Joy in the Journey

6 months

2012-01-24T14:29:00.000-08:00

This weekend Hannah will already be 6 months. It's amazing how much changes from month to month with this girl. I think from month 5-6 has been the hardest for me. At the beginning of last month I was happy with how well things were starting to settle. Hannah was like clockwork with her naps, she was starting to sleep consistently through the night, and I could get caught up on sleep. The past 2 weeks have been a nightmare, ending with tears from me on most nights. She has always loved to be swaddled, still to this day. The downfall to her liking to be swaddled is that she now rolls over onto her tummy, but not back over very well. You can imagine what that must be like when your on your tummy and your hands aren't free. It turns into a constant battle during her naps. I'm forever going into her room to turn her back over. She hasn't figured out that she can sleep on her belly if she turns her head to the side. The funny thing about this post is that I wrote all of this yesterday, but now as I sit here today things are SO much better. We had a check up this morning with her pediatrician and she assured me that Hannah is doing great! She actually uses the word "perfect" and she probably says that about all the babies, but I like to think that it's only for the truly perfect ones. She is growing like crazy; 87% for her head size :), 57% for weight, and 75% for height. She gave me some suggestions about her napping, and I tried it today and it was pure bliss. She told me that Hannah may be one of those babies who doesn't like to nap as often as she once did. She used to take a one hour nap in the morning, a 2 hour nap mid day, and another one hour nap in the afternoon. Today we tried the nap in the morning and she slept for one hour. Then really late this afternoon we tried another nap and she slept for 2 1/2 hours. Let me tell you, it was exhausting keeping her entertained today from 10:30 until 2:00. I know that doesn't really seem like a long time, but when I'm used to her only being awake for 2 hours at the most, it was challenging for me. I needed a nap too. Hopefully this new schedule will continue for a while.

These pictures are so funny to me. It's so hard to get a picture of her smiling at the camera. She just loves to give the pouty look.

Rice Cereal and Sitting Up

2012-01-15T19:14:00.001-08:00

Hannah has been eating rice cereal now for 2 weeks. These are some pictures we took from the first time we introduced cereal to her. The pictures tell it all....she thought it was gross. We kept at it and now she loves it and even makes a "yum" sound after each bite. This weekend I was able to introduce one more food to her. We chose bananas and instead of buying baby food I thought I would make my own. I tried to puree the banana, mash it with a fork, mix it with a little apple juice.. you name it she would NOT eat it. It was so funny because she opened her mouth every time I came at her with the spoon but she literally gagged every time she realized what I had put in her mouth. I thought it was maybe the texture she hated more than the flavor itself, so I broke down and bought a jar of baby food and she loved it! She took to it right away, with the "yum" sounds and all.

It's so easy to have Hannah play on her back or in her Bumbo, but lately I've been working with her to try to sit up without any support. She does okay for a little while, but then topples over to the side. I was able to get this really cute picture of her sitting up all by herself, and she even had her adorable mouse hat on.

5 months

2011-12-30T10:52:00.001-08:00

Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma Gibbons, Hannah has been rolling over for the past 2 days. For Christmas they bought her a snail that plays music when you touch it. I've been a mean mom and placed it just out of her reach so she has to roll at least part way to touch it. Every time I place her on her blanket with the snail it's tummy time :) The only downfall is that she can't figure out how to roll onto her back from her stomach and it makes her pretty mad.

I can't believe Hannah is already 5 months. The time has flown by! She is so sweet that I can't imagine our lives without her. This weekend we're starting her on rice cereal and I can't wait to see how she handles it. I think it will be funny and entertaining to watch.

Christmas Vacation

2011-12-28T17:20:00.000-08:00

We had such a wonderful Christmas. First we started by celebrating Christmas with my family on the 22nd. We went to my parents house, had dinner, opened presents, watched a movie, and spent the night- just like we usually do on Christmas Eve. Then we headed back to our house, showered, unpacked and repacked and we were off to Yakima to spend Christmas with Blake's family. At Blake's parents house we played Wii Dance 3 and it was hilarious to watch. It was so nice to relax and visit with family over the week. Hannah had so much attention and love from everyone that I wondered if she would be sad to come back home and hang out with just me during the day. She loves her grandparents and all her aunts and uncles so much. I Hope everyone else had a great Christmas.

Christmas Dress

2011-12-16T20:28:00.000-08:00

Our ward Christmas program was last week and it was the perfect opportunity to have Hannah wear her Christmas dress. I love it on her, and I was even able to make a headband to match the tights perfectly. I can't wait for her to wear again on Christmas day.

Rolling Over

2011-12-16T20:15:00.001-08:00

Today marks the official first day Hannah rolled over. She usually makes it almost all the way and then her shoulder gets in the way. That's when I give her a gentle push to complete the roll. Of course with this monumental event neither Blake nor I witnessed it. I was making dinner, and Blake had just gotten home and he asked me if Hannah had rolled over on her own. My response was "she must have because I left her on her back." We were so excited that we thought we'd put her on her back again to see if she would roll over for an audience. However, Blake and I got to talking and when we looked over at her she was on her stomach once again. There's always tomorrow-right?!!

The pictures below are ones of her after I have helped in the rolling over process

Growing Family

2011-12-16T20:11:00.000-08:00

My favorite Christmas decoration is my fireplace mantel. Not long ago there were only 2 stockings, and now there are 4. I know it's kind of funny to have one for Lucy, but she's a part of our family and we even found a stocking with a couple doves on it which seemed fitting. She loves to chase birds!

Christmas Goodies

2011-12-16T20:03:00.000-08:00

This year I've tried to make my life easier by making treats for neighbors and friends that are actually EASY to make. Normally it's fudge, reindeer poop, sugar cookies, mint chocolate chip cookies, and rice krispies. My inspiration this year came from the best cookbook My Best Bites. This is a must have cookbook. My new holiday treats are the turtle pretzels, and apple pie in a jar. They were both fun to make and are cute little gifts.

Bed Photoshoot

2011-12-08T22:04:00.000-08:00

I can't seem to get enough of this little girl. Yesterday Hannah was lying on our bed while I was folding laundry and she looked so dang cute. I had to take some pictures.

Quite the Bear

2011-12-06T14:24:00.000-08:00

Just after I finished gushing about how wonderful Hannah was, she decided to wake up every 2 hours last night starting at 1:00am. It has continued into today, which has made nap time difficult. Because of this I decided to put her in her bear outfit. I thought it was fitting :)
P.S. Don't let that sweet face fool you...a BEAR!

4 years and counting...

2011-12-05T15:05:00.000-08:00

Blake and I celebrated our 4 year anniversary on December 1st. We celebrated the day skiing while my mom watched Hannah. I can't believe how fast the time goes by. We've experienced many things together in 4 years, and I can't wait to see what all the years to come hold for us.

