Sargent Crew

October Festivities

2010-11-06T17:46:00.000-07:00

October is full of events for our household. First up (and most important if I do say so myself) MY BIRTHDAY!!! I turned the BIG 30 this year and I must admit I was a little worried about it, like I went to bed on my birthday eve seriously wondering if I'd wake up with a face full of wrinkles and gray hair. But thank goodness I woke up and nothing had changed, I still feel like I'm a teenager most days and I honestly doubt I'll ever lose that!

Andy took me on a super fancy dinner date to celebrate.

Other October activites:

Corn maze:

First snow of the year:

Pumpkin carving:

And of course trick or treating with the cousins!!

What a great month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's been awhile...

2010-09-27T23:21:00.000-07:00

Whoops... guess I didn't update the blog for a bit... let's just move along.

As you can imagine a lot has changed for us in the past 8 months. So here is our life in a nutshell..

The biggest change (and most noticeable) we finally moved out of the tiny tiny apartment we were in and moved into a cute house!!! I love love finally having a home! It's been an awesome change for us. Home sweet home:

Along with a new home Andy and I both changed jobs. Andy is now working at Trio and loving it. He decided to change places to help strengthen his resume a bit before the big job hunt begins once he graduates!!

I finally am working my dream job as a full time stay at home mom! It's so nice to not have residents coming over all day long and trying to work around being a mom. And my kids are much happier to have my full attention.

Talan (seen here in his favorite pirate sunglasses) is FINALLY fully potty trained both day and night!!

Cohen turned two right after we moved, so we had a small family party for him at our new house!!

He's addicted to all things Thomas and is a very loving kid. He gives hugs and kisses all day. He still doesn't say much that we can understand but talks in his own language all day long!

Well... that's the reader's digest version of the Sargent home. I promise it wont be another 8 months before I update again!!!

A Good Read

2010-01-19T19:12:00.000-08:00

I've always loved reading. When I read a good book it's like my mind creates a movie just for me to watch. I will actually see the characters in the book come to life in my mind.. hopefully that doesn't make me sound too nutty. :)
One of my favorite writers is Nicholas Sparks... because I'm a girl. But once I had kids and found my time for reading anything other than Curious George books very limited I suddenly found his books very draining to read. They were all so sappy and predictable, so I gave up on him and moved on to other things.
When I saw the movie Dear John is coming out based on one of his books I decided to give him a go again and read the book before seeing the movie. I'm so glad I did! I'll be honest it took me over a week to get through the first 20 pages and I almost took the book back to the library to find something else on my list but once I got into it I couldn't put it down, literally. This morning I woke up before the kids did so I could try and finish reading the last 100 pages, sadly they heard me and quickly got up... but I kept on reading. I read while making their breakfast, while getting them dressed, and even while changing diapers. I highly recommend it!

What are some good books you've read lately?? I'm always looking for a good read!

Straight... or curly???

2010-01-08T21:17:00.000-08:00

I straightened my hair today... ok technically I didn't straighten it because that would require the skill and patience required to do so to my crazy hair, the lady who cuts my hair did it for me.
So which do you like better? I know my preference... but I wont bias anyone with that information just yet, feel free to be honest... unless you just hate my hair period, you can keep that opinion to yourself. :)

Curly... aka the normal me

Straight... (admittedly not the greatest picture... white wall... white shirt... pale face... eek!!)

Opinions??????

My Life

2010-01-05T19:08:00.000-08:00

Last night as I was driving to the post office at 1 AM I suddenly fell in love. Seriously. It was that heart pounding twitter-patted feeling. I was in love... with my life.
I don't know what it was that set it off but I suddenly felt so content regardless of the fact that I could have told you then and there 4297 things I'd change if I could. But most of those things are temporary, unimportant matters. All the stuff that is real, the things that count I've got plenty of.
I have a husband who treats me like a queen and is quite possible the worlds greatest father.
I have two children who daily show me they love me in their own way.
And I have the true Gospel of Jesus Christ that allows us to stay together as a family for eternity... seriously, what more could I want or need?

Our New Pad

2009-12-13T18:56:00.000-08:00

A few months ago my job contacted me with an offer to move to a new complex. It offered a lot more money and a huge fenced in back yard for the kids, but a much smaller apartment. It was a very hard decision for us to make. But in the end we decided the pros outweighed the cons and made the big move. It was the right decision for sure. The kids are so much happier here. Talan has made so many friends and they get to run around and play all day long instead of being cramped inside all the time.
So here it is: Our New Home!!!!

Living Room:

Our couch set was too big so we sold it and got this brand new one:

Kitchen, which is actually much better than the one in the last place.

Bathroom:

Boys room:

See this dresser? It used to be an ugly old beige thing with gold knobs. I repainted it and did those cute baseball knobs.

See the name plates? I made them

See the cool balls on the walls? Those are actually floor mats. I found them in the dollar bin at Target and decided they'd be awesome for their wall.

Why is there only one bed when we have two kids?? Andy and his dad are building toddler bunk beds for them to use, so until that time Cohen is sleeping with us. *sigh* not my favorite thing.

And finally the best part of the house... the back yard!!!!

Our Halloween... ooh... scary...

2009-11-03T22:29:00.000-08:00

Did you have a fun Halloween? We sure did! Let me just say Halloween isn't really my cup o' tea. BUT with kids it's a totally different game and now I love it.
So here's a run down of our many Halloween activities:

1. Pumpkin Carving

Talan getting the guts out

Andy doing all the real work

Mine - he's winking

Talan's (carved by Andy in the likeness of Curious George... see the resemblance???)

And I don't know what happened with this one... Andy did it

Why are there 3 pumpkins when there are 4 of us??? Well Talan decided that was all we could get... literally. He threw a fit at the store and made us put the 4th one back.

2. We had a kitchen fire

We had to pull out the extinguisher and everything... but we still had time for pictures of course

3. We went to Wheeler Farm for:

A hay maze

A Wagon Ride

And Talan's first pony ride!!!

4. We got all dressed up

Talan the train

Cohen the Dragon

Daddy the cook (ok he really WAS a cook... he had to work)

5. We met up with the cousins and went trick or treating!!!

Best Halloween ever! Talan really got into it and had a blast running from house to house getting candy. Makes me a fan of Halloween... maybe next year I'll even dress up... maybe.

Your kids sleep where?!?!??!

2009-10-03T21:21:00.000-07:00

Talan, like most two year olds, is a little nutty. For the past two months he'll randomally decide he wants to sleep on the floor or in the crib:

So if the two year old is in the crib then where is the baby going to sleep???

In the big boy bed of course!!! I was a nervous wreak the first time he slept in there, I'm not really sure why cause he sleeps in our giant adult size high above the ground bed all the time. But he loves it in there and actually sleeps better. Whatever works for my nutty kids!!

Cohen's 1st Birthday!!

2009-09-25T08:17:00.000-07:00

Like all my blogs this is a little late. :)

On August 26th our little man turned 1! What a great year we've had with our little man. He is such a joy and brings smiles to everyone he meets. He loves to make faces so that people will laugh and gives the best (and most painful) hugs and kisses ever.

On his actual birthday Andy had school and work all day. So to celebrate we met up with daddy during his short lunch break at the Sargent's favorite family friendly restaurant Noodles!!! Our rule is no sugar for the first year so Cohen was very happy to get a giant rice crispy treat all to himself!

Then we went to the park for Cohen's favorite past time... swinging!!!

Then that Sunday we had a family party for him in the park. The weather was perfect and everyone had a great time!

Mommy with the birthday boy before the party started

The smash cake... before the smash

Talan was very interested in the cake... and snuck a taste

But... he wasn't very sneaky...

Cohen didn't eat much of the cake, he had a bite or two and was done, but he did have fun smashing it!!

But that's a big cake for such a little guy!!

It was a great day! I love you little man!

5 years... and forever to go

2009-08-23T13:20:00.000-07:00

5 years ago Andy and I met and began dating pretty much immediately. He and I met after I taught an lesson in Elder's Quorum. Yep you read that right. The Elder's Quorum president thought it would be hilarious for me to come in as a surprise and teach, just your normal single's ward craziness.
After church that day we had a linger longer. Andy came up to me and told me he enjoyed my lesson. However in the middle of talking to me he ditched me to talk to another girl he had been trying to go out with. Good for him I somehow ignored that and still invited him over for our weekly pot luck at my place.
This picture was taken that night, it's not the best of me! (it looks weird cause I scanned it in from my scrapbook, yep that's right I actually made a scrapbook once!)

Andy stayed late at the pot luck and from that night we began dating

and... 1 year later we were engaged!

Andy is amazing, I don't tell him that enough. He works so hard, goes to school full time AND works full time all while being an amazing father and husband. I love you babe... and I can't wait to spend forever with you!

California Trip!!!

