Escape the COLD

I'm going to Cancun!!! But there is more to that than meets the eye. You see it is a trip that I earned through work. Every year there is a company wide contest in a few different categories that we all compete for. Mine is Branch Operations. Over the course of the year I have a goal I must meet regarding Receivables Aging, NSFE & Operating Margin. And well I reached my goal by 117%. So woo-hoo for me. I worked hard for this. And my payoff is a 100% paid for trip to a 5 star hotel (yet to be named) in Cancun Mexico. We're talking flight hotel food and excursions. Oh I am so so excited.

There is a lot of planning and running and tanning to do! :) Mike and I went and turned in our application for our passports yesterday. It takes 4-6 weeks at best right now so that's kinda scary. But we have about 2 1/2 months right now so we should be okay. Then the next important thing is the getting into swimsuit shape. I'm on what I call the Cancun Diet... I know so orginal. And it includes no junk food (sniff sniff) less calories per day, more protien and 10 weeks of super exercising. I don't know if I will loose a bunch of weight or not but it's worh a try. I feel like all the running over ther summer and fall really didn't make that big of a difference. Not as much as I expected, so maybe I've hit my plateau. And then of course I must get a tan. We don't need no super white girl to get fried in the closer to the equator sun.

Right now we are planning to hopefully fly through SLC and drop off Michaella with Grandma and Papa...so yeah for them too and woohoo for Michaella too. I'm sure she won't mind 5 full days of spoiling.

So really I just had to brag a bit.... you know puff out my chest.

A few pictures from Christmas

Snow

This is my third winter here. Nampa doesn't get a lot of snow. I know you think..."Idaho? No snow? What the heck?" But it is true. On average the Treasure Valley (Caldwell, Nampa, and Boise) area only gets 11 inches a year. I think we've already exceeded that. Most of it coming down Monday and Tuesday this week. On one hand it totally sucks because most of the population here are transplants... and the majority of the transplants are from California. Californians do not know how to drive in the snow! So we get a skiff of snow and traffic is a total mess. And on top of that because there is so little snow there really isn't any game plan or budget for taking care of the roads when it snows. No salt or plowing. So my roads are all that packed slick snow. And that only adds to the commute mess.

But on the other hand... we were able to play in the snow. I was let go early because of the snow on Tuesday so I was home early enough to shovel my drive and then play. Michaella had a blast building a snowman. Well let me rephrase that... she had a blast watching me build a snowman! Then our neighbors were out on their swing set so we went over and played there for a good hour. They would go down the slide over and over and land in a big pile of snow. Those little snow pants do wonders for speed. The first time Michaella went down she had pure terror on her face. But when she got to the bottom and I asked her if she wanted to go again she exclaimed "YA!" Playing in the snow is some of the fondest memories I have from childhood, so I was so glad to share that with Michaella this week.

Now if the roads would just melt.

First Full Week

It's the first full week back at work in 3 weeks. No fun. But such is life I suppose. This week we will get back into the swing of things. Michaella starts preschool back up along with tumbling and dance lessons this week. I'm not going to be able to sleep in anymore on Saturdays with Ballet at 10:30. OH the insanity. Michaella likes to tell me that she will wake me up in the morning and that she will "hang up" with mom and dad. We have had so much fun the last couple long weekends. We've seen movies and we've went hunting with dad (we sit in the car while Mike hunts) we've explored all over the valley. It has been a lot of fun.