Thankful

2011-12-05T14:44:00.000-08:00

This holiday season has been a weird one for me. I can't seem to get really excited about Christmas. We've decorated in the house, put up the tree, decorated the outside with Christmas lights...still nothing! I think as I get older the meaning of Christmas changes for me, but the worlds view stays the same. I feel like Christmas has become so commercialized and focused on spending tons of money to buy just the right gift. When Blake and I went to Europe I saw such a different way of living. There are so many people who live much simpler lives, with much less STUFF, and are so incredibly happy. I think it's easy to become focused on always wanting the next best thing, but does that really make us happy in the end?! I have been truly blessed in my life with a great family, wonderful husband, and the sweetest daughter, that I feel like I have everything I need to make me happy. I know that may sound cheesy, but life is good.

4 months

2011-12-05T14:18:00.000-08:00

Hannah just turned 4 months old. She is getting so big and has quite the personality. At her doctors appointment this past week she weighed 13lbs 14oz and is 24.5 inches long. She is in the 57% percentile for her height and weight, and 65% percentile for head size. Blake and I always laugh because she has a "Gibbons" head-big and round. She has been sleeping through the night for about one month, which is heaven. She still loves to be swaddled with at least one hand out so she can suck her fingers. She goes to sleep on her own in her crib without having to be rocked. She usually screams now when you rock her. I love that she's growing up and becoming independent, but it makes be a little sad at the same time. She LOVES to talk to us. She loves to sit in her Bumbo chair. She loves bath time and sucking on her rubber ducky in the tub. I can't believe how fast the time goes. Before we know it she will be crawling and walking-yikes.

Oink Oink

2011-11-20T18:37:00.000-08:00

Hooded towels are just the cutest thing, especially when they involve an animal on the hood. Hannah's pig one still makes Blake laugh every time she wears it. I think it's one of his favorites.

Rainy Day Projects

2011-11-20T18:31:00.000-08:00

Now that the weather has changed I seem to have much more time at home to work on little projects. Here are a few things I've been working on. Both projects were fun and simple to make. They both for the most part only required a hot glue gun. I'm all about hot glue over sewing. Learning to sew is one of my upcoming projects to start tackling.

Family Genes & Poop

2011-11-06T16:04:00.001-08:00

A few weeks ago we noticed Hannah has really started to love sucking on her hands. She pretty much tries to stuff both fists into her mouth at once and swallow them whole. This is usually followed by some gagging and lots of drool.

So the other day I heard Hannah sucking something fierce in her room and decided to go and check it out. As a peered over the edge of her crib, I was caught by two big blue eyes blinking blankly up at me as if to say, "Do you need something? Nothing to see here daddy." I noticed that she had apparently inherited a few of her aunts' genes. Hannah's aunt Heidi and Nicole also liked to suck their ring and middle fingers as a baby.

So, of course you might be wondering why I also mentioned the word "poop" in the title to this post. Well, do I have a story for you my friends. Up to this point in Hannah's short life, we hadn't had the joy of experiencing any of those exciting "diaper" stories that all our friends told us about. That was...until a few days ago. So, I woke up to the usual squawking in the middle of the night that suggested that Hannah either needed one of the two essentials in life at her age: (1) luke-warm bottle OR (2) a diaper change. Well, needless to say, this involved the latter. As I went about carefully disarming the "bomb", I had just about finished when I heard that tell-tale "grunting". This usually leads to some kind of explosive activity, so I prepped the area with a diaper to catch any "debris" that should come my way. This worked initially...However, I should have realized that Hannah had an additional 4 AM surprise that would "shake" me from my early-morning daze. As I removed the newly soiled Pampers diaper for a fresh one, Hannah shot out a brown-liquid mass with projectile force. It was insane. It hit the wall splattering down onto the carpet and all over the changing table. I do have to say that I was quite impressed with the incredible power apparently pinned up in that little body. Trying to control my gag-reflex, I just started to laugh out loud as I didn't really know how else to react. Oh Hannah, we love you and cherish the new experiences you are bringing to our lives.

Bath Time Cont'd

2011-10-20T13:53:00.001-07:00

We can't seem to stop taking pictures of Hannah in the bath. She loves bath time so much. She smiles, laughs, and tries to swim every time she's in the tub.

Rainy Day

2011-10-20T13:50:00.001-07:00

It's been raining all day long, so instead of going out I thought it would be a perfect day to make some treats. Meg I got this idea from your blog-thanks. I think the top picture looks like the owl is smiling :)

Growing up so Fast

2011-10-19T16:20:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine in our ward needed practice taking pictures of babies, and I jumped at the chance to have her photograph Hannah. I think they turned out so cute. She will already be 12 weeks this Sunday. Time flies!

Neighborly Advice

2011-10-03T21:13:00.000-07:00

The other day I was leaving our housing development with Hannah and Lucy for a walk. Usually it's a little bit of a struggle to walk both of them by myself. Lucy is great on her leash, but there are those occasions when she sees another dog and thinks it's time to play. When that happens I'm frantically trying to reign her in, while trying to maintain the BOB so it doesn't get away from me. It's a total disaster to say the least, and I'm sure quite the sight for others watching. My neighbor used to have a boxer and when she would take her dog and daughter for a walk she would loop the dog leash around her waist so she could have both hands on the stroller, and not have to hold onto the leash. I was slightly skeptical when she showed me, but I gave it a try. After trying it once and having success, I still thought it was pure luck. I have now tried it several times, and tonight I even tried it when Lucy and I went for a run. It's pure genius! It keeps Lucy right at my side, and the stroller in control. If you have a dog and want to walk/run with the dog and a stroller I would highly recommend trying this method. It really does work!

Memory Lane...Duck Tour with the Posners

2011-10-02T16:41:00.000-07:00

So I was putting together a slideshow for Sheena when I came across a few pictures from a visit our friends, the Posners, made to Seattle. During their stay we decided to take a "Duck Tour" in downtown Seattle to give them a real taste of the Emerald City. Today, when I looked at this picture I just started to laugh out loud; it has a funny story.

So we were driving along in this tour bus and the wind started to pick up. All of a sudden a guy's Mariners cap flew off his head and the bill of the hat collides with the nose of a guy behind me. The impact of the flying object, or Mariners hat, came with such velocity that is actually cut the bridge of the guy's nose behind me. As I am turning to Dan to ask him if he saw what happened, my nose just started to bleed. I don't know if it was out of sympathy for the poor fellow in the back or what, but Sheena, Dan, and Meg started laughing hysterically. Sheena actually started video taping me (as seen in the picture). Anyway, thought I would share; that's Karma for ya.

Proud Mom

2011-09-30T14:16:00.000-07:00

You know how everyone thinks there baby is the cutest. Well I'm no exception. I think Hannah is darn cute and gets cuter everyday.

The top 3 I took one day while playing with her on the floor. The bottom 2 her Uncle Brandt took the day of her baby blessing.

