that she would just take it all down after her nap. I said I knew that and that is why I took a picture of it. So it was looking nice for probably an hour. Merry Christmas!

The birth of Mikayla Isabella Riley

2008-11-10T09:38:00.000-08:00

That's right, she's here! Mikayla Isabella Riley was born Thursday November 6, 2008 at 4:52AM. She weighed 6 lbs 1 0z and was 20 inches in length. Wednesday at about 3 PM I began having contractions, but I thought nothing of them because they were irregular. So of course they were Braxton Hicks right? Well, they continued to be irregular for 5 hours and I thought that was a bit long to be having them. Around 5 PM John and I went to DI because I figured they would go away and they didn't. I finally went to the hospital at about 9:30PM to be checked. The nurse checked me and said she thought I was dilated a 5 or a 6! What?!!! Well, she wasn't sure so she had another nurse check me and she confirmed that I was dilated 5. Wow! So I guess even if your contractions are not regular you could be in labor. Mostly Mikayla's been sleeping all day and night except for when she wakes up to eat and things are already tough. We'll get on track though. Thanks to everyone who has been helping us out or giving us calls for congratulations. Here's pictures of the lovely Mikayla. Victoria loves her new sister/shopping buddy.

October 2008 Challenge and Halloween

2008-11-01T15:53:00.000-07:00

So John comes home one day with an idea. We have "monthly challenges" for ourselves. Each month we choose a challenge. Something that is a goal, ambition, or whatever it may be that we try to complete by month's end. This was our first month and our challenge was to de-clutter our house by selling or getting rid of the things we did not need or want. In doing this we made $195, which we then used to buy Victoria's winter clothes and had a little left over for whatever. This was of course a bit lower than we expected to get because we were trying to sell our car, but we'll keep trying to sell that even though the month's over. There are also a few of our "junk" items we are trying to sell so hopefully we'll be rid of those soon. It was a good time to do that because we'll be having a new baby soon also. So, yay for challenges!
Now, as for Halloween, Victoria was a ladybug this year. I was a 9 month pregnant lady (which actually is quite scary) and John was a chemist at a Nuclear Power Plant. Here are some pictures. I would had one taken of me, but our batteries died and well I didn't feel like changing them. Sorry for the blurriness.

Peanuts for now, other presents later

2008-10-19T17:41:00.000-07:00

Victoria already got her presents for her birthday and Christmas from Grandma Pereira, but she doesn't know it yet. No matter though, we think she was perfectly fine with her box of peanuts. Yay!

Drumroll for...

2008-09-29T16:18:00.000-07:00

...the new baby name. We're pretty sure the name of the new baby girl will be:

Mikayla Isabella Riley

We look forward to having Mikayla in our lives. We think that "Lizzie" (from V's middle name Elizabeth) and "Izzie" (from Mikayla's middle name Isabella) will have a blast together. Victoria is excited as far as we can tell. We've explained it to her and think she understands. Thank you for your votes.
Also I think I said I'd let you know what we decided on potty training. Well we decided to go for it and V was doing pretty well. She loved the praise when she was successful and when sometimes tell us when she needed to go, but in the end she truly was not ready. She would still go in her diaper whenever she needed to and eventually did not care for it anymore. So we'll be having two kids in diapers, but oh well. When she's not ready, she's not ready.

Name picking time...

2008-09-15T10:20:00.000-07:00

Ok so we've narrowed it down to names that we like. We're no longer taking suggestions, but would like to see what everyone thinks of our narrowed list. Vote in our poll for which name you like the best. :)

Disclaimer: Final decision is still John and Katrina's. We are just curious as to what you all think.

We may be broke, but at least we do it in style

2008-09-11T14:52:00.000-07:00

That's right...that's our new 2006 Ford Explorer Eddie Bauer edition! A few days ago the Crown Victoria would not start again. We'd been having a few problems with it before, but decided to keep the Crown Vic to save money. Well we got tired of it. We've got bigger and better things to do than to worry about cars. Plus if we ever were looking to get one now is the best time to do so because it's definitely a buyer's market. Just to give you an idea of how good a deal we got let me tell you the price of a brand new Ford Explorer that's NOT Eddie Bauer edition = $40,000 at least. Now guess how much we paid for this one? It has 21k miles, leather interior, a clean record, is still under warranty, and not to mention looks brand new. Ok, we paid approx. $18,200 including taxes and registration! Isn't that amazing?!!! I'm so excited and relieved to have this. I feel so much safer and lucky. More pictures...yay!