It's been nice for Michaella to have this extra curricular activities. It's so hard when you get older your a working mother to make friends. It's actually quite difficult. I often wonder how I ever managed to make friends before, even in High School. I feel like I'm asking someone out on a date. Like "oh, what if they don't like me" or " am I annoying?" But I think I figured it out. There is another mother in tumbling that has been bringing her little girl almost as long as Michaella. At first it was like a Mom and Tot thing where we'd do all the activities with the girls. But that left little room for socializing. Once the girls hit 3 they started doing it on their own so we could just sit on the bleachers and chat. We had kinda discussed how our girls had talked about ice skating but there was no way we were talking ours husbands into going and that maybe we should do it together. Well we got a Christmas gift (a peace offering if you will) for the other little girl for Christmas and her mom was very thankful and said " OH we will definitely have to go ice skating!" I went home that night ecstatic, "Michael I think I've made a friend!" We've been here 2 years and I think I've finally made 1 friend outside of the 4 people I work with....that's sad. :)

Hello

Hello,

This is going to be my first blog... on here. I've done some on myspace too. My myspace is http://www.myspace.com/tiffaniwebster. But I saw this and I really liked it. Not so much silly stuff and spam.

I'll give you a little background about us. We are Michael, Tiffani, and Michaella Webster. We we established if you will on August 28, 1999. My how time flys. We lived in West Point, UT for about a year and half after we got married. Luckily as newlyweds we were able to move into a house Michael's dad had gotten married a month before we did and we were able to move into his new wife's house. That was wonderful we had the house with the fence and the dog right away. Our first baby (Dog) was Tuffy; a black Lab/Collie mix. Soon after we got her we bought our first home in Layton, UT. We loved that house. It was our big step into responsibilty and it was perfect for us.

We enjoyed life as a married couple for quite awile. We added one more Dog Lucy (lab/pit mix)Christmas 2001. She is an excelent hunter! Mike loves to fish and hunt and we did a lot of that the first few years...still do. In November 2003 Mike's sister got married in Hawaii. It was gorgous and the abdolute perfect vacation. Soon after we returned home from the enchanting island of Maui right after Thanksgiving we realized we were Pregnant! Not really planned but we were ready.

July 22, 2004 our Beutiful baby girl was born. Her name is Michaella Kipani Webster. Kipani is supposedly Tiffani in Hawaiian. I used to tease that I was going to tattoo on her foot "Made in Hawaii". She was induced, but we must have jumped the gun, she wasn't quite ready. She wasn'tgetting enough oxygen so she spent 5 days in the NICU and 2 weeks at home on Oygen and monitors. But now she is a completely heathy 3 year old.

Michaella has completely transformed our lives. This little bundle of dark hair and blue eyes came into our lives and I became a Mommy and Michael became a Daddy the 2 most important jobs of our life and the most fulfilling.

Michaella spent the first 17 months of her life also in Utah, but then Michael accepted a job tranfer to Nampa, ID. That was a hard transition. We left our family our first home and our security. I left a wonderful job and a wonderful babysitter that I had learned to trust with my child, not to mention the family support. Michael had to jump back into a very tough job and I a brand new job all together.

I tell you what that first year and a half was miserable . March 27, 2007 Tuffy got sick and died. That was very hard on me, considering she was my first baby. In July we bit the bullet and got Daisy. She is a puppy...what more can I say? She is an English Pointer and she has WAY too much energy! I can't wait until she grows up.

We got a beautiful new home that we adore. We found new babysitters; a wonderful older retired couple that Michaella calls Grandma Paula and Grandpa Joe. Michaella and I started tumbling lessons and swimming lessons and slowly began to like the area. Michael started scoping out new hunting and fishing spots and the scenery just outside of Boise is beautiful. Soon it started to feel like home.

Now Michaella keeps up the tumbling and she also does dance. She loves to be a ballerina and a princess. She is also doing preschool at Joe & Paula's house. I'm sure every parent is amazed with thier childs progress, but seriously I really wonder sometimes if my child is a genious! She already colors in the lines and cuts straight on the lines. She sings me full songs, she loves to sing! She says things like "It's a lovely day" and "What's the plan Stan?". She is a wonderful little mommy with her dolls. Sometimes I hear her sound just like me. We often have a power struggle as to who "Is the Boss". But she is amazing!

Now it's a new Year and we'll just see what it brings!