Thought of the Day

2011-09-30T11:39:00.000-07:00

Do you ever have the idea that the grass MAY be greener on the other side? Today I had that thought for a split second, and then I realized that life may throw us some bumps in the road, but living in the moment is so much better than wishing for another time in life. Here's how my day lead up to this thought. Hannah is usually great in the car so I decided to head to University Village to do a little shopping. Usually when I go I leave before noon to avoid traffic, but I thought today I would take the risk leaving at 1:30. Once we got to U Village, after taking the wrong exit, we headed into our first store. We had a return to make and we ended up getting the cashier that was new and didn't know how to do an online return. I was willing to be patient until Hannah decided that she didn't want to be patient and started to scream. We're talking full on scream, not just a little whimper, or cry, but SCREAM. Ten minutes later we left the store, and the second we were outside Hannah was asleep again. I took that opportunity to head into another store. Things were nice and quiet up until I went into the dressing room to try on a few things. That's when the screaming started again. After leaving that store empty handed I felt like I deserved a treat from the Confectionery, which is this huge candy shop. Once in that store Hannah was back at it. To make matters worse I had to wait behind these 2 kids with their mom that were taking FOREVER to decide what to spend there $1.00 on. After 3 stores of complete failure I had one last place to go into before heading back home. I had to go into the grocery store. I knew I had to be fast because now she was asleep again, but I was definitely on borrowed time. Into the store we went without my list that I know I brought, but couldn't find. Things were going well, until we got to the check out line. As luck would have it that I got in the line behind someone that had a price discrepancy. I wanted to give them the difference of money myself just so I could check out and get outside. It's funny when you're in public and your baby is crying the looks you get. The moms close to our age always give a look of sorrow, like they can relate and they feel bad. The older moms look at us like we're neglecting our children and being a bad mom. After the grocery store we were back in the car heading home. We got stuck in traffic, not on the freeway, but getting to the freeway passing by the University of Washington. That's when I had the thought that I would love to go back 10 years to when I was in college. Life was so much simpler. Life consisted of going to class if you felt like it, taking tests, hanging out with friends, going on dates...the carefree life. No crying babies in the car, mortgage payments, finding a job that offers a 401K and health insurance, paying your own bills, not going on dates with your husband every weekend. But when I looked into my rear view mirror and saw Hannah screaming I thought about how life is now and that I wouldn't trade it for anything. If we are always thinking about how life COULD BE instead of enjoying the way LIFE IS, we will miss out on so many wonderful moments. NO, the grass is not always greener on the other side!

Santa Claus Came Early This Year...

2011-09-25T20:04:00.000-07:00

So I was giving Hannah a bath this evening and noticed that an exceptionally large amount of bubble bath was building up in the tub. I decided to give her a white afro and beard. The results were pretty funny; she was diggin' it.

Bath Time

2011-09-06T15:16:00.000-07:00

Hannah loves bath time! She can be crying and the second she hits that water she's splashing around and loving it. Here are some recent pictures of her.

Mommyhood

2011-08-28T14:19:00.000-07:00

Everyone keeps asking me what I think about being a mom, and that's a really hard question to answer. It's wonderful, fulfilling, tiring, stressful, rewarding, blissful, and emotional. These are all words that describe the various moments that have occurred in the last 4 weeks with Hannah. Just when you think you have her figured out, she throws you a curve ball and you have to start all over again. I thought babies this young didn't have a personality of their own. I thought parents were able to shape the personality you wanted your kids to have if you did it early on in their lives. Wow, was I wrong!! Hannah is a really good baby, even with her hard to figure out moments. Every night when I'm up feeding her, and can barely keep my eyes opened, I remember to cherish even those moments. It won't be long before she won't want to be held or snuggle in your arms, and right now those are the moments that melt my heart.

Happy Belated

2011-08-28T14:12:00.000-07:00

It's official...I'm the BIG 30! My actual birthday was on the 10th, but Blake and I really celebrated it last night by going to the Josh Groban concert. It was AMAZING!! I'm so glad we were able to see him perform in Seattle. I must say I was a little hesitant to go and leave Hannah behind with my mom. Not that I didn't think my mom could handle babysitting, but it was hard for me to leave her for that long. She did great with grandma, and grandma loved spending time with her. If anyone ever has a chance to see Josh Groban live, I must insist that you do. It is so worth the money!

Hannah hangin' with Daddy

2011-08-07T11:40:00.001-07:00

Hannah has "daddy time" at night when I give her a bath and then read her a story in her rocker; it's sweet. Here are a some photos from a few evenings ago. She's got quite the grip.

New Edition to the Family - Hannah Claire Gibbons

2011-08-02T22:12:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone, we are excited to announce that Hannah Claire Gibbons was born on Sunday at 4:54 PM. She weighed in at 7 lbs. and was 18 in. long. She is wonderful, healthy, cuddly, and super cute. We love her so much already! Both Sheena and baby are doing great!

New Project Complete

2011-07-16T12:41:00.000-07:00

I refinished this rocking chair for Sheena to go in Hannah's room. It turned out pretty great. We got it for a screamin' bargain at $30. The paint on it previously was a bit red and didn't really match the furniture in the room. I took it apart, stripped it, re-stained it, and Sheena got some new cushions for it. It took awhile, but turned out pretty nice.

36 weeks

2011-07-10T19:10:00.000-07:00

We are down to the home stretch! I can't believe that it's already been 36 weeks. Here is the latest picture of the belly. I'm still feeling really well. The only downfall to pregnancy at this point is the crazy amount of swelling in my feet and ankles. Elevating doesn't even help that much at this point. I've never missed my ankle bones so much.

Flourishing Garden

2011-07-10T18:57:00.001-07:00

Our garden last year was such a sad sight, so this year we needed to make some improvements to redeem ourselves. Instead of planting our vegetables in the ground we thought they would do better in a raised garden bed. Blake was able to put his handy skills to the test and made these raised garden beds. They have worked great to keep Lucy out, and small children (William and Cole :)). We have about 10 zucchini starts, our peppers and cucumbers are on there way, green tomatoes for now, plenty of green strawberries, and some delicious lettuce and basil.

Seattle Dirty Dash Mud Run!

2011-07-10T17:33:00.000-07:00

The sun decided to stick around for the second weekend in a row. The weather has been absolutely perfect and it was nice to spend some time outside. Saturday morning I played some softball with my peeps while Sheena hit up the outlet malls in Everett.

Later that afternoon, Sheena and I went down to Kent and I ran in a 10K Mud Run called the Dirty Dash. It was a blast! The race was filled with all sorts of crazy obstacles ... wooden walls, huge waterslide, forest run, root-beer chug at the half-way point, 3-foot deep mud puddles and more. Sheena didn't run the race, but had her own set of obstacles. She was busy taking a few pictures in the sun, having Lucy tug at her most of time, carry her purse/camera bag, bulging prego-belly, and "puffy" feet. She said she was getting a few "stares" from other bystanders. She assumed it was because people thought Lucy was such a cute dog...:). She's a good sport and I love her.