So now all we've to do is get rid of our Crown Victoria and sell John's 1970 Ford Mustang and we'll have covered most of the cost...hopefully. I'm sure we won't be able to get a whole lot for our cars, but one could hope. Also, we finally finished our kitchen mosaic and we're almost done with the kitchen...we need to do crown mouldings and seal a few more things before we're done. Did I even mention we were doing a mosaic? Well, we were and it takes a while. So here that is.

Video of Victoria and such

2008-08-21T08:44:00.000-07:00

In honor of the new Riley baby to come we now have a pink page. Yay! We are still deciding on a name and still taking suggestions. We have a few picked out that we like, but we are not going to say what they are until we've narrowed it down. Also, my new camera that takes pictures also does really awesome video recording. This was our first take last night of Victoria. It's not that exciting, but we were just trying it out. Let me know if it doesn't upload and enjoy!

I now present to you, Victoria Riley...

In other news when we were in Provo working on painting the exterior of our Provo duplex Victoria got paint in her hair. A lot of paint actually. Here are some pictures of the damage. There is still a little left to get out and yes, I have tried peanut butter. It did nothing except maker her hair smell like peanut butter!

Ultrasound results

2008-08-06T17:12:00.000-07:00

Today we took a break from our "Provo Vacation/Work Week" and came back to Salt Lake. John had to go to work and I had an ultrasound appointment. I'm sure you all are curious of the results. It's a hermaphrodite, none of you guessed it. Unbelievable! Ok I'm joking of course, but a surprising amount of you were incorrect. It's a girl! We're excited that we don' t have to change a lot and we think that V will enjoy having a sister. We plan on them having a lot of shopping sprees together and spending all of our hard earned money. :) As of this point we have no name picked out because we didn't want a recurrence of what happened with V when they told us it was a boy and then changed it later on. So we will now begin looking at girl names again. Yay! Suggestions for names are welcome unless you suggest really bad names. If you are consistent in suggesting bad names we will veto all further name comments from you. So don't suggest a bad name! Also, we haven't had enough opinions on potty training for V so if you could take our poll (to the right) and give an opinion then that'd be awesome. Thanks.

Little known facts about us...hopefully

2008-07-27T20:15:00.000-07:00

We were tagged by Daniel and Kristen to give six facts about ourselves so here goes:

John:
1. I hate blogging (Katrina is even typing this for John).
2. I like to watch Hannah Montana when my wife leaves the room.
3. I should've studied architecture in school. In retrospect, I should've become an architect.
4. I really really REALLY want a pool, but my wife won't let me get one until we have our final home.
5. I swore I'd never live in Utah growing up.
6. I speak Thai and Laotian fluently and am learning Spanish, Bermese, and Cambodian so that I can take over Southeast Asia.

Katrina:
1. I love to watch Broadway shows and plays. Also, comedy shows. Oh, and shows about crime because I am trying to understand the criminal mind, but my husband thinks I'm trying to kill him.
2. I get really cranky when I'm hungry. If you feed me you're my new best friend. If not, back off.
3. I can't "sit around" all day and do nothing. I'll go crazy.
4. I think John is the most talented person I've ever met and he's teaching me lots of new talents like how to tile, caulk, patch holes, etc.
5. I speak Spanish and a bit of German and am learning Thai (very slowly b/c of lack of time).
6. I want a new car. SUV really. I like the new Mercury Mariner. Want to buy me one?

We tag:
Everyone who reads our blog.

The Rules
A - Each person has to list 6 facts/habits about them.
B - After part A, go to 6 people's blogs and leave a comment letting them know to read your blog, and that they have been tagged.
C - List at the end of your posting who you have tagged.

Potty Training?? Please give opinion.