2009-08-23T12:33:00.001-07:00

Thanks to state holidays and just plain good luck Andy had a whopping four days with no school or work... for Andy that is a huge vacation. We decided to seize the opportunity and make a fast dash to California. Andy has an aunt that was nice enough to let us stay in her home (even though they were not there). It was a wonderful family vacation, and really gave us the chance to make awesome memories. The car ride was long but thanks to a copy of Kung Fu Panda I was able to buy at the gas station in Nephi for $15 the kids did pretty good.
We spent every second we could at the beach. Talan was a little scared of the waves, he loves swimming but he's only used to pools! But he got in a few times if Andy held him and would let the waves crash into them. He laughed and had a great time.

Talan really just wanted to dig in the sand and fly kites.

Cohen loved the sand, and he did a pretty good job not eating it... but at times the temptation was just too much!

A main reason we went was to eat at Cafe Firenze. The owner was our favorite contestant on Top Chef. It was the BEST meal I've ever had. Andy had the chance to talk to the head chef afterwards and told him he was finishing school next year. The chef was really nice and said he was opening 3 new places this next year, so if Andy's willing to move out there after school he'd love to hire him!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW WOW WOW! Obviously that is a year away so we're trying to remember the offer may not still stand. But it would still be an AMAZING opportunity and it really gave Andy a confidence booster to know his dreams can really become a reality, and soon.

The kids had a harder time on the way home. Our normal rule is no sugar before age 1, but poor Cohen was so sad I let him have a red vine... and this was the result:

That's what vacations are for right?!?!?!

Brothers

2009-06-28T19:11:00.000-07:00

Talan and Cohen are finally starting to play together... kinda. Cohen has always adored Talan, he can make him laugh more than anyone. Talan has always liked Cohen... but from a distance. That was fine by me because at least I didn't have to worry about him injuring the new baby by "loving" him too much.
Now that Cohen is bigger and can "do stuff" Talan has taken more of an interest. He almost always calls him "Cohen James" and will tell him "I love you Cohen James... so much". They love taking baths or playing ball together. It is such a huge joy to watch them become real friends. I know they are going to be great friends.
Some pictures of my boys hanging out together.

We just recently got a new bed. We had to put the old mattress in the living room for a few hours till we moved it to it's new home. Talan IMMEDIATELY climbed up to the top so he could slide down, and of course Cohen was following close behind.

I have no idea why both of them do these "picture faces", but they both do it in almost every single picture. So funny!!

Me gradué!!!

2009-05-23T20:24:00.000-07:00

I graduated high school in 1999. I started going to Ricks College only weeks later. I graduated from Rick's (yes it was still Rick's that's how long ago it was) in 2001 with a two year degree. Now it's 2009 and I FINALLY finished my 4 year degree!!! Is it still a 4 year degree if it took 10 years to do?
What took so long you ask? Well since Rick's I: went on a mission, got married, and had 2 children. All of these things plus changing majors and minors makes for a long college career. However, I'm so proud of myself for actually finishing. (yes, I'll go ahead and toot my own horn, toot toot!). When I found out I was pregnant with Talan I had only a few classes to finish to get my degree. But I wanted to take a break so I could focus on my baby. I didn't go back until I was pregnant with Cohen. It was SO embarrassing walking into a classroom 38 1/2 weeks pregnant on the first day of class. I couldn't even fit in the dang desk and I almost walked out, thankfully I had Cohen the very next day so the next time I went to class I at least could sit down like everyone else.
I honestly don't know how I made it through my last two semesters. Andy and I both had full time jobs, we were both going to school, and we had two children. I'm so grateful for online classes, my work from home job, and my sister Heather for babysitting the 20 minutes that Andy and mine schedules overlapped. And more than anything I'm glad to be DONE! On my Senior Graduation Survey the University asked everyone to fill out they asked what I plan to do with my degree. I was proud to write "Use it as an example to my children as I raise them as a stay at home mommy!"

The look on my face describes how I feel about graduations... I think they are boring, boring, boring... but hear people cheer at just the mention of my name was cool.

Talan HATED my hat and refused to be anywhere near me or even look at me while I had it on. He screamed all day "Mommy hat OFF! hat OFF!" These are our attempts at getting a picture with him:

Once I took the hat off he let me hold him... but only for a moment

Cohen however was fine to let me hold him

With my biggest supporters, Mom, Dad, and Andy of course!!

After the ceremony was over and I had the cap and gown off Talan snuggled right up to me and forgave me for wearing such a horrible costume

Andy and I on our way to dinner to celebrate ME!

For the Moms

2009-04-27T20:35:00.000-07:00

Ever have a day when you just want to lock yourself in the bathroom and scream? I did just that today... twice. Thank goodness there is always a tomorrow!

What to blog about when the camera is broken? Take a trip down memory lane!!

2009-04-24T21:56:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I stumbled upon BYU television while I was aimless flipping channels late at night waiting for Andy to come home from work. I ended up watching The Errand of Angels. Granted... it is one of the cheesier movies in the "mormon movie genre", the acting isn't that great and the plot is severely lacking, but nevertheless I found myself crying in parts. Just because it brought me back to my days in El Salvador. I've been home almost 6 years now... can you believe it?!? 6 years?!?! Yet I still think about the people there everyday.
I met people who live in the most extreme poverty imaginable and yet they are a hundred times happier than so many people I've met here who have everything they want. They are hard workers and don't complain, nor do they look for a handout from anyone else. They just do what it takes to survive. I think a lot of people in our country could learn from them.
These are just a few random pictures I pulled out to take me back...

It was this little boy's 2nd birthday so we brought him a cupcake, he was so excited, he'd never had chocolate before

I used the story of this family as part of my senior capstone project about single moms in El Salvador. She is a single mom of 6 kids, the father of the kids is married and has nothing to do with them. We're standing in front of their well that they use to manually draw water several times a day for all their needs. I loved this family!!

We were defrosting our freezer (we had the type where you have to take an ice pick and get it all out) and I took the opportunity to make a snow man in the 5 minutes before it all melted!! (it is HOT there year round)

Making tortillas... yep I can make them by hand. This is how almost everyone cooks, outside over a fire. It is VERY rare for people to have an indoor kitchen.

I took this when I had been there 1 year

Yes... that is me wearing a silly apron and plucking a chicken. I know how to prepare a chicken from the time it is running around to the time it's on your plate!

My favorite little boy in all of El Salvador, Diego, I even named my car after him. And if Andy and I weren't so white we'd name a kid after him.

I climbed this stupid hill about 4 times a day it the blazing sun. we didn't have a car, we didn't even have a bike, we walked EVERYWHERE

Here I'm washing clothes for a lady that just had a baby, those are two of her sons. They wash everything by hand either in rivers or with that thing I'm standing by called a pila

Teaching a little boy how to make tortillas... the boys there don't know how to do anything in the kitchen cause that is "woman's work". So I took it upon myself to teach them!

Lounging in a hand made hammock... one of the luxiouries of El Salvador! :)

Who Is The Wife Of The Year?? I Am!!

2009-02-28T21:53:00.000-08:00

Last month an auction was held to raise funds for Stephanie Nielson. I went to high school with Stephanie and sadly her and her husband were in a plane crash last year. Luckily they both survived but it is going to be a long recovery with a hefty bill. While I browsed the items up for auction looking for a way to donate I saw something that I knew I had to get for Andy, Row 2 VIP tickets to the Jazz vs. Celtics game... conveniently scheduled close to Valentines Day. I started bidding right away, I was on a mission to get those tickets for my husband! My mission was successful and I won! I handed Andy the tickets on Valentine's day (It was near impossible not to spill the beans sooner). He opened them and smiled, thinking they were run of the mill Jazz tickets in our usual nose-bleed-could've-had-a-better-seat-at-home seats. I will never forget the look on his face when he realized what he was really looking at, after celebrating for a few minutes he immediately starting calling his brothers to brag about how awesome his wife is, and I have to admit he is right, I'm pretty dang awesome.

Here we are anxiously waiting for the big game to begin

We were right next to the Celtic's bench. It was awesome cause we could hear the players talking and the couch yelling at the ref

This was our view, Basketball players are HUGE this close

Andy hanging out on the court at half time

Oh and the best part... the Jazz won!!!!!!

Just One Reason Why I Love Him

2009-02-17T21:39:00.000-08:00

It all began Wednesday at 10PM when Andy and I had this text conversation:
Andy: "You may choose between a movie and a region of the world"
Me: "Huh?"
Andy: "Don't ask questions, just choose one"
Me: "Well what if I choose the wrong one??!?!? You know I'm bad at choosing things, please just do it for me" (I can't choose ANYTHING for myself. Choices give me panic attacks.)
Andy: "Whatever you choose will be fine... just choose one"
The conversation continued in that fashion for about 30 minutes. I finally chose The Matrix because I had an assignment for school to watch it (yes I said an assignment, who assigns a senior level college course to watch The Matrix?!). Andy refused to tell me what it all meant and told me it was a practice in patience for me, I thought for sure I would die while waiting... I hate not knowing things.
The next day seemed to take forever. Then at 3PM while Andy was at class there was a knock on the door, when I opened the door I found a UPS man carrying this

I tore open the package and inside I found this:

It was the sweetest surprise! It was 3 days before Valentines Day so it was totally unexpected.

