Way too long!

It has been way too long since I have blogged! I guess I have let life get away from me. I have actually missed blogging... I use to think "really who takes time to read my blog?"... well it doesn't matter if anyone reads it or not... I like to be able to go and write my thoughts, feelings, and experiences down.

I am very excited to being having another baby. I feel so blessed and a great sense of joy coming from this little spirit. We found out that this little spirit is a little girl and I was so happy to hear the news (even though I just knew it the moment I had the thought that I was pregnant). Her name is going to be Savannah Marie Neiswender... yes.. it has a nice ring to it! I have had a healthy but very sick pregnancy. Savannah moves more and more every day... I love that part of being pregnant! I am excited to meet this little one! I need to start turning my office into her baby room... I am really starting to get the feeling like I need to get things moving... Savannah is due Oct. 24th and to me this pregnancy has just flown by. Gavin talked about a baby sister for a long time! He is going to be an amazing big brother!

Gavin is such a funny little boy! He is very willing to hug and kiss you. He always tells me he loves me (my heart just melts when he says it)... and want to be such a big boy. I am hoping to get him potty trained soon... I think he is just about their.. He always telling me Thank You and Please... I love this little boy!

Well I better go get ready for the day. I am going to a funeral for a special lady that always felt like my grandma. My cousin (Michelle) grandma passed away and I want to go show respect for her and the life she lead.

Till we meet again.

The Update

I haven't been on my post (or others) in months (Feb)! I kind of boycotted my blog for awhile.... I just got burnt out keeping our post updated. But I think I am ready to come back to sharing our lives to the web. I try to be better at updating this blog.

Lets start with the updates...

We have been living in the house my mom owns since Feb. For about the first 4 months we lived in the upstairs but then agreed to move down to the basement apartment so they could rent the 5 bedroom upstairs out. We have gone to the 1 bedroom apartment (Gavin is in the hall way that has two doors on each side...so it is a really small bedroom:) ... the apartment is a lot smaller than we have been use to in a really long time... but we feel very blessed to have a place to live in and food on the table (well if we had enough room to fit a table in our apartment). It has been a very humbling experience....it has reminded me that not the most important thing in life is the huge house we own, or nice cars, or expensive clothing, but that it is our friends and family!!!

Our townhouse is rented out... the first guy we rented out to in Fed. was crazy! We were able to rent it out to a young cute couple. I feel grateful to be able to find good renters!

Corey has been working at FedEx Home Delivery since about June... The guy he worked for over Christmas season last year called and asked if he would come work for him. It is an o.k. job. Now don't be confused.... he doesn't work for FedEx... FedEx Home Delivery is own by a contractor and so that means it is a third party. Corey doesn't get benefits, and no time off. He works Tuesday-Saturday. Corey has expressing that he wants to going to school...which is GREAT but hard to pull off with his current job since he doesn't have a set schedule...he pretty has to work until the packages are gone...making him coming home different every night. He is still looking for another job that he can go to school and offer him things such as benefits. But I must add we do feel blessed that he has a job since he didn't have a job for almost a full year. He enjoys watching the Jazz games and spending time with his son Gavin.

Mindy has been working for Anderson Merchandisers since March. I am working at the Taylorsville Wal*Mart putting out the Cd's and Books. I put out the new music & books, I also organize the areas and restock the shelf's with the current items. I get to listen to my ipod as I work and occasionally help customers. I am able to have adult conversations and truly LOVE my job. I feel so blessed since this has been a wonderful job for me. I pretty much work whenever I want. Since I have been working their since March I have gone in at different times but since Corey has be to work so early I go in about 10:00 p.m. (or whenever I get Gavin down for the night). Gavin doesn't know that I am gone working and I love that since I have wanted to be a stay home mom but at the same time I am helping out with the financial area. This has been a great blessing in our family. Since Corey doesn't have insurance through his job we have some coverage with my job....even though it isn't the GREATEST we still have more than nothing at all. I have enjoyed living in Herriman because I have been able to get with some of my family and friends more often. When not working I am taking care of Gavin and really enjoy my little boy. He has been the best thing in my life... he has the cutest personality and keeps me on my toes.