2008-07-25T18:06:00.000-07:00

So I've been going back and forth about whether or not V is ready for toilet training. The first time I ever put her on the potty and asked her to go she went! I was amazed. Perhaps, she is ready. Since then, she's gone a few times consistently in the morning and about once or twice since then in the afternoon. Granted on our NY trip we were unable to "train" her, but she's shown a few signs she's ready. Sure it would be AWESOME if I could train her before the new baby arrives, so my dilemma is this. If I wait until after I have the baby then it'll be a while since there is an adjustment period with a new sibling for both her and I, but if I start now would I just be backtracking when the new baby does come? And of course if she's ready, why not? So I need your opinion. Here's a checklist of what are signs for them being ready from Babycenter.org. I'll let you know where she's at and you give your opinion...please. :)

Physical signs:
Can walk and run steadily. YES
Urinates a fair amount at one time. SOMETIMES, mostly it's still whenever
Has regular, well-formed bowel movements at relatively predictable times. NO IDEA
Has "dry" periods of at least three or four hours, which shows that her bladder muscles are developed enough to hold urine. NO

Behavioral signs:
Can sit down quietly in one position for two to five minutes. YES
Can pull her pants up and down. YES
Dislikes the feeling of wearing a wet or dirty diaper. SOMETIMES (she'll care one day and not the next)
Shows interest in others' bathroom habits (wants to watch you go to the bathroom or wear underwear). YES
Gives a physical or verbal sign when she's having a bowel movement such as grunting, squatting, or telling you. YES, well sometimes
Demonstrates a desire for independence. YES
Takes pride in her accomplishments. YES?
Isn't resistant to learning to use the toilet. YES, she likes sitting on her potty
Is in a generally cooperative stage, not a negative or contrary one. YES

Cognitive signs:
Can follow simple instructions, such as "go get the toy." YES
Understands the value of putting things where they belong. NO
Has words for urine and stool. YES
Understands the physical signals that mean she has to go and can tell you before it happens or even hold it until she has time to get to the potty. NO

NY Vacation

2008-07-17T11:38:00.000-07:00

Roll out the red carpet 'cause we're back! We went to NY to visit my grandmother, uncles and a few cousins. I felt sick most of the time because of the humidity, but we walked around NY city and saw a Broadway show (Hairspray). "Wicked" was sold out so we couldn't see that.
Victoria was good and spoiled the whole time. One day we went to Playland and she went on all these kiddie rides, some of which were a bit rough for such a small person, but she's a daredevil. She loved it! I got sick when John made me go on one that spins around in circles. I told him I didn't want to do that one and that I would get sick, but he made me and well I got sick.
It was nice to see family and do a few things, but it was hard to coordinate things because of lack of a ride so at times we were at the mercy of others. Next time we'll probably take a shorter trip. But, bottom line, we're back.

4th, ok it was the 5th, of July party

2008-07-07T20:16:00.000-07:00

This year as usual we went to Provo for the fourth and watched the Stadium of Fire fireworks from our Riley house roof. Victoria enjoyed them a lot, but then fell asleep next to John and didn't see a lot of the show. She was so tired because she did not take a nap that day and it was passed her bedtime. After the firework display we jumped in the pool for a while because we were waiting for the traffic to clear up. It took so long for it to clear up that we didn't leave until 2am. Anyway, we had planned a bbq at our Salt Lake home for the next day so we had our own barbeque on the 5th with our Salt Lake friends. Here are some pictures from it. Above our friend Dani was trying to say it was the 4th (hence the 4 fingers) but it wasn't. Please ignore how tired and big I look in the last pic...I was tired and I blame pregnancy. If that counts for anything. :)

Swimming

2008-07-01T09:54:00.000-07:00

I did it! Well, John did it. We finally figured out how to transfer pictures from my new camera. It turns out my laptop ports are going bad and not always working properly so we transfered them using John's laptop instead. Here are some pictures of Victoria swimming with her friend Maverick. Everything was going great until he pushed her over and then she didn't want to swim anymore. Go figure. :)

V's Vocabulary and Katrina's Birthday

2008-06-15T12:45:00.000-07:00

People usually ask me what V can say these days. So I've decided to make a list of things that she currently says. Lately she's been catching onto words really fast...about one a day if we take the time to teach it to her. So next time you see her she'll probably know lots and I won't be able to keep up. I thought she'd like to know what her first words were one day. I tried to keep it in the order that she said them, but some of them are out of place. So here goes:

Dada, Mama, Whoa, Wow, Up, Pop (soda), Bop, Dog, Boo, Eye, Uh-oh!, That, Cheese, No, Open, Shoe, Juice, Hello, Bye-bye, Whoo-hoo, Ewww, Dude, Ow, Milk, and her latest...'Thank you'.