At 5PM I got another text from Andy:
"Hey I'm on my way home, be ready to leave at 6:30, everything is taken care of"

When he arrived he was carrying these:

FLOWERS TWICE IN ONE DAY!?!?! Amazing! I combined them to create this beautiful display:

He also gave me my Valentines Day gifts, two board games. Ahhhh... he knows me so well:

Since he is a chef he doesn't get nights like Valentines off, so he planned a surprise pre-valentines day date for me. We took the kids to his Dad's and then he took me to the Cheesecake Factory for my favorite Crab Wontons appetizer and then to The Asian Star for dinner. I've been wanting to go to the Asian Star for years. It was so fun to go to two different restaruants, a very unique and fun date.
We then went home and watched The Matrix (hence the original text message conversation).
It was the perfect evening planned just for me by the perfect husband. I'm so lucky to have Andy as my companion. He does so much for me and strives everyday to make sure I'm happy. Thanks for a perfect day babe.

Moments like this

2009-02-02T20:47:00.000-08:00

Make it all worthwhile. I love watching my two boys play together. Cohen is in love with Talan. His face lights up whenever he sees him, especially if Talan is paying attention to him. Talan loves Cohen, but from afar. He likes to sit on the opposite side of the couch from him and say "hi Cohen, hi Cohen". But there are the rare times like this when I'll turn around and catch them together, and it melts my heart and makes all the messes and tantrums and time outs worth it. This is what being a mom is really about.

Weekend Getaway

2009-01-16T21:22:00.000-08:00

Thanks to the fender bender we were in a few weeks ago our car was in the shop getting worked on. Thankfully we weren't to blame for the accident, not that we were surprised, we were stopped at a red light when a lady ran into us so obviously that wasn't our fault. So the other insurance company had to get us a rental car. We figured we might as well make good use of having someone else's car and put some miles on it! So off to Vegas we went! We didn't have much time so it was a really quick trip, but so much fun, and really when you're LDS and have two kids there isn't much you can do there so the few day light hours we were there was plenty. We got a fabulous deal from priceline, we stayed at the Planet Hollywood resort for only $50, our room normally goes for almost $200, I guess that is one good thing about the economy right now!

Best part of the trip for Andy:

Eating at Bobby Flay's restaurant Mesa Grill, this was one of the biggest reasons we went. It was a dream fulfilled for aspiring Chef Andy... and holy cow the food was to die for!!!!!!!

Best part for Sarah:

Finding my identical hand twin... NICK JONAS!!!!!!!!!! All the 12 year old girls are so jealous. "This hand is my hand, this hand is your hand, no wait that my hand, oh no it's your hand"

Best part for Talan:

Playing in the bubbles in the fountains. He would reach his hand in to pop them and then scream "I got it!"

Best part for Cohen:

Figuring out that putting a blanket over your head is a really funny joke. He did this himself and couldn't stop laughing about it.

We got in the car to head to the other end of the strip so we could take Talan to Circus Circus. We had been driving about 30 seconds, looked in the back, and saw this:

Andy and I looked at each other and knew it was time to head home. It was a great quick trip to celebrate our time as a family before Andy disappers for another few months into the abyss known as school. Wonderful family memories to last a lifetime.

Christmas!!!!!!!!!

2009-01-05T19:32:00.000-08:00

I'm a little late, but here are our pics from Christmas. The best surprise was the gigantic toy box Andy's dad hand made for the kids. It is adorable and I'm praying Talan doesn't it destroy it... too quickly. It is going to be a wonderful keepsake because it was made with such love

Talan loved opening presents, but got bored after a few. It took him 3 days to finally finish, and he didn't get very much!!!!!

Every time we go to a store Talan wants to carry this "bear" (it's really a puppy but he calls it a bear) around. It is made for babies about 6 months old so I kept saying we didn't need to get it for him. But he wanted one so badly I decided to get one for "Cohen" for Christmas but knowing Talan will probably use it more than Cohen will. We had it hiding in Andy's closet and for weeks Talan kept asking us to get him the bear in there cause he had heard it go off a few times. He now carries it everywhere!!

Cohen did get to play with his toy for a little while

It was a great day! I hope everyone had as wonderful as a Christmas as we did. I love this time of year, it is a time to reflect on the life of our Savior and celebrate all that he did for us. It is also a time to draw our families near and enjoy just being together. I wish we could all keep the "Christmas Spirit" alive all year long... maybe that should be my New Year's resolution this year?

3 Years... and 3 days

2008-12-20T21:48:00.000-08:00

On Wednesday (December 17th) Andy and I celebrated our 3 year wedding anniversary. I'm amazed that 3 years has passed already, and yet at the same time it amazes me all that we've crammed into these 3 years! 7 jobs, 3 apartments, 2 kids, 2 cars, and the list goes on and on.
I feel so wonderfully blessed to be married to such an awesome man. Here is a quick list of what makes him amazing:
* No matter how little sleep he gets if he is home in the mornings (which is rare) he gets up with the kids and lets me sleep in as late as I want.
* He is a chef for goodness sake... what more could a girl want?! I never have to worry about what we're going to eat
* He always knows how to make me laugh, even when I'm furious at him he can make a single joke and the fight is magically over
* He is 10000 times more patient than I am
* He is a fantastic father. He isn't one of those Dads who sits on the sidelines waiting for the wife to tell them what to do. If a diaper needs to be changed, he changes it.
* He is very good looking!
* He always makes me feel pretty... even when I know I don't look that great (like after a hard day chasing Talan around)

That is just a short list... I could go on and on. I'm so glad that I get to spend eternity with my best friend! I love you babe!

Been thinking... I'm blessed

2008-12-05T19:54:00.001-08:00

Right before we found out I was expecting Talan I got a huge promotion with big pay check attached. We decided we should go ahead and buy a house. We found a place that we loved and even put in an offer but after sitting down and really crunching the numbers we realized I would have to keep working full time in order to afford the house and I knew I wouldn't be able to do that after having the baby, so at the last second we pulled out.
Ever since that time I have been extremely jealous of everyone that has a house. I watch HGTV all day long and imagine I'm the one house hunting with the endless budget, I search the web for houses in my area and go to Open houses, it's almost been an obsession with me. I want a house so so so so so badly and I've been pretty bitter about it at times when I look around my small apartment with no yard to play in with the kids.
Then right after Thanksgiving I was looking at a friend's Facebook account of the pictures she posted of Thanksgiving. She had hosted it in her beautiful brand new house with a formal dining room and stainless steel appliances. The pictures of her home were bringing all my jealously and bitter feelings to the surface, but then something struck me with great power... there were no children in the pictures. My friend has a great big house and lots of luxeries, but she has also been married several years more than me and still doesn't have children, which I know she really wants but they just don't feel they can afford them now since she has the better job of the two. Would I really trade my children for the pretty house?? Never!
Then I began thinking about other friends and the other young families in our ward. Many of them have both parents working while the children are in daycare or with grandma. While thinking about this I looked at my two little boys that I am blessed enough to be with 100% of the time. I do still have to work remember, but I was able to find a job that I can do from home while my children sleep or play at my feet. I can't stand my job, but at the same time I love it because it keeps me with my children, which is the most important thing to me.
So I've decided that I can stay in this tiny apartment, as long as it is filled with the three boys that mean the world to me. It's ok that we don't have the big house with the big yard because I'm in the best place for me and my family.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE MAN!

2008-11-29T15:32:00.000-08:00

So Talan's birthday was two weeks ago... guess I'm a little behind. I'm still in awe that my little baby is 2 now, it really feels like I just barely had him, even though I've already been through a 2nd pregnancy. He is such a joy in our lives. I can't imagine my life without him. I love you little man!
Here is a synopsis of his celebration. We had people over for cake and ice cream the night before.
Blowing out the candles on his Blue's Clues cake:

Enjoying some cake

Opening presents

The next day he wanted cake for lunch, and since it was his birthday I agreed, he also needed 3 plates for his one peice

That night we took him to a place called Jungle Jim's with a few of his cousins. It is a place with a few rides for toddlers and then video games and things. We had never been there but a few people from church told me it was a lot of fun. It really wasn't that great of a place, the rides were all really old and they just have a bunch of high school kids working there so they were all too busy flirting to really run the place well. Talan was terrified of the rides and screamed every time we tried to get him on one, or when Andy rode one with my neice (I think he was scared for Andy's life).
This picture shows you perfectly how the day went. This was the first ride we tried to force him on, the girl behind him is his cousin Madi

At first I was really upset since I chose the place, I felt like I had ruined his special day, I even cried I was so upset. But he had fun wasting all the tokens by jamming them into one skeeball game while Andy frantically tried to throw the balls to keep up (I think we used 15 tokens on one game) and walking around pushing all the buttons he could find... what more could a two year old want? There was also a slide there that he loved going down over and over

My nephew Jordan was finally able to get Talan to ride the airplanes ONE time without screaming bloody murder, he smiled and waved at us and I was happy.