Baby Shower

2011-06-23T21:12:00.000-07:00

Last Thursday I had my first baby shower. One of the ladies I serve with in Young Women's threw it for me. It was so much fun to visit with just the girls for the night! I received so many cute clothes that Hannah will look so adorable in. A few of my favorite gifts were ones that people made. I love diaper cakes, and think this one's especially pretty. The other gift is a growth chart complete with Hannah's name and birds- so cute!

The Tree Is Finished!

2011-06-23T21:07:00.000-07:00

The nursery is almost complete. Blake is making great progress on the rocking chair, and I finished the tree last week. It looks so cute and adds so much color to the room. I couldn't be happier with how it turned out.

FHE activity

2011-06-14T18:50:00.000-07:00

For our last FHE we decided to try out our tie dying skills. Blake is a far better tie dyer than I am and it shows in his work. Apparently he's done this a few times in the past. I had bought some white onesies for our baby to wear to bed in the summer months, and instead of painting pictures on them like a lot of people do at baby showers, I thought tie dying them would make them really cute. Here's how they turned out.

Nursery in Progress....

2011-06-14T18:38:00.000-07:00

Life never seems to slow down. Blake and I have given ourselves the names of "weekend warriors." It's like a mad dash to get all the errands done on Saturday, in order to relax on Sunday. Our latest project is the nursery. Blake's been busy refinishing a rocker we bought so he's constantly out in the garage sanding, staining, and restaining to get the color just right. I've been painting, and buying stuff to decorate the room. I don't know how many times I've visited Pottery Barn Kids, but I think going there every weekend for the past 2 months has made me appreciate ordering things online more. Here is the nursery so far. The only things left to add are the rocking chair once it's done, and I have some leaves to make to put on the tree. By the way I painted that tree instead of buying the decals. It was a lot easier than I had anticipated.

27 weeks

2011-05-07T21:15:00.000-07:00

I know I've been bad about updating the blog, and even worse at posting belly pictures. We took some a few weeks back, but it wasn't blog worthy. I feel like my belly is a lot bigger in real life then on camera.

So far my pregnancy has been great. As my body keeps changing it just makes me appreciate women more, and all the things that we endure to have children. The hardest part of pregnancy for me is not being able to do all the things that I'm used to doing...running with Blake and Lucy, lifting heavy items without help, yard work (mowing the lawn), and getting a solid 8 hours of sleep. Oh, and anyone who had bad leg cramps during pregnancy, I feel your pain and NO ONE and I mean NO ONE should ever have to endure that kind of uncomfortable feeling.

Happy Birthday Lucy

2011-05-07T16:36:00.001-07:00

I know, I know she's only a dog, but a very special one to me. She turned "1" a few weeks ago, and got to go camping with the boy scouts for her birthday weekend. We got Lucy when she was 3 months old, and it has gone by so fast. It's hard to remember the simple life we had before her. No one else to think about or take care of besides ourselves. She does shed hair on our clothes, smell sometimes, require a lot of attention and physical activity, and does ruin some of our things, but I wouldn't trade her for anything. Lucy has taught me to be more easy going in the cleanliness of our home, patience, and the ability to care for someone else besides myself and Blake. She also filled such a huge hole that I had in my life from the difficulty of getting pregnant. To me she isn't just a dog, she's a part of my family.

The Pacific Northwest

2011-04-25T19:45:00.000-07:00

This past weekend I was able to do some camping at Deception Pass with the Boy Scouts. We had a great time and the weather was beautiful. All the great scenery reminded me that there is nothing quite like the Pacific Northwest.

Mount Si

2011-04-06T20:58:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I went up with the Boy Scouts to hike Mt. Si. Right now I am currently a volunteer for the 11-year olds. Lucy and I had a blast; she loved the snow. Mt. Si is just outside of North Bend, WA (about 20 minutes to the east of Seattle). The mountain is a really popular local area for hikers (about 80,000 - 100,000 hikers annually). The trail was pretty steep and it was a perfect sunny day. It did seem like it was raining because the previous night a large snowstorm hit the area and it was melting overhead. Hope you enjoy the pics.

It's a ........

2011-03-30T17:11:00.000-07:00

We're having a GIRL! We just found out this morning and couldn't be more excited. I would have loved a boy or a girl, but I really was hoping for a little girl. Now we just have to be patient and wait for August to come around.

Fun in the sun!

2011-03-13T15:59:00.000-07:00

We decided to give the wet weather in Seattle a break for a week in the Cayman's. I had some work meetings that took place there and Sheena was able to come out as well. Grand Cayman was beautiful and the weather was perfect at 85 degrees and sunny.

We had a blast snorkeling, swimming with stingrays (Blake did, Sheena was nervous), golfing with iguanas, scuba diving, a submarine tour, jet skiing, wake boarding, sea kayaking, sun tanning (or "sun burning for us Seattle white-folk), fantastic food, and a couple of relaxing massages to cap it all off. It was awesome ~

Poland

2011-03-05T15:02:00.000-08:00

To round out our European vacation, our final destination was Poland. The first thing we noticed when we arrived in Poland was the super cold weather. The average temperature during our Polish sojourn was around 10 - 12 degrees, yikes!

Our first stop was Warsaw, Poland. Sheena and I were able to visit the old town square, eat some traditional Polish cuisine, and visit a few of my Polish friends whom I was able to meet during my mission to Poland from 2002 - 2004. I was surprised to hear Sheena say she actually liked the food. While we were in old town Warsaw, we had bigos (Polish hunter's stew with sauerkraut, sausages, and a few other things), pierogi z miesem (flour dumplings with meat), and roast duck. After eating out we walked around for a bit in a few of the tourist shops and then met up with a friend, Leszek Klabisz, for some hot chocolate.

Our next stop in Poland was Lublin. Lublin is on the eastern border of Poland near the country of Ukraine. While there we were able to have dinner with Czarek and Beata Gladun. It was fun to be able to see the Gladun's and the timing was perfect. Czarek Jr. was heading off on his LDS mission the next day (he received a call to Poland), so we saw him just in time. During my LDS mission to Poland, I was able to teach the Gladun's and it was neat to see them again. During our second day in Lublin we visited Majdanek. Majdanek was a Nazi concentration camp from World War II located just outside Lublin. It was a sobering experience to see Majdanek and learn about some of the terrible things that took place there. Hundreds of thousands of prisoners were held at Majdanek and I believe around 80,000 people were murdered in the camp (mostly Jews, Polish nationals/POW's, and Russian nationals/POW's).