Keep in mind these all sound like a baby saying it so, for example, "hello" sounds like "lello" and "Thank you" sounds like "tank jou." This, of course, makes it cuter. :)

Ok so for my birthday John got me a new camera. Yay! So hopefully I can finally post some good pics and more...coming soon (when I figure it out). Also, a much looking forward to professional pregnancy massage at a spa because some days your back is just about to die and I'll be needing it. So there you go. That's the little update on us.

Anxiety at the Hospital

2008-05-28T19:41:00.000-07:00

I tried to post this earlier, but it didn't save. I told you all I would keep you posted on all baby happenings so here I go again:

Monday, May 19th I started to spot a little blood, but didn't think much of it because I did with Victoria as well. I was told if it got worse I should go get myself checked.
Tuesday, May 20th around 4:00PM I was bleeding a lot. I got scared and decided I should go in to the ER. I thought I was having a miscarriage. I called John and waited for him to come home. We went in and waited...a lot. I think I waited almost 2 hours to even get checked in. Victoria was running around the waiting room and John chased after her. I just sat nervously. When I get called in I get my blood pressure, temp, and heart rate taken. The EMT responder asks what's wrong and I tell him. He types it in the computer and leaves. Another person comes in and asks me what's wrong. A little annoyed I tell her. She types it in and leaves. A third person comes in and takes me to a room. In the meantime, John sniffs oxygen to pass the time. He gets high. I'm told to change and wait for a nurse. I do so. A nurse arrives and takes my blood for tests. I wait again. Another nurse comes for an ultrasound. Finally I can find out if the baby is alright. Thankfully the baby is ok...for now. It is healthy. "What a beautiful alien/skeleton thing!"
I go back to the room where another person is getting insurance info from John. Waiting and more waiting. For what? Test results and a pelvic exam so I can know why I'm bleeding. Victoria is cranky. It is passed her bedtime and John doesn't believe me when I tell him it'll take forever for the doctor to come in and that he should just take V home. 30 minutes later he finally does. I fall asleep waiting. I'm starving and I can't have food because if they decide to do surgery on me I can't have had food for at least 8 hours. Boo.
A nurse finally comes to save me from my misery. She explains she's waiting for a RhoGham vaccination. The doctor comes. I'm checked and she can't tell why I'm bleeding. She says it may just be a popped blood vessel. I now wait for my RhoGham shot. After I get it I have to wait 20 minutes to see if I have any side effects. Finally, finally, I am discharged. It is about 11:00PM. John comes and gets me and we go home. So in summary, everything is ok. I'm supposed to just sit around for a few weeks and try to stay off my feet. I'm finding this hard since I get bored just sitting around (go figure). And there you go. John is still high.

The Official Unofficial Announcement

2008-05-10T15:37:00.000-07:00

To all those that don't know yet this is the official unofficial announcement that I'm pregnant again. Yay! I'm currently 12 weeks along and am doing alright. I'm throwing up a lot like I did with Victoria, but I'm better prepared mentally for the task, which is good since I also have to watch Victoria. I waited to tell people this time because miscarriages are common (about 1 in 3). So don't feel like I was holding out on ya. I was holding out on everyone. We're excited and looking forward to another beautiful baby. And yes it was planned. We don't know the gender yet, but we'll keep you posted on all baby info. In fact, perhaps we'll do a poll for those that would like to guess (Sorry Kristen, I'm copying you).

Good Riddance

2008-05-05T11:42:00.000-07:00

Deleted by request of John

Our most recent purchases

2008-04-14T13:14:00.000-07:00

So as of today we have no money, but a brand new investment property instead. This is the house that is next door to our Salt Lake Duplex where we currently live. It is a 3 bedroom, 1 bath home. The previous owner only had it for a little over a year and did the following renovations: all new windows, new paved driveway, new electrical, and had the furnace fixed. Sure we paid for his "fix-ups" considering we wanted to purchase this house before for a lower price, but I guess on the bright side we did not have to do all the dirty work and to be honest we really wanted the land more than the house.

Plus, we already will have new tenants beginning in May because as the Lord works in mysterious ways He's done it again. A family that is in our ward has been wanting a bigger place for a while now. My husband discovered this because he was doing he's home teaching as he should (it still surprises me when he goes, but don't tell him I said that) and they had mentioned it to him. John then told them that we were about to purchase this place and that they could move in to it. They decided they could afford it and so we'll thankfully be having a LDS family move in next door.

