looking back at our wedding photos i think of the things that i wish we could have done better. for instance...

hire a professional to alter my dress. somehow it got pinned wrong and ended up sticking up an inch on my shoulders )= ....

tell my dad NOT to dress like a fruit cake, I would have been fine with him showing up in jeans and any old shirt really, but my mom had her mind made up that he needed to wear the nicest thing that he owned.. which happened to be very ugly and actually turned out to make him look a little more tacky than "sharp".

hire a photographer...we had a friend do the pictures (she did fine, but the lighting was so bad in the church and she didnt have her own light, so they turned out shadowy.

have a little more money to decorate the way i would have liked.

I remember my mom coming to me at the last minute (literally) and saying she wasnt comfortable with the walking down the isle thing i had planned, so i said "whatever"(what was i supposed to say, we seriously had a minute till i walked down the isle.) and ended up walking down with both of them, but the problem was we didnt rehearse that so there was not enough room for me..... as you can see in the picture, i might have well sat down and no one would have noticed (= i also remember bringing boxes of decor from my apartment and justins house too and telling people to make it look pretty, i think i told them where i wanted the lights but that is about it. so thanks to all our friends who threw it all into place in a couple hours without a decorator.

but is all that really important? would i really be happier if i would have spent a lot more money and had lots of food and flowers and lights and a huge fancy cake with a lovely bride and groom on top instead of wonder woman and bolbbafettso pez dispensers? would i have been happier now if i would have gone to the bahamas and sipped pina coladas all day long instead of rainy longbeach eating candy bars and doritos from the vending machines in the hotel hall? i didnt even throw my bouquet... i am just glad that i didnt go overboard and waste a whole lotta money for something that now, i dont even care about. the only reason why i would care now is to show everyone who comes over "look i had a pretty wedding and ive got the pictures to prove it" i bet if we would have spent a lot of money, i would be regretting it to this day wishing we would have bought a house or a car or something. many girls spend their whole lives fantasizing about this perfect day that is so elaborate. a wedding does not need to cost a fortune and no one should go into debt in the process. even when i look back and am a little disappointed in some things, it really isnt important and no one probably remembers anything , and if they do they dont spend time thinking about it now (= (except maybe myself) the things that i do like to think about were the fun we had with our family and friends and all the smiles and promises exchanged. but my favorite part was the music and the afro wig... oh and the no shoes thing, that really confused people. we simply did it that way because i couldnt find any shoes i liked and at the last second justin came to me and said the groomsmen only had their tennis shoes with them, i said "they are going barefoot" .

Dr. Seuss books are the BEST! those are books i can read over and over and not get sick of them. most other books we have i am tired of reading after a few times. dahlia loves them too. her favorites right now are The Cat in The Hat and There's a Wocket in My Pocket. i actually found myself reading The Cat in The Hat and then noticed dahlia had already walked away, but i kept on reading so i could find out what happened. they are fun and wacky and rhyme too. i cant wait to get all of them. what is your favorite? i also hear Where the Wild Things Are is a good one. (not dr seuss)

speaking of things i love... i have finally found the most wonderful toothbrush ever!It is called Colgate 360. i have incredibly sensitive teeth (as some of you know) and need a very soft toothbrush or i cringe and can barely clean my teeth. i searched through all the toothbrushes at fred meyer and finally found one that is EXTRA SOFT! i have bought soft toothbrushes in the past, but they still feel like i am just rubbing something flat against my teeth and gums. i have never been pleased. but this toothbrush was like no other! my mouth felt so clean and the brush thoroughly touched everywhere. you just dont understand how excited i am. i have probably gone through like 10 toothbrushes in the last 2 years and end up giving them to justin or using them for the toilet because they dont work for me. i dont even know what i paid for it, i didnt even pay attention, but whatever it was, it was worth it! and furthermore it has a tongue and cheek cleaner on the opposite side of the brush, which i am not sure how i feel about, but my whole mouth was sparkling and fresh!