After a few hours we went to dinner at Arby's next door. After dinner when we were getting in the car Talan told us he wanted to go "back". We decided since it was his birthday we'd go back in for a few minutes.
He actually seemed interested in riding the airplanes again. I took him on and this is what happened as soon as we sat down

I had to hold onto him with all my strength as the ride started, but by the 2nd rotation he was saying "up up up" and "I'm big". When the ride stopped he said "again!", we must have rode that dang thing 10 times in a row, many times without any other kids. Here we are actually enjoying the ride

Then I switched and Andy rode with him a few times, although Andy was a little too big for the ride. He actually rode on it like this the entire time, the 16 year old at the controls really didn't care of course

I was just glad that he FINALLY realized that we took him somewhere fun! We then of course couldn't get him to leave so even though we had already been there for like 4 hours we stayed till like 9 pm... it was his birthday afterall! LOL

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-10T23:26:00.000-08:00

This is a little late, but here are my Halloween pictures FINALLY! Talan went as half monkey, half boy. It was quite the fight just to get him to put on his "jacket", and even then he wouldn't put the hood up so noone knew what he was trying to be... but he was still cute.
We went down to Payson to go trick or treating with my two sisters and their families. I really underestimated how hard it would be to teach an "almost 2 year old" how to trick or treat!! He was so cute carrying his little orange bucket to people's houses. As soon as the candy hit the bucket his hand was in there pulling it out with an immediate demand of "open it". He never had a single piece of candy in his bucket all night! Usually he would forget about the candy after asking us to open it in the excitment to run to the next house so most of it ended up in Andy's pockets and not his tummy thankfully!
Cohen was a very sleepy pumpkin. He slept the entire time, which I was thankful for. It was nice to just push him in the stroller and know he was content!
It was a wonderful night and created many memories for us!

This was the result of us ("us" meaning Andy) forcing him to put the whole costume on:

Heather's kids Courtney and Jordan holding my little pumpkin!

This was the best pic we could get of the boys together. Talan was throwing a fit over something before we left and it didn't stop till he started to get candy

Me and my pumpkin (no I did not dress up, I hate dressing up)

And finally the fun begins!!

Bouncy, Bouncy, Bouncy!

2008-10-27T20:32:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago I took Talan on a play date with his friends Milo and Riley to the Kangaroo Zoo, an indoor bouncing gym for kids of all ages. It has tons of those huge inflatable bouncy things you see at birthday parties, sorry that is the best way I know how to describe it. Talan hated it for the first hour and when I got down on my knees I understood why. Those things are very scary when you are that short. But once he warmed up to the idea he had a pretty good time.
Last week Andy and I took him back and this time he had a ball!!! I'm so glad he enjoyed it because I'm desperately looking for things to help get the energy out during the long winter that is quickly approaching.
Going there however did teach him one fun new trick that is sure to injure him at some point in the near future. These videos will explain what I mean:

This is him at the Kangaroo Zoo

And this is what happened when we got home (and is now a daily activity)

ahh... the joys of being almost two and crazy!!!

7 Random facts about Sarah

2008-10-21T21:14:00.000-07:00

I've been tagged!!! So here you go... random facts about ME!

1. Andy and I don't have assigned "sides" to the bed like most married folks do. In fact most nights I wake him up 2, 3, or 10 times to switch me sides. I have no idea why.

2. When I was a bagger at Albertson's I got in trouble for getting caught in the back room smelling Pine Sol. I wasn't trying to get high or anything, I just REALLY like the smell of the stuff.

3. I rarely answer my phone if it is an unknown number. Because I'm always worried it is going to be one of my tenants who somehow found my cell number.

4. I send over 2,000 texts a month, and I only text like 5 people.

5. Both my children get their first names for characters in lame television shows (can you guess which ones?) and their middle names from the Bible.

6. I have webbed feet... and a HUGE complex about it. So no duck jokes!!!!!!

7. I never liked fish until Andy cooked it for me. I wouldn't eat ANY seafood except imitation crab salad. Then Andy started cooking fish and forcing me to eat it and now I love love love fish!! He is such an awesome chef!

Now it is your turn: Tanya, Kelly, Becky, Sarah and Natalie!! MUAH!

Happy Birthday to me!

2008-10-17T22:50:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was my birthday!!! The big 28... I'm starting to get panic attacks, I'm getting way too close to 30.
Andy took me to a fabulous dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. I don't think I've ever eaten so much in my life, and that includes while I was pregnant. I almost asked for a dolly to roll me out on. But it was so worth it.

Here we are preparing for our big night out

Preparing to eat the best cheesecakes in the world

I was so excited I almost ate the whole thing, plate and all... but thankfully Andy talked me out of that one

The decorated my plate all pretty for me. They forgot the 'h' on my name however (idiots, I know). But thankfully Andy has some mad skills and was able to make two exclamation points into a perfect 'h' just in time. I'm so glad he worked as a dessert chef for a few months!

And here I am with my second date... I'm so lucky to go out with two handsome boys on my birthday!!!

Happy Birthday to me!!!!!!! :)

Answer revealed..

2008-10-17T22:49:00.000-07:00

And the answer is Cohen is picture A and Talan is picture B. You can tell cause the outfit looks a little older on Cohen. :)

Guess who???

2008-10-14T12:45:00.000-07:00

My children are a medical marvel. Basically I had twins two years apart from each other. Can you guess which one is Talan and which one is Cohen????

Picture A:

Picture B:

Who do you think is who??? Leave me a comment with your best guess! I'll reveal the answer in my next blog!

A visit from Grandma!!!

2008-10-11T12:31:00.000-07:00

My mom came into town for a few weeks for Cohen's blessing. It was so wonderful to have her here. Talan and her became instant friends and he soon became totally attached to her. We all went out to dinner one night, afterward we were going to go to a park and let the kids run around. When I put Talan in the car he freaked out and started screaming for Grandma, so she had to ride with us the rest of the night. I'm so glad they were able to form a bond while she was here! We love Grandma!!!

Here are some pictures we took that night while playing at the park:

My mom and sister Heather with Cohen

Talan just being cute

My mom is terrified of heights, she followed Talan up to the top of this slide and nearly had a heart attack she was so freaked out! :)

My sister Kristy and her son Andrew holding Cohen

And my adorable nieces!!!

A new chapter...

2008-10-08T14:17:00.000-07:00

2 years ago when I had Talan Andy was working in the Target Stock room. He would go to work at 4am and then go to school at the community college in the afternoon. At that time I thought this was how our life would continue until he graduated.
Then Andy randomly got a job cooking at a fancy restaurant downtown. The hours were better, it was closer to home, and it paid way better so he decided to take it. He had always enjoyed cooking, but once he started doing it as a job it was like a light when on inside of him. He was excited everyday to go to work and he started buying all sorts of kitchen gadgets, the food network was slowly starting to replace his ESPN shows.
At the beginning of the year he dropped a bomb on me. He wanted to stop going to SLCC and was going to transfer to The Art Institute to attend their culinary school as well. I must admit that at first I was shocked and scared. I looked at our tiny apartment and thought "oh great how many more years is that going to keep us in this place?"
But as I've watching him prepare for this I have felt an unbelievable peace. This is what he is supposed to do because it is what will make him happy. I admire him for his courage to do this at 26 years old. There are very few people in this world who find a career they LOVE doing, and even fewer that actually get to do it. So it'll be another 2 years of the "college life" for us, even though we have two kids and are way over college age. But the bright side is I get to eat his homework!!! And I'll have a husband who takes pride and joy in his work, which is all I can ask for. Everyone better pay attention, you'll see him on Iron Chef one day... or at least Hell's Kitchen.
I love ya Chef Andy!

Cohen's Blessing Day

2008-10-02T15:43:00.000-07:00

This Sunday we had Cohen's blessing. What a spiritual day!!! It made me realize once again how amazing it is to have the gospel in my life. I am so glad I have a husband who holds the priesthood so he could hold Cohen in his arms and preform the blessing. But most of all I'm amazed that ME of all people have been sent two of the most adorable and special angels in the world. Every day I find new reasons to love my boys and being a mom. It is so so hard at times, but there are other times that I find myself tearing up because I can't believe how lucky I am to be doing the greatest job in the world. Cohen has been the perfect little addition to our family. I can't imagine my world without him.
Here are some pictures from his special day.

All dressed up in his blessing outfit

The Sargent family - there's four of us now!!