Gavin is having a birthday here in a week and 2 days. I can't believe that he is going to be 2! Where did the time go? He has changed so much! The last couple of months he has been talking more and more. His first word was momma... that of course made me proud! He then started saying: Apple, Ball, No, Mine, Books, Cars, Water, Scary, Popcorn,Thank you (One time changing his dirty diaper at church he told me Thank you... it made it so much more worth it when he said that), Mindy (it is the cutest when he says my name:), Barney, poopy, Daddy, sit (he wants us to sit with him on the couch or the ground), Daddy go? (I will then tell him he is at work... he then will repeat the word work), and the list goes on and on. We bought him a big boy bed for his birthday but haven't put it up yet. About two weeks ago he started to climb out of his crib... now putting him down for naps and bed is a little bit more challenging but we are over coming it.... but I guess we must put his big boy bed up now :). He is a head strong toddler! He loves being with his mom and dad. I really don't know how I was so blessed with such a wonderful, smart, talented, loving little boy. He often reminds us to pray over the food by just folding his arms... it really is the cutest thing ever! People always think he is older than he really is because he is so tall... I love having a boy that I can wrestle with!.

So, I go could go on and on about Gavin... must end now since he is awake.. I need to go do the motherly things.

Till we meet again.. hopefully it won't take me another 7 months for me to write :)

Mindy

Stressin'

My handsome boy

I think I have a little model here

He was in one of my moving boxes.

Wow! I would have never thought that so much would have happen since the last time I did my blog. Well since I blogged last we have rented out our townhome to a man that just got a divorce. He will be living here by himself except when his 3 girls come and stay with him on the weekends. We feel very blessed to have found him and hopefully he will want to rent for awhile. He signed a 6 month lease and hopefully will want to stay longer than that. Right now he is living in a hotel so he was looking for something ASAP! we told him that we could be out by the 10th of this month.

We got our place rented out...but now what? we didn't know where we were going to live...we knew it had to be with family but we didn't know with who. My mom finally offered us a house in Herriman that we could live in for a month for free...and then move down to the basement (1 bedroom) apartment and again stay their for free....this offer was a lot better...at least we don't have to feel like we are on top of anyone except for our little family. We will move their and see what happens...who knows Corey might get a job up in this area (Layton/Ogden) and we will have to move back and live with family for awhile. I have been looking for a storage unit or apartment manager job...something that I can with Gavin and live on-site. I know that this is the right thing to do...but it is so hard to not know what is going to happen next. I just want things to be so good and that we can start repairing our lives (from the last year and half). It has been a long road and I am ready to meet it at the end. I am looking forward to living by some of my brothers & sisters. That is another reason we decided to move out that way....my sister Lana has been having lots of medical problems. The doctors are still trying to run test on her and see what it is going. Lana has 3 cute little girls and I feel like I need and want to be able to help her. I just hope all will work out...I know it will I just have to faith and trust in the Lord. Life has been stressful but thankfully we have our health (except for Gavin's cold...and I think he is teething) but other than that we have been healthy and I really am greatful for.

Gavin has been such a big helper. He moves things for us, and pulls things out...even if we don't want them pulled out. The other day my in-laws took Gavin for awhile so I could get some things done...I was very greatful for the couple of hours of work I could get done without having my items that I just put into a box pulled out.

That is our life lately..............................................hopefully we will have more answers of where we are going to be working and living.

Saturday is the big day to move all the big items. We got a storage unit since we don't know what next month will bring us. Our nephew Jacob is also getting baptized on Saturday. Corey, his brother, and dad will be loading up the truck durning the baptism and my family will help unload it after words. I am going to the baptism so I will take some smaller items down in my car. I will have to clean the house Saturday & Monday.

Well have a goodnight!

He loves to sit on his toys

loving to play!

he loves to put things on his head...sometimes it is scary because he really can't see where he is going.

