cute pictures

This is my wonderful hard working man. This is his site that he works at every day in Park City.. brrrr



These are the attempts we made to get a cute picture of Grandma Sue with her three youngest grandchildren. They all love her so much. We should try to fit Bai on next time, eh?
I just thought I would post these pictures before I forgot. ..

recent happenings..

This is Bailee and Dehlia, the little girl I babysit. She looks very cute and angelic in these pictures and she definitely has the potential to be! Most the time she is getting into everything she shouldn't, pretending like she doesn't understand you, or singing Phantom of the Opera. A pretty basic two year old, right? Bailee and her have a love/hate relationship most of the time, but we get through each day and everyone seems to still be in one piece and sometimes that is all that matters!
This is when we went to the lights at Temple Square. sooo cute...
This is a funny story. We got home from running errands and Bailee had to go to the bathroom. Apparently she had to go pretty bad because she got there before me and started to cry. I went in to see what happened and she said (yelled) "Mommy, I fell in the toilet!" I looked down and saw that my wonderful husband had left the seat up. He usually does this (I choose my battles with him as well) but Bailee and I are used to putting it down before we go.. or we are usually the only ones home for most of the day so we don't have to worry too much about it. Well, Dan was home during this day and maybe Bai just forgot about it.. She literally fell in the toilet. her shirt was wet, her legs were wet... I would be crying, too! Luckily, I did clean the toilet pretty thoroughly the previous day. After I had her calmed down, Bailee said through sobs "I just looked around and realized I was in the toilet!" tehehe Dan did get in trouble, Bailee did get a bath, and I got a good laugh!

Case family night

The first Sunday of every month the Case family gets together and has a family night. We try to have a lesson, activity, and dessert every time. Thanks to Meg's idea and letting us use her house, it turned out to be a lot of fun. We had taco salad for dinner, watched the Christmas devotional, than decorated Christmas cookies. We had so many things to decorate with.. tubes of glitter gel, frosting in a can (like a cheez it can) with different nozzles to put on, many colors of sprinkles, and different colors of frosting. You can tell from the pictures that Dan was very focused on decorating his cookies and my girls focused on eating them. Thank you everyone that contributed to this fun night!

Case family pictures

Here are the pictures I promised. There is nothing new going on right now, so I will just explain the pics. First is the entire Case family. Than there is Meg and Jason's family, mine and Dan's, and Matt and Kathie's. I am blessed to be in two wonderful families. I enjoy being with them and learn so much from everyone. Enjoy and Ciao!

Part 2

The rest of the week was supposed to be more fun than what it ended up.. Dan had won lower bowl tickets to the jazz game for Saturday night and my mom was going to watch the girls. I also had helped plan a fun get together with some friends from high school right before the game. Well starting Friday morning Afton had pretty bad diarrhea. Later that night, she vomited a couple times. Saturday was worse.. She could not keep anything down - even pedialyte. We were very concerned and didn't want my mom to 1)have to clean up everything 2) get sick 3) make the choice on when to bring Afton to the doctor if she was getting dehydrated. So we made the decision to give the tickets to my parents. Dan was able to go the game on Friday night with my dad even though the seats weren't as good.. at least they won that night. Dan was nice enough to still let me go to the "cheer reunion." I only stayed a little bit and it took me like an hour to get to the gateway and park.. I'm sure it's mostly because I hate driving downtown and I never do it, so I didn't quite know what I was doing. Anyway, it was a lot of fun to be there, but I was still worried about Afton in the back of my mind. I will hopefully post a picture when they are sent to me and talk more about it then. I got home and luckily she had slept most of the time and Dan was playing with both girls when I got back so they were in good moods. Sunday Afton didn't vomit all day and I was thinking that she was getting better, but I think I made the mistake of putting her on regular food too fast because Monday morning all of her dinner came back out. I brought her to the doctor finally and my amazing pediatrician said that she will be getting back to normal soon. She hasn't vomitted since, but has been on a very mild diet and I am worried to get her back to anything else. Well there you go. She is crying now so I will go comfort her. I will post some pictures next time..