Talan in his "big boy" suit

Me and Megan

My mom and nephew with Cohen

After the blessing I put them in their matching Big/little brother shirts. I tried desperately to get a picture of them together... this was the result:

So I stuck Andy in there... not much better:

We then held a BBQ at the park for our families. It was fun watching the kids run around and play. This is my favorite picture of Talan ever. I'm going to enlarge it.

I love you Cohen James!

Almost a minivan....

2008-09-13T21:09:00.001-07:00

With the addition of a new baby comes the addition of a new carseat. And sadly the backseat of my Jetta really isn't made for two carseats. So Andy and I decided it was time for a new, roomier, car. Thankfully we still aren't at the point where we need a minivan, I'm pretty sure I'll cry when that day comes. So we got a station wagon instead... but a really cool station wagon! It is a 2002 VW Passat. It only has 57K miles on it and we got it for half of what it books out for, a very good deal!!!

Cohen James' early arrival!!!

2008-09-01T09:14:00.001-07:00

Tuesday morning I woke up feeling really sick. I was so exhausted I could barely move and I was throwing up. We really needed to go to the store so I forced myself to get up and go. While we were shopping I had to stop several times cause I felt so dizzy. I took my blood pressure at the machine in the pharmacy and it was fine, 120/70 so I figured I had just caught a bug.
While we were checking out we were talking to our cashier. Suddenly almost my entire vision went black. I didn't feel faint or anything and was able to carry on the conversation with our cashier, I just couldn't see anything. When we got to the car I told Andy there was something wrong. He got worried of course and told me to call my doctor. I did and left a message. We then went home and I laid down on the couch to rest. While I was laying there I started to feel better and my vision came almost all the way back.
My doctor's nurse called and I told her I was starting to feel better the more I rested. I told her what my blood pressure read had been and that I thought it was just because I was sick. She wanted me to come in and get checked anyway, but she didn't seem too worried.
So around 2pm Andy, Talan, and I went into my doctor's office. Just walking into the office I started seeing spots and felt dizzy again. When the nurse checked my blood pressure it was 146/82. She laughed when I told her I had checked myself using a grocery store machine and it had been a lot lower. She said "those things never work right".
As soon as my doctor looked at my chart he said "well it looks like we're having a baby today". I of course started to cry, I was excited but scared and also really unprepared. We had Talan with us, my house was a little messy and I STILL hadn't packed my bags. At first they were going to schedule the c-section for 5 pm... then they found out I had eaten two tiny tiny tiny bites of an enchilada so they pushed it all the way back to 9 pm. I was sent over to labor and delivery to sit and do NOTHING, they didn't even have nurses checking on me or anything. I was just supposed to sit and wait. Andy in the meantime rushed home to pack up and wait for him mom to come pick up Talan. Around 5:30 the anesthesiologist came in to meet me. He asked when I had last eaten and when I told him he said "well if you promise not to throw up on me we can do the c-section at 7, we really don't have to wait all the way till 9". Of course I said yes... but then I freaked out cause Andy was still waiting for him mom and it was now rush hour traffic. We live 30 minutes away from the hospital in normal traffic... in rush hour it would take hours. I made them promise that if Andy wasn't there they would wait and they said of course.
Andy was finally able to leave our house a little after 6. I was freaking out thinking there was no way he would make it. But by some miracle he was there by 6:40 (he can drive really really fast when he wants to!). The anesthesiologist asked me if I had ever had a reaction to anesthesia. I told him how when I had my c-section for Talan I went absolutely crazy and was yelling, screaming and crying so much that the nurse had to hold me down and yell at me to calm down. He looked at me strangely for a second then said "ok... well if you start to freak out let me know... I've got drugs." About 2 minutes after he gave me the spinal I felt myself starting to freak out again. I said "k guys I'm freaking out"... and then I lost it. I felt like I was going to pass out and no matter how hard I tried I couldn't calm myself down. I was crying and I kept apologizing. Thankfully the drugs the anesthesiologist gave me worked pretty quickly and I returned to normal!!
This c-section was SOOOOO much different than the emergency one I had with Talan. With Talan everyone was super serious and rushed and I was crying the whole time. This time everyone in the room was joking around, they had music playing and it was a fun and excited atmosphere. It really helped keep me calm. As soon as the doctor started to pull Cohen out he said "oh boy this is a big baby!" They started to take bets on how big he was and my doc just kept saying "nope, he's bigger". He was sure he was at least a 10 pound baby!!!
Cohen was born on August 26th at 7:22 PM, he was 8lbs 10oz and 20 inches long... and that is with being almost 2 weeks early. I don't even want to think about how big he would have been if I had gone full term!!
His blood sugar and oxygen levels were a little low when he was born so they took him to the nursery. They brought him over to me before they took him so I could at least rub his cheek and give him a kiss. But it was so so hard watching my baby leave without me!!!!!! He was in the nursery about 2 hours and then they finally brought him in for me to meet. It was the LONGEST two hours of my life!! Heather and Andy kept running to the nursery to take pictures and then bringing them back for me to see. LOL My recovery has been so much easier this time as well. The morning after the c-section I was able to get up and walk around on my own. My doctor did tell me that I was on the borderline for needing a blood transfusion thanks to my iron levels being so low. So I'm still a little weak and pale, but I'm taking iron pills to help get over that. But Cohen is perfect! He is beautiful and sweet and we love him!!!

Talan pretty much ignored Cohen in the hospital... he loves him now though, but in the hospital he really didn't care!

This is my favorite pic!!!! He was so excited to go home!!!

Oh... by the way.....

2008-08-11T15:50:00.000-07:00

Cohen James will be born on August 29th!!!!!!!!!!! I'll be having a C-section at noon, let the countdown begin!!!!

Car Update!

2008-07-31T14:22:00.000-07:00

So on Monday night I sent the car dealership an e-mail. In that one I basically told them what had happened and expressed how dissatisfied we were in how we had been treated. At the end of the e-mail I requested that they refund us the $100 and replace the radio that had been damaged. I told them they had 48 hours to respond or I would be reporting them to the BBB and all that other stuff.
Of course I didn't hear anything back. So last night I sent them a very angry e-mail. I said their lack of response to my first e-mail was just another example of their poor customer service and business practices and that I would be making reports, contacting local news agencies, and writing horrible reviews for them on every internet site I could find. LOL
Well that one seemed to do the trick! I got a phone call at 10 this morning from one of the managers. Who apologized profusely that I had to wait for him to contact me but he had "been on vacation"... yeah right. Anyway, he was very nice and talked to me for about 20 minutes. We finally came to an agreement that they would take the $100 and put it towards fixing our horn since we really need that fixed so we can register our car next month. The first price they quoted us to fix the horn was around $250 and he was going to give us parts at wholesale cost and "tweek" labor so that we wont have to pay anything over the $100 we have already given them. They aren't going to do anything about the radio, but to be honest the radio wasn't that awesome in the first place so I'm ok with what we are getting.

We got ripped off!!!!!

2008-07-28T17:53:00.000-07:00

So a few months ago the horn in our car stopped working. Then a few months after that the battery died. After we replaced the battery the radio never came back on. This is because of our anti-theft device. When the radio was disconnected from the battery it automatically shut down until it could be reset.
So 3 weeks ago Andy called and made an appointment with a VW place. They were all booked until today. At 7:30 in the morning he took the car in. He said he just wanted an estimate to fix the horn and radio. They told him if they looked at it and then he refused service they would charge us $90!!! So he almost left right then, but then he decided that the radio should be so easy to fix that it shouldn't be a problem. He came home thinking it would be an hour or two wait. 3 hours later I asked him to call them and find out how much longer it would be since I needed our car back. When he called he got transferred around 3 or 4 different times without a single person being able to tell him what was going on with our car. They then put him through to some random voice mail. So he called back and asked to talk to a manager. Again they only gave him a voice mail. He left a message asking from someone to call him back and give him a status update on our car.
An hour later we still hadn't heard anything. So I called and asked for a manager, and I specifically said I wanted to talk to someone and not to transfer me to a voice mail. But sure enough I was put right through to a voice mail. I left a very nasty message saying this was very poor service that we made an appointment weeks ago and it shouldn't take them 4 hours to do a simple check and then refuse to even keep us informed.
About 40 minutes later we finally got a call back. They told us both the horn and the radio were "defective" and needed to be replaced and it would cost around $500. So of course we said no thanks. Even if it was only going to cost $10 I'd say no because they obviously have crappy customer service.
So Andy went down to pick up the car. They wanted him to pay $96 before they would release it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He fought and fought with them for over an hour and talked to 3 different managers. But they all said they wouldn't give us our car without us paying for them to do nothing to it. He finally had to pay and leave because I needed the car so I could watch Heather's kids.
When he got home he looked at the radio... and they broke it!!!!!!! One of the buttons is missing and the face is all scratched up now. I'm so mad, we had to pay almost 100 bucks for someone to break our radio!!!
I'm writing them a nasty letter tonight, but I don't know what else I can do besides that. I'm going to threaten to make a complaint with the better business bureau and/or legal action. But I really don't think my threats will do anything. Does anyone else have any ideas??? Or are we just out of 100 bucks?