Here are some random pictures of my sweet son Gavin. He is so funny. I feel so blessed to have him in my life...when I feel like my world is crashing around me...he will make me feel better and remind me that their is hope and to enjoy every day.

I watched my VT daughter the other day. Gavin was really good with her at first but the longer she was their the more Gavin started to try to hit her on the top of her head.

Yesterday we rented out our townhome to a man that just went through a divorce. We feel very grateful for being able to rent our home out. Until we have jobs we will be moving in a family member....(not sure who yet :) but most likely my sister Lana and her family. I feel like I could help her out while we live their since she has been having a lot of health problems. We will have to be out by the 10th of this month...so I will be busy packing this week. I feel blessed but stressed at the same time.

Corey's 28th Birthday

Corey turned 28 on Jan. 22, 2008. We had a good day. We looked for jobs :) But first I took him to get a message. He had given me a cert. for my birthday and so I decided that we would go get a couple message. It was GREAT! We had never gone to get messages before so it was a real treat. My sister-in-law watched Gavin for us and it was just what we needed. Later that night we went Olive Garden (my mother-in-law had given us a gift cert. to use and that was really nice of her). They watched Gavin for us so we could just go to dinner and have a night with out Gavin....again it was a real treat and we had a great evening.

We had Corey's birthday dinner with his family the Sunday before. They did pizza and cake & ice cream. I can't believe we are getting close to 30!

St. George / Job Interview

alseep in a car ride in St. George

going to take part of the walking tour. We were loving the weather down their.

This is outside of President Brigham Young winter home

Well hello! It has been some time since I have written. I thought today (Sunday) would be the perfect day to put some post up here.

We are still on the job hunt. I have been trying to have hope and faith that Corey will be able to get something that it make it that I will be able to be a stay home mom. I do look for things that I can do at home to help bring some income but would really like to be able to stay home with Gavin. Corey at a job interview about the 2nd week in Jan. down in Hurrican Utah (right by St. George). He would have been a driver for Pepsi and would have started off about 40,000.00 a year (that would have been really nice!). Ever since I meet Corey he has always wanted to move down their...he loves St. George...and of course I would have not minded the nice weather at all!We decided to turn the interview into a much needed couple of days of vacation. We had a good time down their but Corey didn't feel like the interview went all that well. They had told him on the phone that the interview would be about 2 hours....well he wasn't even their more than 15 mins. We tried to enjoy the rest of the time and not worry about it too much. We came home and a few days later found out that he didn't get the job.

We did get to see Brigham Young's winter home that is in St. George. We had always tried to find it when ever we went down their. I guess they have a walking tour that you can do (we had never done that either)...so we did part of the walking tour and President's Young home...we then went back and had lunch Pizza Factory. Even though he didn't get the job I am glad we had the chances to go down their and get away from everything else. We would love to still move down their...and maybe one day we will.

Christmas / New Year's ...bring in the year 2009

Gavin is starting to climb on things...oy!

Me and my baby on Christmas Day

White Elephant gift that was passed around...hahah

Me, Corey, and Gavin on Christmas Eve

WOW! It has been way too long for me write on my blog. Christmas, and New Year's has already gone and passed and we have started the year 2009.

We had a great christmas! It was more simple this year (since money is tight) but I felt so blessed for everything we were able to give and receive. I am excited for the sewing machine that I got. I want to be able to create things and so I am glad that my husband was able to give me such a great gift...I just know need to find a place for it :) We were blessed with being around our family for the holidays. We went over to my in-laws Christmas Eve and had so much food and played rock band on the wii....we had so much fun. Christmas day we went and saw Corey's Grandma Sommerville and Grandpa Neiswender...and ate left overs....mmmm.

New Year's Eve we went up to Ogden and played some games and went to lunch with the in-laws and Gavin's cousins. I got Gavin a monkey backpack that we can hold on to and he can't get away...he felt like such a big boy being able to walk around pushing his stroller while we played games. I was so glad that I bought this monkey...right before christmas I went to the store to get an item for christmas and they didn't have shopping carts...Gavin was tearing things off the shelfs...by the end of the trip he was crying and I was sweating and so ready to leave the store. I went home and called my mom and said "when did I get a toddler? last thing I remember he was a baby".

