More than you ever wanted to know about Joe and Ashley

(Daddy with his little girls)
I decided it's time to embarrass Joe now... Just kidding, this won't be bad. It will probably end up gushy, though, to warn you in advance. I loved reading others of these and hope you enjoy it!
What is his name? Joseph Nathaniel Atkin.
How long have you been together? It will be 4 years on December 30th.
How long did you date? Only 6 weeks before engagement and then 5 months during our engagement. We definitely did it the wrong way around but it worked out for us.
How old is he? 26.
Who eats more? I would definitely say me in general although he has his moments (especially when it comes to ice cream and candy).
Who said I love you first? We were talking about this and we can't remember the first time we said it. It was probably him but I'm sure it was a mutual feeling when he said it.
Who is taller? Joe, at 5' 11 1/2" is about 6 inches taller than me. He always says this height because he is slightly bitter that he never quite reached 6' :) .
Who sings better? Joe, no contest. Weirdly enough, I've never been too self-conscious, though, about singing in front of him (except of course when I'm trying in vain to reach high notes--that's always embarrassing). Our family home evening songs can be quite comical because Joe will try to sing harmony and it often messes me up so that I completely lose the melody. I'm trying to work on that...
Who is smarter? I think I am slightly smarter at left-brained things such as Math and Science. Joe is more right-brained, is a better writer and is always correcting my grammar (grrr). We are currently in a war to try to make Elizabeth like Math vs. English. Maybe we'll both win :).
Whose temper is worse? Joe is more verbal about his anger. I get silently bitter. So I guess it's a tie.
Who does the laundry? Me, pretty much all of the time. He will help out and do a load occasionally.
Who does the dishes? This used to be split between the two of us but it's been mostly me this semester since Joe hasn't been getting home until late and I don't like have dishes sitting in the sink forever.
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? Facing the bed, me. Although, we aren't set in our ways and over the summer Joe slept on the right side.
Who pays the bills? I do, most of the time.
Who mows the lawn? Joe. I think I've mowed the lawn maybe once in my life. I probably should learn. Joe does get pretty artistic, though, with his designs and I don't think I would measure up.
Who cooks dinner? Me. Occasionally Joe will throw together some weird-sounding concoction that ends up actually tasting good. He's not one for recipes most of the time.
Who drives when you are together? Joe, unless he needs to study or something.
Who is more stubborn? This is a tough one. Joe can be very stubborn when he's trying to prove a point. I get stubborn about random things and then I won't listen to reason at all. So, both of us. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Both of us have pretty over-active consciences and can't take the guilt very long so we apologize quickly.
Whose parents do you see the most? Joe's normally since they are much closer although spending the summer with mine more than evened things out, I'm sure.
Who kissed who first? Joe kissed me although he likes to say that there was a lot of "kissing tension". It was just after playing tennis together and I think my visor hit his forehead when he was leaning in. It was a very wonderful kiss. :)
Who asked who out? Joe did. He called me to ask me on a double date with my good friend and his friend. My dad had written a message that he had called and I got nervous because there was actually another guy named Joe in this group of guys that my friends and I had been hanging out with and I wasn't sure which one had called. I was very relieved to discover that it was him because I wasn't interested at all in the other Joe.
Who proposed? This depends on who you talk to. We had been talking about marriage and an engagement and Joe was wondering if we should wait until we were both back at school. I said that I thought maybe that was "delaying the inevitable" which Joe counts as me proposing although he's the one who actually asked me to marry him. It was during a picnic at a park and it was simple and wonderful.
Who is more sensitive? I definitely cry a lot more and am sensitive in a lot of ways. One thing I love about Joe, though, is that he is an excellent listener and is great at responding in a way that is exactly what the person needs to hear.
Who has more friends? I probably have more friends that I am close to although Joe is better at making friends.
Who has more siblings? Even. We both come from families of 5.
Who wears the pants in the family? It's funny because I think people from the outside would say Joe since he has a more dominant personality but I think we make a pretty good team :).