Our last night in Poland we returned to Warsaw. We took a train early the next day around 8:45 AM to Gdansk where we had a plan bound for Rome, Italy. The train ride took FOREVER, around 5.5 hours. I kept telling Sheena I could run faster with snow boots and a speed parachute; the train was super slow and stopped in like every little bum town. We finally arrived in Gdansk where after a bit of confusion, we caught our flight back to Rome, Italy.

The next morning we caught our flight from Rome back to the United States. Our trip took a little over two weeks. It felt like we had been gone in Europe a month because we packed lots of activities into those two weeks. We had a blast, but we were happy to get back to family and those things we love and enjoy at home.

This picture is of the thousands of shoes left behind by the prisoners at Majdanek.

Jogobella jogurt, some of the best stuff around in Poland. Yum!

Zermatt, Switzerland

2011-02-25T02:02:00.001-08:00

Did I mention how great the Swiss chocolate is?!! It's delicious and we made sure to stock up on our last few nights in Switzerland. Zermatt, Switzerland is the home to the famous Matterhorn. It was a sight; a cold one, but a beautiful one. We stayed in Zermatt for the last 2 days of our time in Switzerland. It was your classic expensive skier town. The hotels were glamorous, the food was delicious, the shopping was extravagant, and we didn't fit in at all. Our favorite foods we ate in Switzerland was cheese fondue, and rosti's. Rosti's were basically hash browns, so if you ordered the sausage and leek rosti it came in a small cast iron skillet with hash browns, leeks, and sausage all together. They were so yummy. In Zermatt, we slept in until 9:00am and then walked up and down the streets drooling at all the things for sale in the shop windows. Like for example the $85,000.00 watch for sale. Who buys something so expensive, even if you do have that kind of money?!! Blake thinks that the people who frequently visit Zermatt must fart and gold coins come out. We will definitely go back when that starts to happen to us. Otherwise that town or even the country of Switzerland robs poor fools like us. After Switzerland we had to visit Poland so that we could save money.

Bern, Switzerland

2011-02-25T01:28:00.000-08:00

Bern was place I was the most excited to visit before coming on our trip. My grandma's parents both traveled to the United States from Bern. I had heard so many great things about it from my grandma, that I felt it was a place I needed to see in my lifetime. My grandma passed away a year ago, and at that time Blake and I weren't planning a trip to Europe. If I had known then, I would have asked her so many things about Bern; places to see, relatives to meet. Instead I relied on one of her photo albums from the last time she visited Bern, which was in 1983. I brought it with me on this trip and used it often to see all the places she had visited, so that I could see those places as well. It was such a great feeling to know that I was standing in the same place as she had been almost 30 years ago on her trip to Bern. Some of the things we saw while in Bern were the Bear Pits. The legend of the bear pits is that the city of Bern was given it's name back in 1191 when the first animal hunted and killed was a bear. The bear pits have been in the town since 1513, and now they're in more of a park setting rather than a pit. Other things we saw were the apartment of Albert Einstein, the town clock, the Parliament House, the Rose Garden (it didn't have any roses blooming, but it did have an amazing view of the city), and we did a session in the Bern, Switzerland Temple. We loved the food in Bern, and the people as well. The food was a lot heavier than what we had been eating in other countries, but it was so delicious.

The bear pits, minus the bears (they were in hibernation).

This is the Parliament House. My grandma had this identical picture in her photo album.

Paris, France cont'd

2011-02-24T00:41:00.000-08:00

Sorry to make our stay in Paris several posts, but I can't post nearly as many pictures as I would like to on one. Other things we saw while in Paris included the Arc de Triumphe which is right in the center of downtown which is called the Champs Elysee, and the Notre Dame Cathedral. It was fun to walk down the Champs Elysee and see all the places to shop. I remember my French teacher in high school talking about that part of town so much, and to finally be able to see it first hand was great. The Seine River is also a large river that runs right down through Paris. Paris was so much fun and Blake and I both agreed it was one of our favorite places we visited on our trip.

This is us on a bridge overlooking the Seine River

The statue of Venus. They don't know who the artist is, but they believe it is of the Greek Goddess of Love, Aphrodite.

Paris, France

2011-02-23T23:37:00.000-08:00

Paris was the best! It was such a big town, with so many large monuments to see. We were able to stay in the same hotel the entire time in Paris, which was nice for a change. The first thing we found while in Paris was an excellent bakery, which we frequented every morning, and sometimes in the evenings. The French girl that worked in the mornings was the cheeriest little thing I had seen on all of our vacation. She was always greeting us with a peppy "Bonjour" when we arrived (which means hello) and "Merci" when we left (goodbye). In Paris it was nice to be able to take our time sightseeing, since we didn't have anywhere else in France to visit. We had hoped to go down to Normandy, France to see the battlefields, but once we were in Europe and talked with some people it was going to be a far distance for a lot of money, so we decided to cut it from our plans. The Eiffel Tower was so much larger in real life than I had pictured it being. We took an elevator ride up to almost the top and then you could take the stairs to go up even higher. I decided to stop at the level the elevator takes you, but Blake went all the way. I don't loves heights, and it's not even enjoyable for me to be in that situation for even a quick glance. The Louvre museum, if I could use any phrase to describe that place it would be "oh my gosh." Not necessarily because of all the wonderful things to see, but because of the size of the museum. It's divided into 3 wings and there are 4 levels to each wing, which doesn't sound like a lot until you see how much there is to see on each level. I think if you wanted to see everything in that museum you would need to do a wing a day and take 3 days to see it all. We did see the Mona Lisa which was cool.

Venice, Italy

2011-02-20T12:48:00.001-08:00

Our last stop in Italy was in Venice. We were there for an afternoon and then had to catch a flight early the next morning to France. Again like in Florence, we didn't have a hotel reserved so we went to the tourist information booth at the train station to ask for recommendations. They suggested Hotel Ca' Nigra Lagoon Resort so we checked it out and decided to stay. It overlooked the Canal Grande where they offered the gondola rides (the Italian men that float you down river in their boats), but for 70 Euros we thought it wasn't worth the cost of the 20 minute ride. Instead we went out to dinner and had gelato for dessert. Check out Blake's jacket and scarf. Those are his new European purchases.

Florence, Italy

2011-02-20T12:30:00.000-08:00

Our next stop was Florence, Italy. It was for a short stay, but it was our favorite city in Italy. In comparison to Rome, it was much cleaner, the people were very friendly, and the architecture of the city was more beautiful. We didn't have a hotel reserved when we arrived so we just ventured around looking for a place to stay. We came across this one and loved it. It was built back in the 17th century. A few places we visited in Florence were the Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, and the Galleria dell' Accademia. The Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore wasn't quite as spectacular as Saint Peter's Bascilica, but the painted ceiling was beautiful. The Galleria dell' Accademia was where we saw the statue of David by Michaelangelo. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the museum, but it was breathtaking. It was so large and such an impressive sight.