fun week - get ready for a novel

This week was a very good week. First was Thanksgiving, which was a very good day. I cooked candied yams for the first time and experimented with a cranberry dessert. I love to make new things so that was a good start. Then it was time for the feast at Dave and Sue's. The Case family is very fun to be around and I am so thankful for the love and attention they give to Bailee. It gets hard for her sometimes to be the only one her age and is still trying to adjust to getting attention in different ways than the babies.. does that make sense? I think she totally summed it up the other night when she yelled to no one in particular "I am surrounded by grown ups and babies!" The women are also very good cooks so the food was delish. I am so glad that I have Sue, Meg, and Kathie in my life. I probably never would have known them if it weren't for us marrying brothers, but I feel like my life would be very empty without them. Then we went to my parents house for dessert. My sister, Katie and dad are HUGE dessert people so we were able to have Creme Brulee, Cranberry pie, and Mindie made some really good tiramisu? bars. My dessert was a good one for the kids as well. Bailee liked being there so she could play with her cousins, but Afton was getting tired so we left to prepare for the next day. I have been babysitting lately for some extra cash (and it is good for Bai to have the social time with someone closer to her age) and Dan has also been saving some cash. I also studied the black Friday ads since they first came out and had everything planned out...sooo finally it was time for BLACK FRIDAY.. I had to get a bra at the mall for my birthday since I am almost done nursing and I haven't got a new bra since before I had Bailee - how sad is that?? So that was one thing I did not plan on doing and didn't know if Victoria's Secret was having a sell. I figured they must and I might as well go since the mall opened at midnight. I went and it was a mistake. I had to park in the furthest parking space at Chilis and I was there at 12:10. I went straight to Victoria's Secret, got measured, tried on two bras, chose one, and go in line. I did not walk out of the mall until 1:45! Plus, there were not any big sales. I could have gotten the same thing for the same price any other day except it would have been a 15 minute trip. Oh well.. any guy reading this, skip the next 2 sentences * I can not believe what a difference it is to wear a bra that fits! I was wearing something that was WAY off. * So I went home an slept for about an hour and then woke up at 3:10 to go to Kohl's. Sue and I went in one car and were getting the toys and Dan went with Matt in another car to get the camcorder. The guys went in, got the camcorder, and were the first ones to check out. I got everything I wanted at Kohl's and the checkout went very smooth. Next was Walmart -- oh geez. It did not seem like WalMart planned this out at all. Whoever was in charge of organization should be fired. They had pallets in the middle of the main aisles with the doorbusters piled high and wrapped with plastic. There was no way you could get through with a grocery cart, so people had ditched their carts in the other aisles and you couldn't even walk without rubbing against someone else. Then the announcement came on to open the bags and it was ridiculous! People were yelling, throwing, grabbing- pretty much every action available. I hurry and got the things I wanted (except for one thing I wanted for Bai - but she'll live) and we were the third person in line for about 30-40 minutes! I was very disappointed in how WalMart chose to do that. Next stop was McDonalds. Then Shopko - They were very picked over after only being open for 30 minutes.. I didn't really HAVE to go there because I got such good deals at Kohl's, but there were a couple of things I would have bought if they had them, but they didn't and I am glad because the line was not worth a few dollars to wait in. I walked out and we went to Kmart. I got 3 items from Kmart and waited in line for an hour! It didn't look like it would have been that long when i got in it, but at least there was a nice guy to talk to while I waited. Dan and Matt got a lot of deals at Home Depot- well actually, Dan got deals and Matt was nice enough to be there for moral support. I finally got out to the car- at least Sue got in a good nap in the car - and off we went to Target. I got my birthday presents from Tiff and Phil there and some toys for Afton and Abby. I also got a couple other gifts for people on good deals.. love it! Our last stop was Carters. YAY they had 50% off EVERYTHING. Plus, if you got there before noon, they took another 10% off, plus 20% off $50 and 25% off $100. I got two cute outfits for both girls for $40! Then we were home by 10:00. And my cute Case family planned a surprise birthday brunch for me. That was a very good surprise so I didn't have to find food for my family and i could experience their good cookin again. THANKS! So I will end here and do part two tomorrow or the next day. This was the most exciting part anyway! Thank you everyone who helped to make my Thanksgiving and birthday so much fun! I am so blessed to have such amazing people in my life.

the rubber ducky cake.. and ice cream

Happy Birthday, Afton!!!