Quick post

I have to post a funny thing that just happened before I forget all about it. I just put both of the girls down for their afternoon naps. I put Natalie down first and then put Elizabeth in bed. Natalie was still crying by the time I finished with Elizabeth and had straightened up a little bit downstairs (which almost never happens because she's a thumb-aholic). All of the sudden I hear Elizabeth say loudly from inside her room: "It's alright, Natalie. It's alright." She had this tone like "we're both stuck in our rooms so you might as well sleep". It was great. :)
The good news is that they both seem to be sleeping now and hopefully it sticks.

Elizabeth Video

I want to experiment with posting a video. The quality isn't great with this one because it was shot with our digital camera before we got a video camera. I love this video. This was when Elizabeth was only 10 days old. She smiles a lot in this video because she's being fed but she really did smile at us, too (I guess they call it social smiling). I can't believe this was 2 1/2 years ago and that she was ever that small. Where does the time go?!

President Hinckley Devotional

I really enjoyed watching the President Hinckley devotional at BYU on Tuesday and I thought I'd post some of my thoughts about it. So, you'll have to humor me :). A part of his talk that especially stood out to me was the part about working hard. He said that the success we achieve in life will be due to how hard we work and will have little or nothing to do with our natural abilities (I'm paraphrasing but hopefully that's close). This statement was very comforting when I heard it because of how easy it is at times to feel inadequate and to compare ourselves to others who may be more "gifted" in certain areas. It reminded me of a scripture that's been important to me lately:

"Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever." Alma 26:12, The Book of Mormon

We are weak and inadequate at times for the challenges that are before us, but that's not the point. The point is that if we trust in God and have faith in Him, He will work miracles through us and strengthen us. We are precious to Him and He stands ready to help us if we will only ask in faith and humility.
I love President Hinckley and I'm grateful for his counsel. He is an excellent example of faith and hard work. I was kind of sad because this was the first time he came to BYU that I wasn't able to go to the Marriott Center to watch since I've been here. (We probably shouldn't have gone the last time, though, because we attempted to take Elizabeth and she screamed through much of it :) ) I know that President Hinckley is a prophet of God and I'm grateful to be a member of this church.

Tagged

Mitzi tagged me awhile ago so I thought I would fill it out...

5 things I was doing 10 years ago
1. Getting my braces off. That was a momentous day for me...
2. Trying to find ways to look cute in school uniforms. 8th grade was the only year I had to wear them.
3. Getting excited for the birth of my first niece. I remember when she was born I told everyone around me in my classes about it.
4. Going to my first boy/girl parties and trying to pretend like I knew how to dance at them.
5. Hanging out at the mall with friends--a favorite pastime when I was younger.


5 things on my to-do list today
1. Go to Costco
2. Go visiting teaching with both kids during what would be their nap time. Wish me luck!
3. Prepare family home evening (we couldn't do it on Monday this week).
4. Find another book to start reading. I just finished Anne of Green Gables last night which I hadn't read since middle school. I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it or it's been a long time.
5. Get plane tickets to CA for Christmas.

5 songs I know the lyrics to:
I actually know the lyrics to quite a few songs so it might be hard to pick 5...
1. "The Way You Do the Things You Do" by the Temptations: I love the cheesy/sweet lyrics to this song.
2. "Friday I'm in Love" by The Cure: My friends and I listened to this song over and over when we were 8 so that we could write down the lyrics to this song and memorize them. I was heavily influenced by my older brothers' and sister's music taste. This is why I love 80s music.
3. "Waterfalls" by TLC: I even know the rap part of this song. It's amazing how music sticks in your brain for years...
4. "The Very Thought of You" by Billie Holiday or Nat King Cole: This song has special significance to Joe and I and I have always loved it.
5. "On My Own" from Les Miserables: What a great song to sing when you'd been snubbed by some boy you liked! :)

