leaving leaving leavinggggg

WE ARE LEAVING IN 9 DAYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!


Cannot believe the time is nearly here. Cannot believe things are coming together.


I am SO ready to leave.

Don't get me wrong, I will miss people and things in England. But some people and some things I say goodbye to happily and freely!!!!!

I can't wait to be at home and to see my wonderful siblings again, and I cannot wait for my parents to have Giles in their lives. It's going to be a bumpy ride, but a brilliant one.


<3

Please wish us luck and pray pray pray for us!!!!!!

update on life....

There are many things going on!

1. Josh and I are going to Arcade Fire in Vegas on April 14th!!!!!!!!! We are going with my brother, sister, brother-in-law, and my dad!! It's going to be amazing. I've seen Arcade Fire once in 2008 at Coachella. My husband Josh hasn't seen them and is dying to, so it's definitely going to be a great night! It's going to be sooo amazing being there with my family, too! I CANNOT wait to see them all ahhhh!!

2. I've joined Weight Watchers Online. It's their new ProPointsPlus program, and I am excited and positive to take the challenge on. Basically, you just sign onto the site every day, input what you eat, and each food has a point value. My daily point value allotment is 29 points. I also have 49 extra points that I can use throughout a week. Those points allow you to have treats and to go out to restaurants, etc. You also get extra food points if you do exercise. Josh and I went all around Liverpool yesterday and were walking all around for at least a good hour and a half of good walking, and that got me 5 points! It seems a really great program and I'm doing good so far!

3. Josh, Giles, and I went to Liverpool yesterday, as mentioned above! It was such a lovely day out! I am obsessed with Liverpool. I think it's because it's the first place I came to in England, so it has a special place in my heart and I'm just in love with the city. They have built up so many new exciting buildings and shops, and the city is incredible for galleries and public art. There is just buckets of art around and of course I love that! It is just a beautiful, lovely place, and I don't care what people say about the accent! It's bearable and the city is more than bearable! We had a great time walking around, shopping, and enjoying the place. Giles was an absolute gem and saint throughout the whole day. He is so adorable and such a happy child! Once I was waiting in line to try something on, and Josh and Giles were standing a distance away from the line. And Giles spotted me and started clapping and waving and laughing! Haha I adore my happy boy!

4. Giles is now perfect at waving and clapping. And he started dancing!!! Hahah!!! I have been dancing in the mirror with him for a while and he always laughs and smiles. And then he started bobbing around with his head and body and it was just the most adorable thing in creation!! :P

5. And last but not least... for anyone who doesn't know.... I AM COMING HOME ON MARCH 18TH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am beyond ecstatic! But, however, it is bittersweet. Very bittersweet because I might not be coming with Josh. His visa appointment at the embassy is March 29th. We've tried and tried to get an earlier appointment date, any time earlier in March, but we haven't had much luck yet. So Giles and I are off the 18th and he might have to be off as soon as he gets the visa, around the first week of April. :<

Here is our life as we know it! We are just organizing everything at the moment, cancelling our phones, cancelling our car insurance, trying to sell our car, etc. I have to pack and sort our things, etc. Busy life getting ready for a HUGE life change! But we welcome it and are excited! CANNOT wait to see my family and friends again and there are great things to come! We are so blessed!

ef!

I'm talkin' bout Zac Efs, Zac Efron. This is embarrasing to me, but I completely have a huge crush on him. I'm not used to crushing on younger celebs (the guy is 6 months older than me). I love the classic oldies like George Clooney, etc. But ever since I saw him in Hairspray, he is deffooo hawtttt.
My husband knows this and is fine haha he laughs it off. And for this Valentine's Day, he even bought me a Zac Ef movie! Haha!! He bought me 'Charlie St. Cloud'. We hadn't seen it but I had wanted to for a while. We watched it last night and it was good. No cinematic masterpiece by any means, but Zac Ef acted well and it was all around decent.
I would never, ever, and I mean EVER, extend this Zac Ef crush to actually sitting down and watching the High School Musical films. They are beyond gay and no, I will never give them a chance! And that is Zac Ef as a wittle boy, not the sessy man he is now. But I have enjoyed him in Hairspray, Meeting Orson Welles, 17 Again (absolutely fab hah), and now this Charlie St. Cloud. And me likey what I see. :P

my baba

Update on my little Giles Evans...