As for another "big" purchase we have failed to mention... John received an exceptional bonus this year from work. It was way more than expected. In fact, it was four times more than it was last year. We were very excited and decided it's time we reward ourselves for all of our hard work. John has been wanting a big screen HDTV since who knows when and I told him he could get one with his bonus from work even if it wasn't enough to pay for it. We got one of course. Well, John got himself one (I'm not too big on things like that...I'd rather have a nice and reliable car. So drop him a hint for me). It's a Samsung 52" LCD tv and Blu-ray movies look awesome on it. Movie party anyone? Pirates marathon coming soon. :)

We thought you all should know...

2008-04-01T08:13:00.000-07:00

Friends and Family,

I don't know how to start this so I'll just come right out and say it... John and I are getting divorced. I know this may come as a shock to most of you, but let me explain. Over the past two years things have not been going as well as we have portrayed them to be. With John working so much it's just become overwhelming. We've had no time for each other. No time to grow. We'd been fighting a lot and we've decided it's time to move on. We've tried to work things out before and keep things going for Victoria's sake. We've even been in to talk to the Bishop, but nothing has worked. We've just got too many things going on in our lives separately that it's gotten out of control. We decided we will share custody of Victoria and that I will take one of our homes in Provo to live in. Perhaps I'll even finish school so that I can get a job. Who knows. All we do know is that we need your support at this time in our lives and anything you can do to help will be appreciated. Thank you.

Oh yeah, and ...

APRIL FOOLS!

The Adventures of the Kitchen Remodel

2008-03-12T12:59:00.000-07:00

So since we've moved in we've been working on our kitchen remodel. After our experience with re-doing the cabinets that were downstairs we decided it was worth it to just buy new cabinets. It took us way too long to finish re-doing the ones downstairs. First, we had to take them down without breaking them. Then, we sanded them down and stained them the color that we wanted. Then, we re-installed them. We also wanted to just make our own cabinet faces because we wanted the "mission - style" cabinets. So we had to cut those out and glue them together to make the new faces and of course stain those. Then we added new hinges and handles and finally it was finished. To the right and up is a picture of our basement kitchen remodel.

All that work led us to just buying new cabinets for our upstairs kitchen remodel. It was a lot easier and it actually turned out for the better. We wanted the Honey stained Alder ones, which compared to the oak ones that you just had to stain yourself would have been a $1000 more expensive. So, after much deliberation we decided to go with the cheaper oak ones and just to stain them ourselves, but at the last minute John decides we should go ahead and get the Alder ones to save us the trouble of staining and working on those. So he buys them and a few days later when we traveled to another Lowe's to buy the remaining cabinets that we would need we saw that they had them on sale for %50 off! We were not about to pay full price for all the other ones we had already bought. We said we'd just return the other ones and get all of them at the Bountiful store where it was %50 off, but Katrina decides that there is no harm in just asking the other store if they'd just refund our money since it would save us a lot of trouble and they would still have good customer service. So we call and ask and they agreed. So all of our Alder cabinets ended up costing us only around $700, which was even cheaper than the oak cabinets that we would have had to stain! Yay! Below, is a picture of the work in progess. Notice, the loveliness of the Alder cabinets. :)

Also, due to the value of granite countertops we decide to go with granite. We've haven't been able to do those yet, but we will be installing those tonight. We are only a few days away from being finished with our new kitchen (Katrina is way excited because that means she won't have to wash dishes in the tub anymore). Victoria has been helping out a lot as well. She helps to get the old adhesive off of the wall (well, she thinks she is, but she's really just cleaning it with a wipe) and sweeps the floor because John makes it all dusty in there. Isn't our Victoria the best?

Questionaire Extraordinaire

2008-03-04T08:53:00.000-08:00

So I stole this from Kristen who stole this from someone named Emily. So yeah, it's just stolen.