5 things I would do if I had a million dollars:
1. Pay tithing and offerings from it.
2. Go clothes shopping for myself and my family.
3. Save and invest.
4. Pay for grad school coming up (?)
5. Buy a nice new camera (ours just broke--hence the lack of new pictures on this blog)

5 things I'll never wear again:
1. Leggings/stirrups with baggy sweatshirts.
2. Bangs that start at the top of my head.
3. All of those weird colors of nail polish I wore when I first started painting my nails.
4. My old black digital watch that I used to wear with everything (even dresses!).
5. Tennis skirts, sadly. (I agree Leslie :)

5 favorite toys:
1. Our computer...I'm on too much.
2. My double jogging stroller. I know that's boring but I do love being able to jog with the girls and they love it too.
3. Letterflip: it's this great 2-person game that Joe and I play constantly.
4. Our video camera. I just need to figure out how to post videos...
5. Our piano. I never thought I'd want a digital one but I love being able to play during nap time without waking the kids up.

5 people who are now "tagged":
I think most everyone I know has already done it. I guess I'll tag Kelli, Stephanie, and Debbie.

Sisters and Friends

(This is an older picture but I still like it and Joe has our current pictures on the laptop at school with him)
I thought I would tell a couple of cute/funny things my girls have been doing/saying lately. I'm sure you've had enough of me after the list so this will be a welcome change. This is a busy semester for Joe and he has been gone a lot lately and of course this is hard on our Daddy's girl, Elizabeth. She keeps periodically getting a sad look on her face and then saying "I'm sad that my Daddy left me". One day she said this to a nurse while we were at the Health Center. I made it clear that he was just at school so she wouldn't think he walked out on us. It's so funny how she words things sometimes. She also likes to twirl around with her blanket over her head and say "I'm in love!". I think this is from her current favorite movie, Robin Hood. Also, we finally got Elizabeth to watch "Ice Age" (which is one of our favorites). She used to think the cover was scary but she finally agreed and loved it, of course. One day, soon after, we were driving somewhere and Elizabeth starts playing peek-a-boo with Natalie saying "Where's the baby?...There she is!". I couldn't help but laugh since that is one of my favorite parts of "Ice Age".
As for Natalie, we like to call her "happiness" and our "ball of sunshine". She is such a smiley and happy baby. Not all of the time, of course, and when she's mad she lets you know with this really loud, angry yell. Most of the time, though, she just smiles and grins and army crawls all over the floor finding specks of lint and dirt in the carpet to eat. She has recently started waving and Elizabeth thinks this is the funniest thing she's ever seen. Natalie also loves to scrunch up her face and sniff loudly. We all laugh at this and she loves the reaction she gets. We feel so blessed to have our girls and that they are both healthy and happy.

Ashley 101

This was a whole lot more work than I thought it would be. I loved reading many of yours so I decided to try it. If anyone reads all the way through to the end, you deserve a medal.