-Giles LOVESSSSS to walk!!!!!!! Haha, okay he cannot walk for reals for realsies but we'll hold his hands and he will seriously walk all around! He takes really good big steps! As soon as he gets his balance, he will be up and running around!! It's so amazing to watch, hah! He is just barely getting an interest in crawling, but he would much rather be up on his feet.
-He is using language SOO much more now. He has always been so talkative, with all the oohs ahhs babas dadas didis ha ha hoo hoo so many sounds. But he has started including them in his cries or whines too! Haha! He seriously sounds like he's proper yelling and screaming at us when he's yelling AND going DADABAHADAHDDAAAAAAAAAA!!!! Hahah!!! So funny!
-He is just the happiest of happy babies. He is always ready to throw a huge smile. It is soo joyous to watch. He is so great with people and loves to make friends and smile at everyone!
-He is just shy of 20 lbs! SOO big! Can barely carry him around anymore!
-No teeth yet, don't know when they'll show up but we'll see!
-We have been showing him how to play with his voice for a long while now, like moving our finger fast over his mouth to make the Native American-like AH-WA-WHA-WA. But now he does it himself! Haha he'll wave his fist over his mouth when he's talking and make the broken sounds himself. :P
-There's this little rocking police car toy at my in-laws house, and Giles loves to rock on it and push the buttons, which make engine sounds and police siren sounds, etc. But he doesn't love rocking on it as much as he loves standing on it! Right when you put him on the bike, he stands right up and we rock him back and forth like that! Haha he loves to stand on anything and everything! So cool seeing him try to be a big boy hah he totally doesn't know his own limitations hah. Doesn't know that he's only 7 months old!


Well that's the recent info on my little angel!!!!!!! Hope you have enjoyed sharing in these updates as much as I enjoy giving them!
x

alllllmosstt, aalllmosstttt!!!!!

Hey all, this is a post about an update on Josh's visa and on us moving over to the US of A!!!

So as you know, we have been praying so much for the visa process to finally finish. We have asked many of our friends and family to be mindful of us in their prayers as well, as we were really getting nervous and upset that the visa process wouldn't finish when we needed it to, that they would throw another curveball at us, etc.

Well, Josh called the office today and they have told us that all is well and approved at their processing office! They were just waiting to allot us an interview at the US Embassy in London. They said those type of interviews take place in the first two weeks of each month, and that they still had to confirm if we could indeed get an interview in March!

OOOOHHHHHHHHH MYYY this news was such a relief to me! They don't need any more paperwork from us! All we need is to get this interview scheduled.

Josh and I have been praying that all this would be done by mid-March. I have complete faith that it will be! Heavenly Father is mindful of us and will bless us if it be his will!

I am happy to share this news with you all. I cannot wait to be at home in the States soon. I haven't seen most of my family or friends in over a year. And it's been over a year since we made the decision to move to the States, and over a year since this visa has been processing. It is such a blessing to have them all come to a close.

I am going to be home in March, as my great friend Jill has asked me to do her wedding photography on March 22nd! So Giles and I will be there for that, and thankfully Josh will I am sure be able to join us then too!

Thank you all who have prayed for us, love to you all! HOME SOOOOON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! x

What's up, doc??

Josh and I have just bought a collection of Looney Tunes DVDs! It has been our best purchase in a while haha I have always been crazy about Looney Tunes. They are soo funny and so clever. I am loving watching them and I know Giles and our future kids will love them as much as we had when they are older.

I recommend them to all! I think it's a must have. Great, original, hilarious, smart, innovative. Complete complete classic!!!

LOLZZ

We spent some time with our good friends Luke and Jerry this past weekend. They always turn us towards hilarious YouTube stuff, because we don't go on YouTube much. They showed us this 'Autotune the News' duo and it is HILARIOUS!!!! haha I was dying laughing.

See both videos. The first one is the real newscast. The second one is the autotune.
NOT that I in any way want to make fun of the situation that the woman was in, on this news story. It's just her ghetto fab brother and the autotune song that just KILL ME. Hahah if this ever happened to me, heaven forbid, I hope my brothers would step up for me on the news and hunt down the perpetrator! haha

as promised....