So I didn't think about it and I should have done this post last so it would be on top of all the pictures.. I am sure there is a way to fix it, but I don't care. Today it has been a year from when I had my youngest girl, Afton. How crazy is that? It really does not seem like it has been a year already! I have loved every minute of learning how to handle two kids. Bailee has exceeded all my expectations of being a big sister. It has made her blossom into such a caring sister, daughter, friend, and cousin. I am surprised every day of something that she does to try and make someone else feel better. Now about the birthday girl.. She is crawling everywhere and trying to stand and cruise any chance she gets. As soon as she feels my hands, she is standing and ready to walk with me. Dan is very anxious for her to walk so he tries to get her to take a step or two on her own, but she is very cautious and won't do it. She can say understandable words like : mama, dada, papa, Ba! (Bailee), Puppie and words that only close relatives understand like: Thank you and boo. She likes to blow kisses, wave bye bye, sign "all done," and still cries or grunts very loudly when she wants something. She is a very happy baby and has been such a joy to have in our lives this past year. I am looking forward to continue watching my girls grow closer together and maturing individually at the same time. The miracle and blessing of life is apparent every day in my house and I am so grateful that Heavenly Father has given me the opportunity to have these experiences. I am also grateful that I have the great husband, family, and friends I do, or else I would be lost and depressed without them! Thank you everyone who joined us in celebrating Afton's birthday (both physically and in spirit) and for helping me along this wonderful journey.

memory lane..

I have recently been going through a lot of my pictures and saw a lot of pictures of Bai growing up. Wow it is so weird because I can remember a lot of the feelings and thoughts I had at those times and most of them were something about how big Bailee is getting. It's funny because now when I look at them I think "Was she really that little?" I have been trying to master the "live in the moment" philosophy because time really does fly! I might post a few more - it was really hard to choose the ones I wanted to share because Bailee really was a cute little girl and is still a cute bigger girl.. and very photogenic.

going, going, sold!

Well.. we received an offer on our house. It is kind of bittersweet. As much as I tell people and myself that I am not too attached to the house, there is a little bit of me that loves it. We have had a lot of memories there and I have tried to make it as much as a home in the year we have been there. It is hard too, because the people want all the appliances. I know we won't need them for quite some time since Dave and Sue have everything we will need and then when we go for Dan's job, the apartments are fully furnished so we won't need them there either. It would be a pain to store them all somewhere and have to move them all.. gosh how pathetic am I? I am attached to the appliances!! haha so I guess it's time to start packing, eh? Well.. Bailee is needing me so I will write more later!

stuff..

We have at least 3-4 people coming to look at our house every week, but no bites thus far. It is crazy because I clean the entire house for the people to see it and you would think that by the next day when more people are coming, it would be easy to hurry and pick up... wrong. It takes just as much time as the previous day to clean it up. It is still a mystery to me.
Oh one big piece of news that has happened in the past week is Dan's decision to sell security systems on the east coast over the summer. He has a couple of friends from high school that have done it with their families for the past few years and have really enjoyed it. We decided that we are in a position right now that we can do it. We love our family and friends here and will miss them terribly, but we also feel like we need to just try this out and see how it goes. I am excited for the chance to move just for a few months and then come back home when it's done. If Dan is successful at it, he would be able to go to school for the rest of the year and be home with us more often. If it doesn't work out, then we will have this experience and memory to add to our journey and come back to continue on with life adding more knowledge than we had before. We are hoping to go to Washington D.C. or Virginia, but we won't know until January. I'll keep you posted, though. Well that is a long enough post for now, eh?

Next tag..

Okay so I know I said I would put the other tag on here earlier, but I have been babysitting a little girl every morning who is about 2 1/2, darn cute, but darn spoiled! It has taken a few days to finally get her to know the rules and that I am pretty strict when it comes to hitting, spitting, pushing, laying on the baby, and breaking toys. Most other things I am actually pretty lenient (sp?) with. We have gone all yesterday and today with NO timeouts!! yay for her! So, needless to say, things have been very involved and crazy in my house with four girls. I'm glad Dan isn't here while I'm babysitting her or else I would have absolutely NO chance of trying for another kid.. don't get any ideas, though. It will be at least a few years before we will even discuss that subject! Well, on with the tag.. this one is hard, Tricia.. Yours was really good so I will try to make mine just as interesting and I won't mess with the text color since some of my readers are a little bit older and have problems with their eyesight... :D I'm sorry I tried for a long time, but I can't get it to go in a list style. Any advice would be great, if not, then hopefully it's not too hard to read this way!