Beware: old ladies driving

2008-07-23T17:52:00.000-07:00

Today we got in a car accident. We were driving home from the park and we were at a stop sign. with pickup truck in front of us. The pickup decided they were too far out in the intersection and suddenly backed up... right into our car!!!!! It was obvious they either didn't know they hit us or were trying to make a quick get away. I JUMPED out of the car (pretty impressive for an enormous pregnant lady, I know) and ran to the window of the truck and banged on it.... and inside was a little old lady!!!! Why she was driving a truck instead of a station wagon is beyond me. Well in my haste I didn't put my shoes on and the pavement was burning my feet off so after I banged on the poor ladies window like a crazy lady I turned around and ran back to the car for my shoes. I'm sure I was close to giving her a heart attack, but she got out of her car and when she saw Andy inspecting the damage she said "oh, did I get ya?". She obviously felt really bad and the damage is pretty minor. Our bumper is pretty messed up by the headlight, but Andy's dad can fix it for us. So we told her not to worry about it. I'm sure her insurance rates are high enough as it is.

Here are some pictures of Talan playing at the park today. At one point he decided it would be a really good idea to start digging in the dirt. He is such a boy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why today sucks

2008-07-12T19:34:00.000-07:00

So today we woke up to a sick baby. Talan always comes in and wakes us up in the morning and when he did today the stuffed bear he slept with last night smelled REALLY bad. So Andy went to look at his bed and found Talan had thrown up everywhere!!! However Talan didn't act like he wasn't feeling well at all. He was running around and playing like normal. So we thought he would be ok. But 20 minutes later Andy looked at him and with one look could tell that he was about to get sick again, which he did... ALL OVER POOR ANDY. I'm so glad it wasn't me, Andy actually had to throw up afterwards as well cause it was so nasty! Again, after the 2nd throw up he seemed fine. We even still were able to go to a birthday party for his cousin. Although him and I mostly just sat on the couch watching Blue's Clues. After the party he took a nap and when he woke up EVERYTHING was covered in the nastiest diaper gross ever. Unfortunately Andy was already at work so I had to do the clean up from that one!
Bad thing #2 from today. I went to the store to buy Talan some Pedilite this morning. When I got home I got some trash out of the car and threw it away before coming inside. Later I couldn't find my phone anywhere so I took the house phone out by the dumpster and called my phone. Sure enough my pregnant brain had somehow allowed me to throw my cell phone away!!!!!!!!!!!! If I weren't pregnant I would climb in and get it myself, however I'm pretty sure digging around in disgusting dumpsters isn't advised for women who are 8 months pregnant. So instead I have to wait till Andy comes home tonight and can do it for me. Being without a cell phone SUCKS. I feel so unconnected from the world!!!
Bad thing #3 from today. Talan and I needed to go to the store. Talan loves to carry the car key to the car. Well today when we got to the car he decided to stick the key threw one of the holes in our hubcaps. Thanks Talan... now we are stranded. We don't have regular hubcaps and I tried for 20 minutes to pry the dang things off but I couldn't do it. So once again I have to wait till Andy gets home!!!!!!!!!
All this combined with it being 400 degrees outside and me being so pregnant I can barely move has just made for one heck of a day! I can't wait till it is over!!!!!!

Talan's first trip to Lagoon!!!!

2008-06-23T21:02:00.000-07:00

This week my company had their summer party at Lagoon. Even though being 28 weeks pregnant and walking around in the 95 degree heat while watching people go on rides doesn't sound like my idea of a fun afternoon I decided to put on a happy face and go so Andy and Talan could have fun. It turned out to be a really fun day for all of us!
When we first got there I was nervous about what should be Talan's first ride cause I didn't want to put him on anything too scary and then have him terrified to go on anything else for the rest of the day.
We saw a cute little ferris wheel that was going slowly so we figured that would be perfect. What we didn't realize until Talan was strapped in was what we saw was just the loading and unloading of the ride. Talan was the last one on and suddenly the ride TOOK OFF. It was spinning so fast!!! Talan was grabbing on to Andy the entire time but by the second or third time around he was smiling and saying "up! up! up!". Here are pics of the first ride:

Waiting in line:

A little concerned before it started:

Dad is excited!

After the ride he wanted to get off ASAP. I actually had to ask them to let him off before his turn

After the ferris wheel we tried the merry go round. He was really excited in line, but once on the ride he had to sit waiting on his horse for over 5 minutes... which is way over the threshold of patience for a one year old. So he was pretty ticked

Dinner time!

Andy won him this hat by throwing a baseball 66 MPH, he did it on the first try! I was rather impressed!

His favorite ride by far was the train!! He got to sit next to his cousins which he loved cause it made him feel big. He kept looking out of the wrong side of the train though so he missed all the big animals. But he was excited just to see the ducks, he kept saying "quack!".

After that the batteries in our camera died :( but we were there till past 10. I was surprised Talan was able to stay awake that long. It was a great day!

2008-06-16T14:20:00.000-07:00

While Andy was on his mission he collected an enormous amount of hideously ugly ties. Shortly after we were married he told me he had done it with the hopes of marrying a girl that would make the ties into a quilt for him. I of course laughed at him and asked why then he married me cause I don't do stuff like that!!!! So a few months ago I decided that if I can't do it myself I could hire someone to do it for me!!! So I put an ad online asking for a quilter (which surprisingly finding a quilter in Utah is not an easy task) and I finally found someone that would do it for a resonable price... I had no idea a custom quilt would be so expensive!!
Yesterday morning I woke up and made Andy a breakfast of pancakes and bacon. Then after lunch I gave him his present from Talan first. Talan got him 2 new nice ties. I then gave him a card from Talan that said "I hope you like the new ties I got you, I figured you could use some new ones since mom ruined your old ones". And then I gave him the quilt!!!! This is a video of him opening it. You'll notice the first thing he did was to point to all the ties he wished I didn't cut up. LOL, but really he does like it. He took it over to his mom's yesterday to show off to his whole family. And they all thought I was pretty dang clever!!! Sorry the video isn't the best quality, it was taken with my phone and I was laughing so it is pretty shaky!!

Talan loves the quilt!! He has been snuggling with it ever since Andy opened it.

Here is a close up picture of it. The ties are all so ugly!! But it actually made a pretty good looking quilt!

She also made these three pillows out of the skinny parts of the ties. We are going to give one to Talan, one to Cohen, and one to Abbey (the daughter we'll have in 5 years) so they all have something from Andy's mission.

I'm so happy with the way it turned out. And Andy loves it which is the best part. He is an AWESOME Dad and deserved to have a good day for it. Ever since I got pregnant he gets up with Talan EVERY MORNING and lets me sleep in. He gets Talan dressed and everything. And Talan really adores him. He is amazing!!!

ahhh... the joys of motherhood

2008-06-11T15:31:00.000-07:00

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING POST CONTAINS A STORY ABOUT POOP AND SHOULD NOT BE READ IF YOU HAVE A WEAK STOMACH... DON'T SAY I DIDN'T WARN YOU!!!

Talan is now sleeping in a big boy bed. We decided to switch him over now so that when Cohen is born he feels as much like a big boy as possible. Thankfully he hasn't figured out yet that he can get out of the bed by himself so naps and bedtime are still very easy. Today we got home from taking Andy to work and I changed his diaper before his nap and then laid him down in only his shirt and diaper like always. I could hear him in there playing on his bed for almost an hour. He had slept a little in the car so I wasn't surprised that he didn't want to sleep but was glad he was at least in there.
I was on the phone with my manager when suddenly he started SCREAMING. I figured he was just done being in there and wanted to come out. So I finished my phone call and went in to get him. He was standing in the middle of the bed HOLDING HIS DIAPER IN HIS HAND and screaming. And there was poop everywhere!!!!!! All down his legs, on his new bedding and even on the wall... but none on his hands so I really don't know how it got there. It was disgusting! And Talan was NOT happy to have it all over the place either. Gross, Gross, Gross!!!

I guess all the kitties are in pain...

2008-05-17T19:52:00.000-07:00

For awhile now Talan has know what a dog, monkey, piggy, lion, tiger, and elephant says. I've tried to teach him other animal noises but he seems content to just know those. Well a few days ago he started to randomly say "ow, ow" like he was in real pain. At first we thought he was making fun of me because the day he started it I had been having belly pain and had been walking around saying "ow ow". Well when he kept doing it we thought maybe he really is in pain cause he is getting 2 or 3 molars right now.
Yesterday the mystery was solved. He was out with Andy and they saw a kitty. Talan pointed at it and said "ow ow" and each time we've asked him what a kitty says he'll say it again. But it is SO funny cause he says it like he is in pain. I don't know why all those poor kitties are in pain but Talan sure thinks they are!
I took this video of him doing his animal sounds in the car. You can't hear all of them cause he does them pretty quietly, but you can see how he looks like he is in pain when he talks about the kitties!