Here are the shots of my glam photoshoot that I promised.

Just got them in the mail today! Said they would take like 6 weeks, but I guess they just had to say that to cover themselves if it took forever. But yeah it was only a week!

Obviously these aren't like real images of the shots. They're me taking pictures of the pictures. Going to go soon to get them properly scanned in and printed up. So sorry for the horrible blurry grainyness of these!


If you haven't read about my crazy photo experience yet, see below.
xx

babababrriitttnneeeyyy

Everyone knows that I'm a mad Britney Spears fan fo lyfe. Through thick and thin! So, I trudged through a layer of thick crap last night to watch Britney on the show, Glee.

Crap indeed! Haha reaaalllyyyy don't like the show. But the Britney episode played in England last night so I had to watch. Britney talked on and on about her Glee episode for months it seems, on her Facebook and all that (yeah, I'm her number 1 friend :P) so I had to see it.

Brit was only on for like 2 minutes or less, so that was not good! I need my Britney! And even though I despise people who get famous off of other people's songs, some parts of these Glee Brit songs were okay. But I need to say that the main girl, don't know her name, she STINKS to high heaven. OH my gosh. Her voice is terrible high chipmunkish and she is just not purdy. And all this hype around her is so annoying. Ok I know everyone loves this Glee poo and I'm treading dangerous waters saying this haha but there you go.

Well bottom line is, I watched it, I saw my girl, and that is the end of Glee and me. I love Britney for life and no matter what crazy things she's done, she has had some KICK BUNZ moments in her career and she is just a rock star. She is so fab and I know she has many more fab moments to come.
x

art is life!

I've reallyyyyyy been missing university lately. I LOVE SCHOOL! I always have. And I absolutely loved my course at the University of Manchester. I studied art history, and the course was so great. It was so challenging and presented so many interesting debates, and intricate views of artists that aren't readily available. I miss being immersed in art and having it roll around in my head all day long.
I absolutely love motherhood. My life is not the same in a good way, I love Giles more than I can ever describe. I can't wait, though, to do a course again in the future. I love learning and I hope I can instill that in my children as well!

Here's some images of my favorite pieces of artwork.

lately

Giles Spencer:

He is talk talk talking away. All sorts of sounds now! Baba, dada, ti, ta, gada, but no mama yet, hah.
He can sit up perfectly! It's so adorable to see him just sitting there like the big lump that he is! Where did my tiny baby go??!
He rolls but can't roll back over onto his back haha. How does one go about teaching him that?? We're trying hah but yeah he's not interested in putting in that much effort yet haha. He still LOVES to stand but yeah not too much rolling around yet!
We've given Giles rice cereal for a while now, but we've just started on proper purees. We've done carrots so far and we're on peas now. He LOVES food haha, I can't shovel it in fast enough. It's so cool seeing him grow and eat real food now. But there's a huge downside, real poops! UGH! Not sweet baby poops anymore haha, so that's been gross!
Giles, like any kid probably, loves to watch other kids. He loves all of his British cousins so much, and we've just recently been blessed with a new cousin, baby Isabella!
Giles raises his arms now when he wants to be picked up, or when he wants mama to hold him instead of dada haha! It's adorable, I love it.



As for Josh and I, we're praying so hard for this visa to come through. It's been in the final stages for nearly 2 months now. We're just waiting for them to give us a dang interview at the embassy, and then it should be all squared away after that!! We would soooo appreciate all of your prayers so that this visa can come through and we won't have to be separated as a family (as I'm dying to go home! And my UK visa runs out soon anway!)



^My sisters-in-law, Charlotte and Holly, with all of my British nieces and nephews, minus Javen. This pic shows Evelyn, Sammy, Hyrum, Isabella, and my Giles.

vogue...strike a pose...

So yesterday I had my hair did and mah makeup done. And I had a professional photoshoot. Yeah. Fo realz. Haha

Why did I do such a thing, you ask?? Well, for my birthday last year, my in-laws got this makeover-photoshoot thing for me as my birthday gift. And about 9 months later, I finally used it haha.