I am... Janelle Case, mother of two girls, wife of a great hard working man, and resigned Special Ed teacher .
I think... kids grow too fast, I love the way things are now, but I forget too easily when things happen and I am not as good as others to record everything.
I know... that I over react sometimes - yes I do realize that.
I want... a shopping spree.
I wish... I could play all of Jon Schmidt's piano pieces (even better, at the same speed).
I had... pet rats growing up; mine was named Tricky and was white with brown spots. She loved to crawl through toilet paper rolls with her friend, Tracy.
I hate... lying in ANY form.
I miss... my sister, Tiff's family.. but I get to spend most of January with them in Boston :).
I fear... wind.. and being alone.
I feel... like I am finally getting over my yucky cold that has spread through the entire case family.
I hear... a helicopter that sounds like it is right over my house.
I smell... Bailee's and Deliah's clean shampooed hair.
I crave... McDonald's Big Mac.. I could eat those all day long and that is probably why I can't get rid of my belly.
I search... for Bailee's toys - we are trying to get some sort of organization going on.
I wonder... how Dan's job will be this summer and where it will take us.
I regret... getting mad at Bailee for stupid things and then she is soo forgiving and forgets everything pretty soon after.
I love... when my family is together doing the same thing and having fun. Maybe that's why Disneyland is so nice?
I care... about giving Bailee and Afton a lot of different and fun experiences that they can build upon in the future.
I always... complain. I am trying to stop doing it as much as before, though.
I am not... a creative or thoughtful person.
I believe... Afton is waking up.
I could... be a better mom and wife.
I dance... with Bailee and Afton every day - now to Christmas music yay.
I sing... only in the comfort of my house or car.. I guess I did on rock band, too.
I don't always... make good dinners - sorry, Dano.
I write... the way I talk so it is hard to understand and turns into a lot of run on sentence that just keep going and going and I don't use very much punctuation which makes it sound weird and sometimes doesn't make sense.
I win... most card games against Dan.. except for pinochle and rook.
I lose... pinochle and rook.
I never... get bloody noses or broken bones.
I never listen to... people who don't listen to me.
I can usually be found... at my house or Dave and Sue's house.
I am scared of... calling people to ask for favors or help.
I need... self confidence.
I am happy about... my life right now.. very simple.
I tag... my family bloggers: Jaimee (2nd cousin?), Emma (cousin in law), Kathie (sister in law), Meg (sister in law), Sue (mother in law), and if my father in law decides to invite me to his blog, Dave.

Tag, I'm It!

Alright, I have been tagged quite a few times and I think I will do a couple of them here. One of the reasons it has taken me so long (besides I have two girls that are very busy) is that I am not a very deep person. I have a hard time thinking of interesting things to write about myself. I am also a very open person so there isn't much about me that people don't already know. Anyway, I will start with the 7 random things about myself.
1 - I get so much satisfaction spending such a little amount on groceries every month. Everyone is very surprised when they hear what I spend. It takes a long time planning my meals and snacks according to the ads and coupons I have, but I love the feeling of feeding my family for so little.
2 - This kind of goes along with the above entry, but I am so happy that my birthday is on "Black Friday". What better day for me? I have been in Lava Hot Springs for the day after Thanksgiving all growing up so I didn't know about the fun that could be had on Black Friday until I married Dan. I study the ads and find everything I want to get for my family for Christmas and we get up early to get the door busters and good deals (sometimes Dan camps out at night - I'm not that crazy). We don't have very much money this year since I stopped working, but that just makes it more of a challenge to get super deals!
3 - I like to "people watch". That is why I like Jack Johnson's song "People Watching" so much. some of it explains me very well. I will sit back at a crowded place and just stare at different people. I am sure that people think I am weird but I like to see how people react to different things and treat each other. I don't know what else to say about this subject, but if you see me staring, don't get too spooked.
4 - I am VERY VERY VERY scared of the wind. Bring on all the storms and I will be fine, but if there is a wind storm, I will cover my ears with pillows and stay up all night listening to it to make sure our roof doesn't blow off, house blow away, windows shattering, trees blowing over, or car's blowing away... every irrational thing that could (couldn't) happen until I finally drift to sleep or it stops. I wonder if I just watched The Wizard of Oz and took it very literally.. I don't know. When I was in college I lived right at the mouth of Logan Canyon and it was always windy. I lived in a "converted garage" (remember Alison, Kathryn, and Erica??) and it was always windy. Most nights were spent with my nifty little discman and a hymn CD blasting through the headphones.
5 - I am not good at goodbyes when I won't see someone for a long time. I actually avoid them as best as I can. Sometimes it probably seems rude, but it just is hard for me to say exactly how I feel without feeling or sounding stupid. When school got out for the summer (high school, college, and teaching).. I don't think I really treated it like any different day.. no hugs unless someone else initiated it, no "miss yous" .. just a "see ya later and have a good day" kind of farewell. It was probably the hardest day when my sister, Tiffany's, family left to go back to Boston and she made me go and say bye to Abby because it may have been the last time I would see her. :(
6 - I'm running out of things to say.. I like to have different perspectives on things so I can relate to other people's situations. That didn't come out right- for examples: I understand and highly respect when moms have to work because I went through it. I also understand and respect when guys are working very hard to support their family at home. Both situations are actually tough in their own ways but I like that I have experienced both sides. Same with nursing. I wasn't able to nurse Bai and bottle fed her - I loved it and enjoyed having other people able to feed her. I came into nursing Afton very nervous - good thing I had Katie and Meg as my cheerleaders - but now that I have experienced the nursing world, I love that, too. I am glad that I have both perspectives so I can better relate to other people. Does that make sense now because I feel I am already rambling on and on about everything and don't want to think of another example. geez.
7 - I was close to being obsessive compulsive about brushing my teeth. It started somewhere during highschool and went until I saw a dentist in college (right before I married Dan) and he told me that my gums were receding and I may need gum drafts in the future. WHAT? They didn't tell me that was a possibility when I was young! I would brush every time I was in the bathroom alone - I brought toothbrush and toothpaste with me everywhere I went. I would brush until my gums bled.. I'm guessing that was when they were receding (right Tricia?) I think I wanted to avoid cavities and I DID NOT want a "gummy smile".. Well, I go to my dentist regularly now and he says that my gums are still fine and I haven't had a cavity in 5 years, so I'm guessing that I am just as effective brushing twice a day and I am postponing the gum drafts at the same time.. yay for me!
A-ight.. there you are. You just got to read a novel about me of things that may or may not have been too interesting. I will do the other tag tomorrow. Let's see, I guess the way it works is I tag other people now. I am going to tag my college girls.. Alison, Erica, Heather, and Angie. Tricia, Emma, and Melina, I would love to see 7 random things about you, too.. so if you want to do it, consider yourselves tagged as well. I better go pay attention to my cute girls now!