Rome, Italy Part II

2011-02-20T12:03:00.000-08:00

Our last full day in Rome we had planned on seeing the Vatican City. The bummer part was that the Sistine Chapel and Vatican Museum were closed that day. We did get to see and go into the dome of Saint Peter's Basilica, see the Holy Vatican Grottos (Tombs of the Popes), and Michelangelos Pieta'. They were all such spectacular sights to see.

That was the view of the Vatican City from the top of the Saint Peter's Basilica dome.

This is the famous Pieta' by Michaelangelo.

This building held the Holy Vatican Grottos (Tombs of the Pope).

There were so many beautiful fountains all around Italy. They usually had one in every town square.

Rome, Italy Part I

2011-02-20T00:03:00.000-08:00

After 13 hours of flying time, and 1 layover we made it to Rome, Italy. It was such a whirlwind the second we stepped out of the plane. The airport was crazy, the luggage was heavy, and we had no idea how to find our hotel. We stopped by the tourist center in the airport to get a map of Rome and off we went. A few train rides later, and walking up, down, and around our hotel we made it (3 hours later). It was nice to be able to have somewhere to call home for the next few days. Since we arrived in Rome in the afternoon the plan was to do as much sightseeing as we could that day. That sounded good in theory before we actually made it to Rome, but once we were there it was not appealing to me at all. I figured after a shower and some clean clothes I would be set and ready for the day. Sleep, who needs that? Well lets just say my clothes felt extra tight that day from all the fluid I was retaining, and to top it all off my straightener totally burned up when I tried out my new converter and adapter. Needless to say my hair was a big frizzy mess from the 87% humidity. Then the exaustion set in, and then came the water work tears. I was sooo tired, not feeling the least bit ready to tackle walking around a strange city all day, and I missed home already. After pulling myself together we ventured out, frizzy hair and all to find a new hair straightener and to eat some dinner.

Our next day in Rome was a lot more pleasant. We got up, I straightened my hair :) and out we went to find somewhere to eat breakfast before all the sightseeing. We found this little bakery close to our hotel and the train station so we stopped in. We ordered a few pastries and some hot chocolate. The funniest thing about hot chocolate in Italy is that it's like hot pudding. You can't drink it, you have to eat it. After breakfast we set out for 12 hours of sightseeing. Looking back now I can't believe how much we saw that day.

This is the Roman Forum. It's the remains of the city, that are now under the new city of Rome.

This is us at the Fountain de Trevi. It was one of my favorite things to see because it is so much bigger than I had anticipated and it's right in the middle of a town square.

Some of the architecture of the city. It was beautiful

This is the Italian version of hot chocolate

Is she a Dog or a Cat??!

2011-02-06T20:23:00.000-08:00

Lucy never ceases to surprise us. Blake and I were reading in bed one night and we noticed Lucy was no where in sight. We knew she had to be in our bedroom because we had closed the door so she wouldn't run downstairs. When I got down from the bed I noticed the end her tail hanging out from under the bed. This is what we found...

She loved it under there, and would not come out for the longest time. As you can see from the picture, under the bed is not the most spacious place to hang out. Such a weird dog!

Weekend Project

2011-02-06T20:16:00.000-08:00

Our guest room finally looks like a guest room. After living in our home for over a year we recently bought a queen sized mattress with bed frame, new bedding from Pottery Barn that I bought for such a good deal and it's organic-whatever that really means, and this past weekend we put a fresh coat of brown paint on the walls. Don't worry friends and family, you will always have the option of the small, but cozy double bed in our other room, or the queen sized air mattress set up in the living room. I can't wait for someone to come stay!

Absent

2011-01-27T17:53:00.000-08:00

It's been forever since I've posted something on our blog. Luckily Blake has been keeping up on it for me. I don't know what to blame it on....maybe the craziness of the holiday season, maybe the constant planning of our future trip to Europe, maybe it's all the meetings and activities of my church calling, maybe it's the bout of bronchitis I've been fighting, or maybe it's because I've had a little less energy lately since I'm 3 months PREGNANT! Yes, that's right we're finally pregnant. My due date is August 10th, which also happens to be my 30th birthday-crazy huh?!! We're really excited and can't wait for the next few months to fly by to find out if we're having a little girl or boy.

Blue Bird for Oregon, not bad.

2011-01-23T21:47:00.000-08:00

So Friday night I decided to throw the ol' sticks in the car for a 3 hour ride to none other than Mount Hood. I have a buddy that lives in Portland and his girlfriend managed to hook us up with some free lift tickets at Timberline resort.

I have only been to Timberline once. It was with my good friend, Brent Thompson, back in high school. I remember we went on a Thanksgiving weekend and stayed in some beat up old cabin on the mountain highway. I don't know why, but I also remember we watched the Simpson's on our snow shack's miniture TV. Back then the snow was pretty decent for late November. It was a bit strange going up the 3 or 4 lift rides all the way up to the tippy top because the temperature dropped quite a bit. We would have to slowly don more layers as the lift ascended the mountain, whereas, down on the bottom, it was a bit slushy and warm.

This weekend the weather at Timberline was nothing short of spectacular for skiing. The snow report didn't hold much hope as it had rained a good amount a few days prior to our little excursion. However, with the sun beating down at 40 - 45 degrees, the snow got pretty soft. It was some of the best January "spring skiing" I have ever had. We got quite a few runs in, played a bit in the terrain parks, and ate like kings at the Timberline lodge buffet (tri-tip steak, roast turkey, and a variety of other fixings).

I do have to mention one additional highlight of our dining experience. The Timberline lodge is actually considered a National Historic Monument. It is quite old and they are trying to maintain the beautiful, old wood work on the stairs and throughout the rest of the building. So, they made us remove our ski boots before we went up to the second floor for lunch. This was pretty awesome because we were able to sit down at a real posh restaurant; in socks. Now that was style :).

Lastly, you are probably wondering where Sheena is during this entire trip. Well, she came down with a bad bout of Bronchitis at the end of last week. I ended up putting together a "rehab" package for her before I left for Portland. I bought her some of her favorite movie snacks, rented her a nice flick, and purchased some aroma-therapy bath salts. Even though she was a bit quarantined for the weekend, today she said she is feeling a lot better.

Christmas Snowshoeing

2011-01-09T19:54:00.000-08:00

Wow, we can't believe Christmas and New Year's are already over. Seems like they came and went really, really fast this year. We spent Christmas Eve at Grandpa Crotty's house for the traditional Christmas Eve dinner and gift exchange. We had a great time with the family and I (Blake) even found the "infamous" green pickle ornament for an extra prize, a $25 gift card; boo ya! It's a German tradition to hide a glass-blown green pickle ornament somewhere on the tree. Whoever finds the green pickle ornament gets a special gift. It is funny to mention that Sheena's family is actually Swiss and not German, but her Grandpa thought it would be a good idea to start a new tradition, haha! We had an awesome time.