It took me forever to use it because, well, to be truthful, I really didn't want to! Hah no offense to my good ol' in-laws, but they got me this gift when I was fat and pregnant. I also had permanent bags under my eyes then because I was finishing university and about to graduate, running my fat self around working as a waitress, and I was still Young Women's President at the time. So yeah, I definitely in no way shape or form was physically or emotionally ready to feel confident in front of a photographer.

And then, had my lovely baby Giles. And I admittedly have some baby weight still lurking on my body. And I hate it. And I DEFINITELY don't feel sexy or worthy to be photographed in any way. So I was putting it off.

But, alas, it expired at the end of January. So I trudged off to the studio in Manchester yesterday.

Got my hair did first. Was too poofy, so when no one was looking, and when the girl who did it was no where in sight, I frantically tried to tame it a bit. Then got my makeup done. They CAKED it on. And I know they have to do it so it makes you look flawless in the pictures under the studio lights. But next day I have 4 huge zits from it. So THANKS a lot lovely sweet gay guy for giving me these mt. everests on my face!

Then got into the photo studio. The photographer was a really nice young woman, probably just a couple years older than me. The studio had a few props, but it mostly consisted of chunks of wall paper everywhere that served as the different backgrounds. Some of the backgrounds were nice, but they had some HORRIBLE ones like fake brick and huge red roses and stuff like that.

The photo session wasn't too horrible. The girl made me feel pretty at ease and I tried hard to not make awkward, fake smiles hahah.

Then later, I was brought to the viewing room and saw my pictures. I got to choose one free one with the gift that my in-laws gave, but of course they try to sell you others like mad. And, I admit, I actually did give in. The pictures actually looked really nice! And the woman gave me a good deal. So I got 2 for 1, plus the free one.

Although I was dying not to go, it actually was a nice experience. I wouldn't want to do it again probably. It is so nice and fun when you're with people, but getting like full on glamour shots on your own just feels so weird to me. I'm not that person really. Maybe I was in high school, when my body wasn't completely transformed after baby-ness. But yeah, it actually was a great time and I thank my parents-in-law so much!

Can't show you pictures yet, as they're arriving in the mail in 6 weeks ish (if we're still even in England then! hah) but yeah. Just wanted to blog about this unique and weird experience! haha

pleasseeee don't grow up

Giles is growing up. Next thing I know, I'll blink twice and he'll be getting baptised. Another blink and he'll be a teenager with zits, who hates me. Then I'll blink a few more times and he'll be getting old, and he'll be admitting me into a nursing home. :/

I despise time! It goes way to fast :<

I am writing these melancholy thoughts over, I'll admit, a very minor occurrence. But it still tugs at my heart. Giles is not sleeping in our room anymore. He's in the next room and he's in a big boy cot instead of his little newborn swinging crib that he's had.

I won't be able to hear his little happy sounds he coos when he wakes up. I won't be able to hear his snoring or his dreaming sounds. I can only hear when he's screaming when he wants me to finally know he's awake and to come get him.

Well, I can't hear those things now. I don't have baby monitors. But I am friggin getting them because I hate this already.

Ok I PROMISE that I won't be one of these psychotic moms that babies their child so crazily till they end up living at home till their 40 or longer, having no friends and being completely maladjusted. I WON'T! Haha but I'll probably definitely have to fight off silly feelings like these for the whole of my children's lives.

Don't get me wrong, I am so happy in the now. Giles is growing and doing so many new things. He sits up soo well, he only topples over occasionally. He rolls over well and likes being on his tummy now (although he can't really roll back over onto his back yet! haha!). He has just starting bursting out with new sounds, baba, dada, bada, all sorts (not mama yet). He rolls arounds and screams and smiles at EVERYONE and laughs all day. He is SO lovely. And I do love the now! BUT I definitely miss the past. I miss his tiny tiny self.

I am terrified of him growing up and making mistakes and getting into trouble, and just basically living in this wicked world!

Maybe that is why I am crying over bygone days already. :/

Ok I'm sorry for this post haha it was very depressing. I should be celebrating! I should be saying WOW! My baby is 6 months old in 2 days! WOW he's in a bigger bed, he's growing and THANK HEAVENS he's healthy! That's what I should be saying. AH I'm ungrateful aren't I??!

:P