And just for fun here is a picture of me taken last week when I was 23 weeks along. I am all belly!!!

Just patting myself on the back

2008-05-02T19:49:00.000-07:00

I just found out that I got an A in my Comparative World Lit class!!!! I am so excited that I got a good grade in that class. I really didn't think I would since the last test we took was on a book that I hadn't even finished reading yet so I only got half way through the test before giving up!
This was the last "class" that I had to take before I can get my 4 year degree. Now all that is left is a senior project which I really hope to be able to complete this summer. I know I started college back in 1999 so it's taken me almost 10 years, but with going on a mission, getting married, and having 1 1/2 kids I don't think that is that bad!!!!
YAY FOR ME!!!

Happy Birthday Andy!!!!

2008-04-04T14:39:00.000-07:00

For Andy's birthday I wanted to do something different and fun. I heard of a restaurant up in Park City called The Snowed Inn. The restaurant sits on top of a mountain and the only way to get there is by horse drawn carriage. Very romantic! Everything at the restaurant is "cowboy style". It is more or less a fancy log cabin and the staff is all dressed up like cowboys. They even had a guy playing the guitar to serenade us during dinner!! The food was excellent and we had an awesome time!!!!!!!!!!!

The sleighs coming down the mountain to pick us up

My friend Jessy and her fiance just happened to have reservations at the same time as us. This is us waiting at the ski lift for the sleighs to come

Andy and I on the sleigh. It was still light out on the ride up, but when we came down at about 9:30 it was pitch dark. It was BEAUTIFUL. The stars were really bright and we had an awesome view of Park City

The cowboy singer. He was REALLY good

Andy and I at dinner. Andy hates this picture cause it looks like he has a massive double chin. LOL but it is just because he took it himself so he is sitting weird so we can both be in it.

The sleigh drivers

My friend Jessy thought they were really hot so she made me go with her to take a picture with them.

And this is how we found Talan sleeping at Grandma's when we came to get him. He LOVES that bunny and has to sleep with him every night!!!

We had an awesome time!!!!!!!!!!

IT'S A BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-03-09T11:55:00.000-07:00

There is no denying that I am one of the least patient people in the world. Last Monday we went in to schedule the big ultrasound to find out if we're having a girl or boy. I was so upset when I found out that my doctor wouldn't be able to do it for another 3 weeks cause I had my heart set on finding out the next week. So I talked Andy into taking me to the mall and getting an ultrasound done there! I'm only 13 weeks along and the place suggests waiting till 15 weeks to try so I knew there was a good chance we wouldn't see anything. But thankfully I'm not having a shy kid, he was more than happy to show off!
So I'm proud to introduce the world to Cohen James Sargent!!!!!

Valentine's Day of Death!!!!

2008-02-23T19:50:00.000-08:00

This is just a little overdue, but I haven't been blogging lately due to our computer dying on us. It was about time it gave up. The poor thing was SO old. We took it into a repair shop first to see if it was worth fixing and they actually laughed when they saw it. The guy helping us was calling his buddies over to check out the ancient computer! So we went and got a new one that is so pretty and shiny! I love it!
This was a Valentine's Day to remember, since it almost ended with both of us dying. Since Andy had to work on Valentine's Day we went on our Valentine's date the night before. That day a huge storm hit Salt Lake. As we were walking out the door my sister sent me a text message saying they had just totaled her car. They were ok, but she told us we should just stay home cause it wasn't worth it to risk the roads, but by this time Talan was already at his Grandma's and the roads were actually pretty clear. So we ignored her.
We went to dinner and a movie downtown and had a really great time. We were at the Gateway and it was almost deserted. Expect for the snow plow guys that almost ran me over a bunch of times. There were only 4 other people in the movie with us! We left the theater at midnight to drive to Andy's mom's house to pick Talan up. We were on the freeway and most of it was clear so we were able to go like 65 MPH. Andy was driving and we were in the center lane. We needed gas so he was looking for a place to get off. We were coming up on a large exit, he started to change lanes to get off then changed his mind and swerved back into our lane. BIG MISTAKE. This started the spin of death. Suddenly the car starting SPINNING down the freeway at 65 MPH!!!!!!!!!!! I looked over at Andy and could see the huge concrete barricade that splits the freeway from the off ramp coming at us. We were going sideways straight for it. What saved our lives was Andy had some crazy inspiration to crank the wheel the other way AND SLAM ON THE GAS... he has no idea why he did it, but about 5 feet from the barricade he got us to start spinning the other way. So now we were going backwards down the off ramp. Andy did some other crazy maneuvers with the wheel and we finally stopped by hitting part of the off ramp with our bumper.
Crazy thing is... the car doesn't even have a scratch!!!!!!!!!! I don't know how Andy did it... there really is no reason we should have been able to survive spinning down the freeway like that. We were lucky it was so late so there weren't any cars around us, if there had been we would have hit them for sure since we were literally in every lane.
Obviously we didn't want to get on the freeway again after that. So we took the city roads all the way to Andy's mom's. It took us over a half hour to get there since they hadn't been plowed at all so Andy had to go 25 MPH the whole way. We didn't get home till just after 2 AM.
My Dad also totaled his car that same day, but he lives in Seattle. 3 car accidents in one day for one family!!!!!!! Crazy!!!!!
Andy got me a beautiful diamond necklace for my present... it was a big surprise. I had asked for a dustbuster, but he couldn't remember so he opted for jewlery instead. And I'm not complaining!!!! Here's my pretty necklace:

It's a snowflake cause a lot of important things that have happened in our lives happened in the winter time, like our wedding, Talan being born, and surviving our date.

He also got me these pretty flowers:

I got him tickets to the Jazz game for him and his brother. He is really excited to go cause they are playing his second favorite team, the Pistons.

And here is us right before we left on our date.... just think, this could have been the picture for our obituary. How morbid!!! LOL

God Be With You Till We Meet Again

2008-01-28T16:04:00.000-08:00

Last night President Gordon B Hinckley passed away. I was so shocked when I heard the news. Even though he was 97 years old a part of me felt as though he would stay on this earth forever, that he was somehow invincible. And as much as I would have liked that to be the truth, the more I've thought about him since his passing, the more I realize that it is his time. His lovely wife died herself a few years ago. They had one of those amazing relationships we all dream of having. I know that he missed her terribly and now he is finally able to be reunited with her. And after all the amazing things he was able to accomplish in his life, I doubt he had a single regret and was ready to go.

I'll miss his sense of humor, he was always a favorite to listen to. He had a spark and a love for life. I'll miss the way he gave his testimony in such a way that would never offend, however never leave any doubt of his beliefs. He was a wonderful man who impacted me in a huge way.

So I guess I look like Ashly Olsen

2008-01-19T19:13:00.000-08:00

I did a celebrity look alike thingy online. I uploaded my picture and the program told me what celebrities I look like. I was fully expecting Punky Brewster since that's who I've looked like all my life, but the computer seems to think I look like Ashly Olsen... so why doesn't it list Mary Kate???

Talan has something to say

2007-12-31T11:35:00.000-08:00

2 Years

2007-12-17T20:07:00.000-08:00

Two years ago today I married my sweetheart Andy. I can't believe that 2 years have passed already, and at the same time I can't believe it's only been 2 years. So much has changed for us! We have both changed careers and live on the opposite side of town than we used to and of course the biggest change... we have a child now. LOL

Unfortunatly I am sitting alone on our anniversary since Andy had to work tonight. But we celebrated last night. We had our first full night away from Talan. We dropped him off at Grandma's and headed off to here: www.castleutah.com

We stayed there on our wedding night and it is my favorite place on earth. We stayed in the Garden Suite: http://www.castleutah.com/garden.htm It was beautiful!!! We had french doors that led to our own private terrace with a trail leading through the trees to the river out back.

We had a wonderful time. It was nice being just the two of us again. I am so happy I married my best friend, he makes me laugh everyday!!

SNOW DAY!!!!!!!!

2007-12-12T22:03:00.000-08:00

I've been so excited to take Talan out in the snow. He is so funny. Every time he sees it falling from the sky he laughs and just stares at it. So a few days ago we got him all bundled up to go have some fun!!!!

While getting ready he couldn't stop laughing... he thought it was hilarious that we kept piling the clothes on him. When we were done he totally looked like the poor kid in A Christmas Story who couldn't put his arms down.

We tried to help him walk in the snow when we first got there

But crawling is so much easier!

It was so cold! I tried to get Talan to snuggle with me to help me keep warm, but he just wanted to play

Andy started playing their favorite death game together, it's called toss the baby. He started throwing him high

And higher

And really high

And then WHOA Where did Talan go?!?!?!?!

I don't suggest you try that at home. We had such a great day!!! I'm glad that Talan had a fun time.