New Year's Eve night we were at my in-laws till 11:00 we had good food and played the rock band on the wii. I can't believe that we are already in the 2009 year. I hoping that this year is A LOT better than 2008! I like the feeling having a fresh start...and even though I haven't seen a whole lot change...I am having a better attitude and being more positive. I feel like things are going to get a whole lot better for us. I just have to be willing to get things done and have complete trust on the Lord. I will keep you posted on these things :)

One of my new goals was to get back into Weight Watchers. I have been doing a really good job. I went back to Weight Watchers on Saturday..I got weighed in and the meeting. I have 15 pounds to lose...which is not near as much as when I first started Weight Watchers. Once I am back down to my weight I won't have to pay any more since I am a life time member...and that ROCKS! I have been going to my church Monday, Wednesday, and Friday's to work out with some ladies in my ward....I really enjoy this since I get out and meeting other people and working out...which is making me feel so much better.

Well I am going to add some pictures from Christmas, New Year's Eve and random picture and then turning the computer over to my husband. Good night all!

Cut my hair...Yup it is true

Gavin with his Papa...so cute!

I babysat my nephew Luke...and they were using their blankets as capes...it was so cute!

me taking a few pictures with my short hair.

As many of you that know me...once I start cutting my hair...it just seems to get shorter and shorter. I was doing really good letting my hair grow until Sept. I then started really wanting to cut my hair...so I did....well yesterday I was getting that feeling again...so since yesterday was Corey's day off I decided to get my hair cut and eye brows waxed.....my hair is so short...but I know it will grow pretty fast. Here are some pictures.

I am also adding some other random pictures that I just felt like sharing :)

The Spoken Word

On this past Sunday I got to the Spoken Word with my mother-in-law, father-in-law, and sister-in-law...(Corey stayed home with Gavin). We had to leave so early (7:30) and the snow was really coming down....I wasn't sure if we would make it...but we did and it and was totally worth it. President Monson was their and sat in our section....We had GREAT seats...we were so close to the stage. After the spoken word they put on a 45 min. performance for us. (they have been doing Christmas performances this past Thursday, Friday, and Saturday). It was a real treat. Afterwords I got some pretty good pictures of President Monson. I truly felt so blessed to be so close to a Prophet.

We weren't allowed to take pictures during the Spoken Word....but after you could. I felt so glad to have gone. The sprit was so strong. I always feel so blessed to be a member of the gospel and know that the Lord blesses me and my family.

Happy Third Wedding Anniversary

December 1, 2005 Corey and I were married in the Salt Lake Temple. It was a wonderful day..I remember it was a cold day...but still a wonderful day! I can't believe it has already been three years since I married my best friend. I also share our wedding anniversary with my mission anniversary. I have been 4 years. I really can't believe that! Time goes so fast no matter what you are doing...so you might enjoy whatever you are doing because it is going to come and go no matter what. I feel so blessed for everything I have.

On our Anniversary my sister babysat Gavin and we went and saw the James Bond Movie...it was pretty good for that type of movie. We then just went to Iggis..and we brought Gavin with us. It was nice to just have the day with my husband.

Gavin's Birthday Party

Gavin enjoying his cake

the cake Corey made

the cake I made....If you can't tell it was a basketball.... I did pretty good until the lettering. I felt pretty good since it was my first cake I have made...to look like something.

sing "Happy Birthday" to Gavin

Waiting for the cake

opening some gifts

before the birthday party got started

Gavin birthday was on Thursday the 20th. I took him to McDonalds the day of his birthday but didn't really do anything until that following Saturday. We had his 1st birthday party at my in-laws house (since my townhome really doesn't fit a lot of people). I just had a family party for him since I have so many brothers and sisters...and then we had Corey's side their...and we were all packed into my in-laws house....it reminds them that they need to get their basement finished. Gavin got spoiled! He got so many gifts...we think he really doesn't need anything for Christmas...but have already bought him a few things. Here are some of the pictures.