Christmas Day was spent at Sheena's parents home. We opened presents, hiked mount peak, ate way too much good food, and relaxed. The next day we headed down to Yakima to spend time at my parent's house. We opened a few more presents, ate way too much good food again, played Wii, went snowshoeing up around White Pass, and I hit up the new White Pass ski-area expansion with my brother Brandt. We brought Lucy snowshoeing. She LOVES the snow. It was pretty funny watching her because there was about five feet of snow and she couldn't run in it very well. To get through the snow she had to "bound". Let's just say she was really tired on the way home and we didn't hear a peep from her the whole way back to Seattle. Hope you all had fun as well; enjoy the pics!

Ladies Weekend + Blake

2010-12-19T00:01:00.001-08:00

So my mom, sisters, and sister-in-law, Stacy, all came out this past weekend. They all had a great time. I decided to tag along as my ski trip with the boys got pushed back for another weekend. The girls shopped themselves to death, we ate some good food, and had an all around great time with the family. In other news Sheena and I also celebrated our third anniversary December 1st. Hard to believe we have been married for three years, time really flies when you are having fun with your best friend. I also enjoyed a birthday and turned 28 on November 30th. Sheena's family came over for a birthday party, dinner, and some death-by-chocolate cake. It was great to see everyone. Life has been pretty busy lately and I can't believe it is almost Christmas. The lights are up, the tree is decorated, and we are looking forward to this holiday season. Wishing you all the best with lots of love and good times with friends and family.

Gratitude List

2010-11-24T19:02:00.000-08:00

With Thanksgiving tomorrow, I have been thinking a lot about the things I'm grateful for. Here are a few I've been thinking about lately (in no particular order):

1. My calling in Church. I have been serving as the second counselor in the Young Women's Presidency now for about 4 months. I love working with all the young women, and I feel like I'm finally getting to know all of them so well. They have such sweet spirits and every time I come home from an activity or church my heart has somehow been touched. It's so nice to feel like you make a difference in others lives, and I think my Beehives make a difference in my life as well.

2. My husband, Blake. He is the most caring, hard working, honest person I know. It's not always easy to be around me and still love me as much as he does. I'm fairly stubborn, and so is Blake, but no matter who's right or wrong, he's usually the first to apologize. I want to say "sorry" but I'm not nearly as humble as he is when it comes to being wrong.

3. Our dog, Lucy. I know for most people she's only a dog, but to me she's part of the family. Blake and I have wanted to have kids for quite some time now, and haven't been blessed with the opportunity yet. She fills that void that I sometimes feel. Although she doesn't always listen, and she sheds a lot of hair on my clothes, she is such a sweet dog.

4. My family. No matter what, they've always been there for me. It's so great being married too because you get to have 2 families. My parents have always told me from day one that I married into such a great family. It didn't take my parents telling me that to believe it, but every time I'm with Blake's family it reminds me of how lucky I am to have them in my life.

5. My job. Although there are several mornings I wish I could stay home, I do really love my job. It's close to home, and it's great to work with such great doctors and employees that make work a fun place.

6. Being a member of the Church. I don't know where I would be today without it in my life. It brings me so much joy and peace. I love learning about new things, and being reminded of things I've already been taught. My 2 favorites phrases to this day are "Come what may and love it" and "Joy in the journey."

I hope as Thanksgiving Day comes that we all can take some time to reflect on the things that we're grateful for.

Let It Snow!

2010-11-21T10:39:00.000-08:00

Yes, it doesn't happen very often, especially this early, but we have SNOW in Bothell! This weekend it was super cold for Seattle. It feels really cold here when it gets down in the 20's and 30's because it is much more humid. I looked out the window this morning and to my great surprise it was snowing pretty good outside. I looked online and it appears that Crystal Mountain and Mount Baker ski resorts also opened this weekend after getting several feet of snow in the past few days. Looks like it should be a good skiing year. I included a couple of pictures of Lucy in the snow as this is something pretty new to her. She looked a bit confused and kept trying to catch the snowflakes and eat them. She started running around like a crazy dog nipping at the air. The pictures you see are when she was actually calm and sitting nicely.

The Cone of Shame

2010-11-14T00:04:00.001-08:00

Well as you can see from the picture, Lucy had a trip to the vet this week to be spade. She was a little sluggish when she got home and was pretty out of it. We didn't think we would have to use the "cone of shame", but she kept licking her surgery site, so we had to slap it on. She was way freaked out and barely moved anywhere. Works pretty well if you want to calm her down. Just throwing that out there for Heidi and her kids if she wants them to behave. Put them in a "cone of shame" and see if that helps :). The other picture is of Lucy doing what she does best; lounge around the house. By the way, in this picture she is on our bed . She is pretty much the Queen Bee in our house.

Viva La EUROPE!!

2010-11-01T21:16:00.000-07:00

We've done it.....we've just booked out plane tickets to Europe! We're going to 5 countries in 16 days. I know crazy right, but what if we never find the time to go again. On the itinerary is France, Italy, Poland, Germany, and Switzerland. We would love ideas of great places to go if anyone has been to any of these countries.

Doggy Boredom

2010-10-24T21:48:00.000-07:00

So Sheena came home last week and Lucy welcomed here with a nice surprise. Apparently, she tried to jail break out of her kennel, realized that she could not dig her way through the hard plastic, and rebelled by ripping her bed to foam bits. Doesn't look like she ate too much of the foam and if she did, it will be "soft" on the way out. What was even more funny, was the fact that when Sheena found Lucy's bed in this state of disarray, Lucy was giving her the sad-puppy look of innocence as if to say "I know I am the only dog in this 5' X 4' crate and I know what this looks like, but I promise I had nothing to do with it." She's priceless; full of surprises, but priceless.

"29" and Grown Up

2010-10-09T10:25:00.000-07:00

For my birthday this past August I told Blake that I would really love a "grown up" purse. I've never bought a REALLY nice purse. I've just never been to into spending a good amount of money on something that hangs on your shoulder. Jeans-yes-at least you can wear those all day and love them. A purse you can only really love when you're out going places. Last weekend I we went to the Coach outlet store and I cashed in on my gift. I love it! It's a light purple color on the inside. I finally know why people love nice purses. I think there may be a bad habit brewing :)

Lucy & Television

2010-10-03T21:37:00.000-07:00

So the other night we noticed that when we watch TV, Lucy watches it pretty closely as well. Not sure what is going on in there, but she is way intense when she watches the TV. I decided to turn the TV to Animal Planet and needless to say, Sheena and I had a good laugh. Take a peek at the video (you should turn up the volume so you can hear the TV commentary). Enjoy.

New Addition

2010-10-02T19:16:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting some kind of server/hutch for the dining room for some time now. We finally got one and I love it! I didn't really have a set idea of what I wanted it to look like, but I wanted it to be black. After one marathon day of furniture shopping we found one that we loved. This past weekend we finished up the area by adding a mirror above it. It looks great and I love how much more space I now have in my cupboards.