Audrina Belle is here!!!!!!!!!

2007-11-25T20:21:00.000-08:00

I had a new neice born this morning!!!!!!!! Finally 1 week and 1 day past her due date my sister called me at midnight to come watch her kids so she could go to the hospital. I stayed with her two kids till 4 am when my mom got there then headed to the hospital and at 9:54 this morning Audrina Belle was born! It made for a very long night but it was well worth it. Audrina is gorgeous!!! She weighed 8.5 pounds and was 21 inches long, that is a very big baby for my sister!!! Here are a few pictures!

Talan's 1st birthday!!!

2007-11-18T20:49:00.000-08:00

We had so much fun at Talan's party but I am so glad that it is over!!! Even though we tried to keep it simple the stress of planning it was exhausting for me!!! Here are a few pics... I still can't believe he is one! Looking at these pics he looks so much like a little boy and not a baby!!

Andy's mom made him this cake from scratch... frosting and all! It took her hours to frost. She made it to look like his lovey that he sleeps with every night Harold.

Here Talan is starting to eat his cake. This was the first time he's ever had sugar so he wasn't sure what to think at first and he really didn't eat very much... my good healthy baby!!!!

He got the hang of it though

With some of his cousins

We should have saved all the money we spent and just gotten him a balloon to play with. This is all he wanted anyway!!

Opening presents:

His favorite two toys first the bounce and spin zebra

And second this baseball thing

Andy and I got them both! No one knows him like we do!!!!

And finally these two videos are hillarious! My sister Heather got him one of those toys where you push a button and something pops up. It TERRIFIES him!!! But only when the one with the panda pops up. Here are two videos we took of him playing with it.

My little Mozart!!!

2007-11-13T15:21:00.000-08:00

We took this video at Andy's Grandma's. Talan had so much fun banging on the keys, but if you listen closely you can tell he was really playing "How Great Thou Art"... he's a musical genius I tell you!

Haloween and fancy dates

2007-11-09T18:55:00.000-08:00

So I'm a little behind on blogging (sorry Alida). But I wanted to post about Halloween anyway!!

Talan's first Halloween was not a fun one for him. The poor little guy was sick with a sinus infection and was just not happy that night. He didn't nap all day and so that contributed. Here is a video of us trying to get him ready, you can see how sad he is!!

But once we got over to Grandma's he cheered up. Here he is with his 4 month old niece Madi:

And one after he got out of his costume and into jammies, he's much happier here! This is one of my new favorite pictures!!

In other news Andy and I had the most fun date This week!!!!!!!!!! We got all dressed up and pretty and mom came over and babysat. We first went to dinner at the New Yorker where Andy works. I knew Andy worked in a fancy restaurant but I was SO shocked at how fancy it is! There was valet parking and they checked our coats for us, for a gal who never eats anywhere fancier than The Olive Garden that was pretty impressive by itself. But the dinning room was gorgeous!!!!!!! They served us Fuji water as soon as we sat down and I felt like a VIP since everyone knew Andy the managers and waitstaff all kept coming over to talk to us and meet me. It was so fun! The best part was when one of the gay waiters came over to meet me, he said "you have such good taste" and then winked at Andy! LOL!!!!!!!
I ordered a diet coke and the waiter brought it out in a tiny bottle and poured it for me anytime my glass got low (I think I went through like 3 of those bottles I haven't had diet coke in a really long time!!!). And the food was delicious!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so thankful that Andy gets a 50% discount cause without it our meal would have been over a hundred bucks!!
We then went to the ballet. The restaurant sponsors the theater so we got the tickets for free. Our seats were three rows back!! And I LOVED it!!! The show was The Three Musketeers and it was hilarious. I've never seen a ballet other than The Nutcracker but I loved it. Andy even really liked it and I only caught him dosing off at the very end. But he said that we'd have to go to the next show as well!
It was just so nice to feel pampered!! I loved it!!!

Sarah needs....

2007-10-20T15:03:00.000-07:00

So I stole this from Alida, but she stole it from someone too so I guess it wasn't really her idea in the first place!

What you do is you google your name with "needs" after it. These are the results I got:

"Sarah needs a cold shower, self esteem".....
hmmm..... I am pretty sure that I have plenty of self esteem and I got more than my fair share of cold showers in El Salvador. 18 months of nothing but cold water... yuck

"Sarah needs to hand him one of those weapons that went off without warning".....

Ha ha ha ha!!!!!! That is so funny! I have no idea what that is even talking about, but regardless that is funny

"Sarah needs to kick him in the nuts. (You know who you are. And I know who you are - and I know you don't read this blog, so you'll have no warning!)".....

I'm not kidding, these are the ones that came up! Jeesh... why is Sarah so angry!??!?!?!?!

And finally....

"SARAH NEEDS TO BLOG MORE"....

That is the only one that makes sense. Especially if you were to ask Alida, in fact I think that maybe she wrote that.....

Happy Birthday to me!!!

2007-10-18T10:24:00.000-07:00

Monday was my birthday!!!!!!!!!!!! I love birthdays. I don't even care about getting a year older, I just like having all the attention on me! So much so that I extend my birthday out for 3 days. I have my birthday eve, my actual birthday day, and then my birthday aftershock (which is the day after my birthday). I just hate the feeling of my birthday being over and having to wait an entire year to get another one. So I celebrate the day after my birthday as well to help with the transition.
Monday for my birthday Andy got his mom to babysit Talan and we went on a baby free date. It was the first time in a long time that we were able to get away just the two of us. It was so nice!!!! We took these pics right before we left:

We went to a cute little mexican place downtown called The Blue Iguana. Then we went bowling and I kicked Andy's butt for both games. Poor kid didn't even break 100 so I beat him by like 30 pins each game! LOL He's never been much of a bowler.

I still haven't gotten a gift from Andy. He claims that he ordered it online and it is just taking a long time to get here. But I don't mind. I'd rather get a late present so I feel like my birthday is still going on. Can you tell that I really love birthdays???????

Teething baby = Cranky mommy!

2007-10-08T20:08:00.000-07:00

Well he is almost 11 months old but Talan is finally teething! I feel so bad for him. He is SO cranky and just wants to be held all the time. So my house is a mess and I'm exhausted. Last night he woke up almost every hour. I felt like I was a mom to a newborn again... it was great birth control! LOL
Andy and I were so exhausted for the constant waking up to screaming fits that we both slept through Andy's alarm at 6:30 so Andy missed class. And we slept in till 9:30!!! I feel like such a horrible mother because Talan was awake and just hanging out in his crib when we woke up. He usually is up before 8 so who knows how long he was in there!
I am learning that one of the biggest lessons you get as a mother is compassion. I think I've always been a kind person that cares for others, but there is nothing like watching your child struggle or be in pain!!!
On a lighter note we spent the day today at the park and the Aviary. Talan got his first real swing ride! He loved it!!!

Then at the Aviary for some reason all he wanted to do was crawl, but only on the sidewalk. We tried to let him crawl around in the grass and he threw a fit. He is so spoiled!!!

Since everyone else is doing it

2007-08-10T22:17:00.000-07:00

I feel like I'm back in high school as far as internet usage goes. If I have a bunch of friends that are doing something online that I'm not I feel like a loser and that I need to do it too. Hence I've created a blog! I really don't think I'll be able to use it much, seeing that I barely have time to e-mail any more much less actually have time to sit down and blog (which I think is a stupid word btw)!
The only reason I had time to finish making this page, which I started last week, is that it is Friday night at 11 pm and Andy is already asleep. He went to bed before 10. I hate hate hate going to bed that early. So I told him I was staying up, not so much because I had things to do but more for the fact that I am not yet ready to admit that I'm an old married lady who goes to bed before ten on a Friday night.
But I guess that is what happens when you get married. The weekends have lost all importance and the only thing that is special about Saturday now really is that we get ready for Sunday like the song says. This is especially true for Andy and me since Andy works every other weekend and has to be up at 4 am, so he goes to bed really early. But tomorrow is his day off and alas he still wanted to go to bed early.
Don't get me wrong, I love love LOVE being married and I wouldn't go back to dating if you paid me millions of dollars. I never want to play the game anymore. I'm happy being in love and sharing my life with Andy. But sometimes I miss the single life. I miss having friends of the opposite sex, that may sound weird but I've always gotten along better with guys then girls. And for a long time my closest friends were guys. But I've lost contact with almost all of them because it really isn't appropriate for a married gal to be hanging out with guys without her husband now is it? I miss having late Friday nights and sleeping in Saturday morning. I miss meeting new people and having so many people over at my house on Sunday afternoons that there is no more sitting room.
I only get like this on Friday nights. The rest of the week I'm so thankful that I don't have to deal with roommates or the drama that surrounds the single life. I am in love with my life right now. I have a wonderful husband who treats me like the princess I am and an adorable son. And I wouldn't trade either of them for a single late Friday night.