fun in the snow

Bai likes to eat the snow.. we did tell her over and over not to eat yellow or dirty snow
Dan had the day off work because of all the snow in Park City so he was able to make Bailee a snowfort!

Afton liked the snow but had a confused look on her face most of the time

Bailee is still eating snow and Afton is in awe of anything Bai does

rough morning

She found out that she can take these things OUT of the cupboard - she doesn't stop to look at anything until the whole cupboard is empty.

As I said earlier.. she can open candy. I was in my bathroom and came out to this..

I decided to take her into the bathroom with me while I got ready, then I had to take care of something on the phone and walked away for LITERALLY 40 seconds and came back to this.. yes, those are panty liners all over the floor. This is why they say don't put cleaners in cupboard that are accessible to kids. I never had this kind of a problem with Bailee.. maybe it's because she was my first and I was paranoid and never left her alone?? but yes I believe this is the beginning of some great long mornings..

it could be because of my part neglect in the mornings while I am trying to get Bai and me ready - and arranging a lot of other stuff on the phone. It could also be part of my organization skills (some of you may already know this..but I don't have organization skills). She loves to get into everything.. I didn't take a picture of a couple other things because they so commonly happen, but these are the new things she has discovered to get into.

more halloween pics

Uniqua - from "Backyardigans".. if you don't have kids, you probably don't know who she is.. but Bai wanted to be her since like June, so we made her costume. I think it turned out pretty cute!

She also wanted to be a witch like her grandma for trunk or treat..

Afton loved the aftermath of halloween.. she now knows how to open candy YIKES

"You call me a witch like it's a bad thing.."

Bailee is waving to the witch that's fishing
Sue Sittin a Spell
Sweet Afton - just like the store
first pic of the day taken by the great photographer, Sue Case - She takes all credit cards and is surprisingly very open for appointments .. JK Sue - I love you and it was such a fun time at the witchapalooza '08 with the fabulous Case girls (and boy, Ammon) -

cheap entertainment

Bai is not sure about this.. there was a big skeleton above her that she was kind of worried about
This one turned out darn cute, i think

this was in the straw maze
yes, she was eating the straw..

disneyland

Bai was big enough for all the rides except Indiana Jones and screamer.. She LOVED the "big rollercoaster" like Matterhorn (sp?), Space Mountain, Tower of Terror, and this picture is after Splash Mountain..


Afton was very good during the whole trip. She loved all the treats..

They had it decorated sooo cute! All the pumpkins and everything.. this candy corn was an A in California Adventure..