i totally love digging through bins for deals, i am such a bargain shopper! i know some people dont get the same thrill that i do, but it really is fun for me. there is a place on fourth plain in orchards that is called Tiny Hiny's. it is a consignment childrens shop, very very cute stuff in there. they also carry hand made items that are adorable but a little spendy. i was in the back clearance bin room for like 40 minutes today digging for deals, but i couldnt find anything in dahlias size that i liked )= so as i was leaving, i mentioned to the owner that i would have boughten a ton back there if they would have been in her size and she said "hey i got a bunch of stuff in 2t i havent put out yet, let me get it". so i went through a bunch of stuff she had and found quite a few things for thirty five bucks. everything is in such great condition, it really doesnt even look worn at all. i got three dresses, five shirts, two pair of pajamas, one skirt and one pair of jeans, i was very excited about that! i am sure that great grandma bodeutsch is going to be thrilled to see dahlia in a dress(=

It's time for our annual move. We've been looking at houses in Olympia for a week or so. We filled out an application and gave our notice, so unless the landlady backs out then we'll move in on February 2nd. She told us that she didn't want us to add or do anything to the flowers or yard, she has someone take care of it. She is in luck because we end up killing everything we try to plant. This past summer we killed eight plants! I am not exagerating, we are dangerous!

Everything is wonderful about this place with the exception of the carpet; it's a hideous blue-green from the early nineties. A quick stop to Ikea should fix that pretty well though. The neighborhood is awesome, behind us is a gated retirement community. We're really sick of all the loud neighbors we have now, so that will be a nice change of pace. And we should finally be able to get some people to play pinochle with!

We've been thinking of moving up to Olympia since before we were married. We're bummed we have to leave everyone here but we just don't care for Vancouver and Justin misses his hometown. And besides Justin works from home so there is nothing tying us down at all. Please pray that we will be able to get everything packed up and ready in four weeks, Dahlia and Valen have other agendas so this should be interesting.

christmas eve we spent the day with just our kids at home. they opened a few presents from us and also a tricycle and a wagon, thanks grandma and grandpa davis! dahlia loves them! then on christmas day we went to my sisters house about ten minutes away. opened some presents, ate some good food, played half of a game together and then went home. the day after christmas we were going to drive up to olympia to visit justins family, and we were planning on leaving around 11 or so depending on when valen would need his morning nap. what ended up happening was valen decided to be a cranky pants in the middle of the night and i was up with him for a while, and then justin was also. finally about 5:45 justin came back to bed and then i couldnt sleep after that... then dahlia wakes up at 7 am screaming in her room. so i go get her and she just sets on the couch with me, pointing at everything saying, doo doo doo? so i am about to cry cuz i know she isnt going to want to go back to sleep and justin was up with valen for a while so i wouldnt be able to convince him to be with her while i went back to bed, so i was so bummed. but then i had a thought, if valen wakes up we can just leave right then to go to olympia and maybe i could get a nap. anyways, within a few minutes valen woke up. so i went in and got justin up too. we started getting ready and by 9 am we were out the door. (dont we look awake and happy?)

the kids actually didnt sleep much at all. valen fell asleep a little after kelso and dahlia was wide awake the whole time. a little cranky, i might add also )= she used to do very well in the car, even on long rides, but not anymore. good thing i brought some cheerios along or she probably would have been crying the whole time. so after we got there we had fun, dahlia and valen got a new toy box from grandpa and grandma bodeutsch, thanks you guys!! and then bla bla bla... but i will skip to the night time part, this is where it gets exciting (= we werent planning on staying overnight, we were going to drive home around 9pm so the kids could just go to sleep on the way, but it was cold and icy so we thought we had better not till morning. i was nervous about that, i didnt think dahlia would do well at all. she barely goes to bed in her own bed at home, let alone a strange house and a big bed too. so she refused to go to sleep anywhere, she was so tired but so cranky and just kept fussing about climbing up and down the stairs... finally almost midnight, she fell asleep on justin and he dropped her into bed. she slept all night with justin and we woke her up at 9:30. oh my goodness. thankfully valen did well. he only woke up one time(which is normal) and went back to sleep shortly after. then we tried rushing around to get out of there by 10:30, which turned into 11, and dahlia was just fussing over things. she has been different the past week, maybe this is the beginning of the terrible twos.. so we got in the car and she was very reluctant. and about an hour later when we almost were at kelso, she started freaking out and crying. she needed to poo, but couldnt while sitting in her carseat, so she got really frustrated and didnt understand why i couldnt just take her out. so we took a little trip to target. fed valen a bottle and we chased dahlia around until we smelt a lovely aroma. then she was a happy camper (=

i am soooo looking forward to the days when they sleep good.... just one night is all i ask!