What's his name? John Bolton Riley
What's her name? Katrina Marisol Riley
How long have you been together? since August 2004, so 3 years 7 months
How old is he? 27
How old is she? 22
Who eats more? It depends on who is more hungry at the time
Who said I love you first? John
Who is taller? John
Who sings better? Uh, perhaps a music person could tell us
Who is smarter? Street smarts: Katrina, Book smarts: John
Whose temper is worse? I blame the lack of chocolate on my mood swings
Who does the laundry? Katrina
Who does the dishes? Katrina
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? It depends on the situation
Who pays the bills? Victoria. Her face sells millions of photos a year
Who cuts the grass? Whoever gets tired of the long grass first
Who cooks dinner? Katrina
Who drives when you are together? John
Who is more stubborn? Suprisingly enough John is...I never thought I'd meet someone more stubborn than myself
Whose parents do you see the most? John's because John's dad travels a lot for business
Who kissed who first? John kissed Katrina
Who asked who out? John asked Katrina
Who is more sensitive? Katrina
Who wears the pants in the family? Katrina wears pants more often because she gets cold. We try to make decisions together.
Where did you meet? Where every mormon couple meets...Provo, Utah
What was the first thing you said to your husband? "Your blender is broken?"
Where was your first kiss? First half-kiss was in the movie theatre, but first real kiss was at John's house
Did you have a long or short courtship/engagement? We were engaged for 5 months...is that long or short?
Where did you get engaged? At a park
Where were you married? Bountiful Temple, Bountiful Utah
What do you do now? Katrina is a mom, sells stuff online (which is what she's supposed to be doing right now), and remodels our homes. John is an engineer at a pharmaceutical joint and also remodels our homes.

Hi! We are the Rileys!

2008-02-27T12:35:00.000-08:00

Yay for us finally getting a blog so people can get updated information on what the Riley's are up to. If you haven't heard already here's what we do:

John (27) currently works for a pharmaceutical company in Salt Lake City called Watson's Pharmaceuticals and has been working there for about 4 years. He is also a remodeler of homes.

Katrina (22) is a stay-at-home mom that helps to remodel in anyway possible (which is mostly painting, patching holes, and caulking stuff).

Victoria (14 months) is the best looking toddler EVER and already knows how to use it to her advantage. She can sign for "milk" and when she has pooped. She says "whoa," "up," and "wow" along with "mama" and "dada."

And now, a little about our past to bring you to the present:

When John first moved to Provo he purchased his first home (now deemed "The Riley House") and began renting to BYU Single men while upgrading it. One year later he met his future wife Katrina who finally after a little protest agreed to marry him (I thought it was a really mean joke on me at first...full version of the story to be told later).
About 8 months into the marriage John decides to purchase another home, but this time with a friend. This is how we own half a home. We refer to this home as the "B House."
A year after being married John and Katrina decide (or Katrina was held down and convinced) it's time for a little rascal even though Katrina was not finished with school. 10 months later Katrina's stomach cringes with sharp pains of Victoria delight and 7 hours after that a wiggly rascal is born all while John sips Red Bull and watches the news.
About 3 months later John and Katrina decide it is silly to be living in Provo when John's job is in Salt Lake and Katrina is no longer in school and so John begins searching Salt Lake for yet another home. Finally, we find one that is suitable although it needs a LOT of fixing up and we buy our 2nd home ("The Salt Lake duplex"). Immediately we saw the potential with this home because it has a huge backyard. We could and may build another home in the back. But anyway, Victoria spends a lot of time with a babysitter while we fix up the basement of this home so that we can move in.
A few months after that John takes Katrina cruising for future home purchases and Katrina spots the next rental. It is a beautiful, historical, Victorian-style side-by-side duplex that Katrina insists they buy. This home is now known as "the Provo duplex."
After living in the basement of the Salt Lake duplex for about a year and being done with the remodel we set our sights on the upstairs which should bring you to about where we are. We've moved to the upstairs of the Salt Lake duplex and rent out the basement. We still hope to build a home in the backyard, but here is the great thing. Our neighbor has a huge back yard just like ours. We originally wanted both for this reason. We could build more homes if we had more land. And so now...what most people don't know yet is that our neighbor put his house up for sale. We made an offer and he accepted so now we are in contract to buy our 4th home. So yes we will own 4 and 1/2 properties by April! We are excited about our business ventures and love fixing up places so that we can rent out to others. The Lord has blessed us in many ways and we hope to keep moving forward. Thanks for everyones support and I hope you all enjoy our blogging.

This is "the Salt Lake duplex" where we currently live.