1. I love math and I’ve always loved math.
2. I remember the first math equation I learned. I was 3 or 4 and it was 2+2=4. I learned it while watching Sesame Street (take that TV-makes-kids-dumber studies! ). I remember being excited because I understood.
3. I had some major buck teeth as a kid with a huge gap (braces fixed that).
4. I wore my hair in a pony tail for school every day for about 3 years (grades 2-4).
5. I was a bit of a tomboy.
6. For some reason, I was “asked out” by four different boys when I was in the 4^th grade. I turned them all down. Little did I know, that was to be the height of my popularity throughout my life.
7. The only B I ever got, until college, was in PE in the 4^th grade because of square dancing. Perhaps this was due to all of the emotional turmoil of the year? It couldn’t have been my absolute lack of dancing ability :).
8. My husband is a better dancer than myself.
9. He is also skilled at interpretative dance and frequently makes the girls and I laugh with his performances.
10. I love the color purple but don’t really wear anything purple.
11. I am a chocoholic. The more chocolate the better.
12. Joe and I literally eat ice cream almost every night. We’re addicts.
13. My favorites are anything chocolate with brownie pieces and Neapolitan.
14. My favorite foods are mashed potatoes with gravy and the fried cheese at Chili’s.
15. I love to cook and feel confident in my ability in the kitchen. This is good because of my inadequacies in other aspects of homemaking (i.e. sewing, cleaning, decorating, gardening, etc.).
16. I was voted “Most Likely to Succeed” in high school.
17. Most of the people who voted for me would probably be surprised that I’m a stay-at-home mom with 2 kids but there’s nothing else I’d rather be doing.
18. I played tennis and soccer all four years of high school.
19. I used to have dreams almost every night during soccer season of scoring a goal with a bicycle kick (how cool would that be?).
20. Joe and I played tennis on our first one-on-one date and he beat me (lowering head in shame).
21. Our first date, a double date, consisted of DQ Blizzards, croquet on the church lawn, and waltzing in the parking lot to an Enya song. Weird, I know…
22. We were engaged after only 6 weeks of dating. Yikes! What were we thinking? It’s a testimony-builder to us of the guidance of the Spirit.
23. I am learning more and more how perfect Joe is for me.
24. I love my daughters more than I ever thought I could.
25. Motherhood is harder than I ever thought it would be.
26. There are no sweeter sounds than my children’s laughter and singing.
27. I have almost no memory of 3 days of my life. Unfortunately, those were the first 3 days of Elizabeth’s life. This still makes me sad.
28. I absolutely loved being awake for Natalie’s birth.
29. My favorite kind of music is oldies, especially classic R&B like the Temptations, Four Tops, The Platters, The Spinners, Otis Redding, and Al Green.
30. Two of my favorite songs are “My Girl” and “I Can’t Help Myself”.
31. I can’t sing but sometimes I pretend like I can, for instance when “You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman” or “I Want to Know What Love Is” comes on the radio (if you’ve never sung along to those songs, you should try it :)).
32. In my humble opinion, no one has a better singing voice than my husband.
33. I am the youngest of 5 kids.
34. I have always idolized my older brothers and my sister. They are the epitome of smart, funny, cool and kind. I aspire to be like them.
    