McDonalds

us leaving for McDonalds...he loves being able to sit forward...such a big boy!

He kept eating the fries...I had to hide them so he would some of his hamburger

On Gavin's birthday I took him to McDonalds to get a happy meal... here are some pictures!

Happy Birthday Gavin!

Straight from Heaven

I think this is when he sucked me right in...don't you see the magic? I sure do

The two nights before I had Gavin

Well today is Gavin's birthday. He is the big ONE! I can't believe how fast that went. He is an amazing little person that touches my heart in so many HUGE ways. There is a list of things and pretty much I could go on and on...but I will just say a few things about my little man. He is a talker...and even though he words are pretty much momma and dadda he sure can talk up a storm and we have no clue what he is saying. I can tell when he gets at me...but he is so quick to love me. He loves to laugh...he gives me the cuttest smile when he wants me to be laughing at what he is doing. It is amazing how fast they pick up on things. Gavin has been walking for about a month and half...and can pretty much get running...he still falls over at times...but he sure has picked this up along with a lot of other things. I didn't know that when I had him placed in my arms a year ago that he would melt my heart and wrap it around his finger so fast. As I am typing this blog I can hear Gavin talking in his crib...he is just waking up from his nap....he usually wakes up this way and it so nice. He is easy going...and when he friends or cousins take toys from him he doesn't show that it bothers him one bit. He loves the game of chase...I was chasing him last night and then he turned around a chased me........what a great personaility you have!

The day he was born was the day I had some idea of how my parents feel for me and some what of an understanding of what Heavely Father feels for each one of us. I felt so much closer to Corey and the feeling of us being a family of that much more importance. I feel so blessed to have both men in my life.

Gavin I love you! Thanks for being such a wonderful son. I love when you cuddle and kiss me, and play around with me. You make me smile every day and I so enjoy having you in my life.

We are having his Birthday party at my in-laws on Saturday since our home isn't big enough. I am keeping the party just for our family since my family is so big...and then adding to Coreys...it is going to be a good size party.

Love you my big ONE year old son!

Mom

Here is a funny story about the hosptial. Well as you know that when they bring you your baby they always check to make sure your bands match. Well I guess I was coming out from having the c-section and some of my family and Corey's family were down at the nusery looking at Gavin. They were saying stuff like "he has the Neiswender toes" and things like that. Well I had gotten into the room and I was waiting for everyone to come in with Gavin. Corey finally came after about 5 or 10 mins (I can't remember the timing on all of this since I was drugged) but anyways he was just like "You are not going to believe what happened". I guess they had given Corey the baby they were all making comments about and Corey started pushing the baby to my room... well once he got to the room he looked inside and saw no one that he knew... and I wasn't in their. The nurses had given Corey the wrong baby....they had been making comments about someone elses baby. Well I am glad to say that when Corey came into my room with a baby that was the correct baby...

Well I am going to take Gavin to McDonalds to get him a happy meal for his birthday!

Halloween

Us at the Pumpkin Patch

trick or treating

right before we went trick or treating

Gavin loves these pumpkins...one he could make it go off just by putting his hand by it.

some pumpkins at the Pumpkin Walk

Eating a cupcake at the Halloween/October party with my family

Gavin with some of his cousins

Gavin with Grandpa Dow

Here are some really fun things we did this October

We had a Halloween/October birthdays with my family the week before Halloween...Gavin looks so cute in his costume.

We also went to the Pumpkin Patch....we a lot of fun this Halloween :)

We then did a trunk or treat at our sister & brother-in-law ward house a couple days before Halloween.

We also did a pumkin walk. We didn't know it was such a big deal...we stood in line for two hours and then you do the pumkin walk around this park...they pass out treats while you are walking around the pumpkins...people dress up for this reason...we didn't know or would have put Gavin in his costume...........there were some pretty cool pumkins.

On Halloween we went over to Corey's parents house and had dinner. We then went with our sister & brother-in-law trick or treating with our kids...we had a great time!