35. My favorite pastime in high school was babysitting my nieces and nephews.
36. My happiest moments in life are always when I’m with my family.
37. I have eaten shark and barracuda. Both were pretty good.
38. I’ve been to Africa and loved it. Someday I’ll go back.
39. I would love to go to Italy, France, China and Japan.
40. I love the beach and getting tossed by the waves.
41. Summer is my favorite season—I love the heat!
42. I love to ski but I don’t like very cold weather.
43. I love the rain.
44. I love buying sweaters and have a million of them.
45. #44 is also true about flip flops.
46. I have never pierced my ears and have no desire to.
47. I don’t like painting my fingernails.
48. I love painting my toenails.
49. I’ve been told often that I have weird toes but I don’t see what’s wrong with them.
50. I’ve never liked my knees—they’re too big.
51. I think Elizabeth may have my knees. Poor girl.
52. I love surprises and surprising other people.
53. I love giving gifts.
54. I’ve had too many prayers answered to deny the power of prayer.
55. I love to sit out in the sun and read.
56. I love to sit on my mom’s bed with her and watch chick flicks.
57. I cry a lot. I’m what I call a sympathy crier—I cry whenever I see someone else crying. Even someone I don’t even know.
58. Joe is very patient with me when I cry, for which I am very grateful.
59. I am a huge Sacramento Kings fan.
60. My favorite player that used to play for the Kings is Chris Webber. One time at a game, I was standing up and yelling his name during warm-ups. He turned and smiled at me and I was so excited that I cried (it was more that my eyes watered, really :)).
61. I was once interviewed by the local news about the Kings while in the audience at a game. I said something barely intelligible about them needing Mike Bibby healthy for the playoffs.
62. I eat a lot; much more than Joe.
63. I would much rather go out to dinner than go to a movie.
64. I once ate an entire half gallon of ice cream in one sitting my freshmen year of college. My roommate ate one, too. In my defense, it was BYU Creamery’s Brownie Nut Fudge. Yumm…
65. My mom is my hero.
66. I married someone a lot like my dad. I love my dad.
67. I love to play the piano. It is a stress reliever for me as long as I’m not playing in church :).
68. I only own about 3 pieces of jewelry. I wish I had more but I never know what to buy.
69. I once kicked a police officer as hard as I could in the groin. Don’t worry—it was for the final in my Self-Defense class and he was heavily padded. Still, he dropped to the ground :).
70. I took karate as a part of my senior project in high school and earned an orange belt.
71. I have double jointed thumbs but I didn’t realize it until I was 18.
72. My senior prom date dyed his hair hot pink to match my dress (for the record my dress was pale pink).
73. I used to wake up at 5 in the morning to watch reruns of “Lois & Clark: The Adventures of Superman”.
74. “Dumb & Dumber” still makes me laugh, even the 50^th time.
75. “Jeopardy” is my favorite TV show. Someday I want to take the test and try to get on.
76. When I was pregnant with Elizabeth, the only thing that would make me throw up was Joe. One time he came home from school and all he did was give me a little kiss hello and I ran to the bathroom and threw up. It was unexplainable and luckily didn’t happen during Natalie’s pregnancy.
77. I karaoked to Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop ‘til You Get Enough” with my friend Jessica in front of our high school. Unfortunately, we did not know that the song was 6 minutes long…yikes.
78. I danced to “Lady Marmalade” in front of our high school with 3 other girls in our French club. Don’t worry, the song was edited to “Voulez-vous danser avec moi, ce soir.”
79. That’s about all of the French I know after 4 years of French in high school (maybe a little bit more but not much).
80. #77 and #78 are actually pretty freak incidents since I am a shy person.
81. I’ve been known to accept food dares, including attempting to drink a cup of marinara sauce (didn’t work).
82. Before we were married, my husband was very social and I was kind of a home-body. Now, we’ve switched places. I love to hang out with friends and extended family and Joe just wants to stay at home most of the time.
83. My favorite part of American History has always been the Civil Rights Movement. I don’t really know why but I love learning about it.
84. I once won an award for an essay I wrote on Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
85. I was hit almost head-on by a semi on the freeway and I walked away without a scratch (the car was totaled of course).
86. After the #85 incident, I thought of Joe and wanted to call him. This is what made me first see myself marrying him. This was after only 4 or 5 dates.
87. I always wanted to have the initials AAA and it worked out! That’s not why I married him, of course :).
88. I really like my in-laws. They are great people and fun to be around.
89. I broke my arm in 1^st grade by falling off of the low bar (about 3 feet high). Not the most exciting bone-break story.
90. Marjorie Pay Hinckley is another one of my heroes. I love to read about her.
91. I used to eat “ice soup” as a kid. I would put crushed ice and water in a bowl and eat it with a spoon.
92. I am a major ice-chewer.
93. I’ve never been able to touch my toes without bending my legs. Maybe someday…
94. I love cheese. Anything is better with cheese on it.
95. I used to have a major crush on Jonathan Taylor Thomas. I think Joe looks like him, but cuter :).
96. My favorite cereal is Smart Start.
97. I ate Smart Start every morning for about 4 years.
98. I’m very much a creature of habit.
99. I love to bake cookies.
100. I love the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and I know it’s true.
101. I love my family.

These are some of our pictures from the Summer

We've joined the blogging world

Hey Everyone! I finally got around to starting our blog after seeing so many of yours. I hope you enjoy it! Here is a picture taken of our little family this summer. I hope to be posting more pictures soon. We loved our summer in California and the girls loved spending so much time with Grandma and Grandpa Allen. We spent lots of time in the pool and Joe and I even got to go on regular dates at night after the kids were in bed. Now, it's back to real life. Wish us luck!