Pumpkin verses Ladybug

2010-10-02T19:08:00.000-07:00

I used to always laugh at people that would dress there pets up in clothes, especially Halloween costumes. I have now eaten my own words because I bought 2 Halloween costumes for Lucy just yesterday. I was browsing through TJ Maxx and there were the cutest little dog costumes. Now the question is...which one to wear? Blake and I laughed so hard last night as we dressed her up (she hated it as you can see in the pictures). We're leaning towards the pumpkin but we thought it would be fun to see how everyone else votes. I promise this will be the only time we put her in a Halloween costume :)

Race for the Cure

2010-09-26T19:38:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was the Susan G. Komen 3-day breast cancer walk for the cure in Seattle. My mom and cousin were able to raise $2300.00 each to participate in the walk. The walk started Friday morning and ended Sunday evening. Along the route they walk there are several rest stations as well as cheering stations. I took Friday off from work and went to one of the cheering stations to watch for my mom and cousin. It was such a beautiful sight to see all the people supporting the walkers. So many people have been touched by breast cancer and it made me proud that my mom worked so hard to raise money, and to walk 60 miles in memory of my grandma.

Technology...

2010-09-11T00:43:00.000-07:00

Well it has been about a year and a half and I have finally figured out how to convert the files from our video cam into a format that works for Windows Movie Maker. Looks like I might be using the video cam more often moving forward. The latest video is a clip from our Oregon Beach trip this summer. Pretty simple so far, hopefully the videos continue to get better and better. Stay tuned...

College Football is in the Air...

2010-09-08T22:59:00.000-07:00

Sheena is in bed sound asleep. So I thought I would take advantage typing up a "real Blog post" with the good stuff. The BYU Cougs conquered the UW Huskies for the second time with their young and talented team. Pretty lame-o they didn't broadcast the game on any normal networks. I had to listen to it old-skool style on the radio while I was mowing the lawn out back. However, the game was still good and the Cougs made it happen. It was nice to hear that Jake Heaps got some time on the turf as well for his college debut. Be fun to see this youngeon's career move forward wearing Cougar Blue.

The next piece of action: Boise State vs. the Hoakies of VT. WOW! Talk about an inspiring piece of sports action. From the first quarter run of 17 - 0, I really thought Boise was going to run away with it. Not so. VT came back to lead late in the 4th at 24 - 30. With only about a buck fifty on the clock, Kellen Moore threw a series of passes to go down in the history books to seal the deal at 33 - 30. Sweetness...need I say more.

She's Growing Like a Weed

2010-08-31T20:33:00.000-07:00

Lucy is a little over 4 months now, and she's becoming more fun every day. Blake and I feel silly more often then not on how we feel about our dog. I think since we don't have kids yet, it's easy to treat her like our first born. We took her to the dog park for the first time about 2 weeks ago and she was so scared. We immediately assumed that our dog had social problems with other dogs and that we would have to take her to doggie obedience class to overcome this problem. Boy were we wrong. We took her to the park again the following day and she did great. We think she just needed to see how she was supposed to do the whole "dog park thing" and then it was like old hat from the second time on. She's growing up so fast and she's getting so smart. We love her so much, and hopefully we'll have kids soon so we can gush over them instead of our dog all the time :)

The top picture is how we found her when we went to bed one night while camping at the beach.

Summer Concert

2010-08-31T20:25:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Blake and I ventured out to Gorge for the Keith Urban and John Mayer concert. We were so excited for this concert, and it definitely lived up to our expectations. Both Keith Urban and John Mayer sounded great live, but after seeing both the artists, we agreed that we enjoyed seeing Keith Urban the most.

Oregon Beach Trip

2010-08-31T20:04:00.000-07:00

Blake's family have made a tradition of camping on the Oregon Coast for a week every other summer. This was my first time going, and it was such a blast!! I don't think in all the times my family went camping we ever camped for 5 days straight, so I was a little nervous of how I would hold up during this trip. It was a piece of cake. Sleeping on the ground, eating "camping food," going on long walks/hikes, and enduring the weather was all manageable because we had hot showers at our disposal. Thinking back on the trip there were so many great things we did....going to the Tillamook Cheese Factory twice, hiking to a somewhat secluded beach where there was actually sun, having family firesides every night on our assigned topics, playing games, jogging on the beach in the mornings, trying skin boarding for the first time-which I was REALLY bad at, celebrating my 29th birthday with a dutch oven birthday cake, taking family pictures on the fallen trees, and my most favorite thing was walking on the beach to see the tide pools. I've been to the beach so many times but I had never in all my life seen so many starfish and sea anemones in one area. It was the coolest thing! The only thing I would do differently next time is take more pictures. Heidi, I stole a bunch of yours from your blog-thanks!

A Lesson In Patience

2010-07-28T21:23:00.000-07:00

We've had Lucy now for almost a week. It has been a trying time, but also such a fun time. We're so in love with her! One of the things I struggle with most in life is patience and having Lucy has most definitely tested that. I know she's a puppy, but for me when I tell her "NO" and give her a little swat to confirm that, I would think she would catch on right away. No one wants to get there nose or bottom swatted, right?!! For Lucy it doesn't work quite like that. Last night was the first night in a few that I didn't cry as I was going to sleep. As I would lay down I would think about the day with Lucy and all the things I could have done differently and how tired I felt having her now in my life. Thinking those things would make me sad and then I would start to cry. In the morning when I come down and see her looking at with me with excitement for the day it makes it all worth it. Now if only we could get her to go to the bathroom on command life we be perfect.

Never a Dull Moment

2010-07-25T07:15:00.000-07:00

Life has been nothing short of crazy the last month. It all started with a doctors appointment for me, which lead to surgery a week later, and now has resulted in us having a puppy! I'll start from the beginning. More often then not I was having stomach and abdominal cramping. I've had it for years and thought nothing of it. Blake calls me a special person; and I don't think in the nice way. I finally decided to get it checked out and learned I have endometriosis. The doctor said he could do surgery the next week and it was outpatient so I could go home the same day. The word surgery wasn't what I exactly wanted to hear, but I figured if I could be pain free, and maybe have an easier time getting pregnant (yes-we've been trying for quite some time with no luck yet) it was so worth it. We did the surgery the next week, 4th of July week so I would have the holiday as an extra day to recover. (Did I mention that I found out in my preop appointment that my doctor who was going to be doing the surgery was LDS. It actually made me feel so much more at ease going into the procedure). The procedure went well. It gave me a new prespective on what women must feel like after having a baby. My stomach was so full of the gas they put in you so I looked like I was about 5 months pregnant, my muscles were so sore from the laser going through them to get to where they needed to be, and I couldn't wear pants that didn't have an elastic waistband because they wouldn't fit. Everytime I moved from the sit to stand position it hurt, and especially when I went to lay down. After the 3 days of recovery, which mostly consisted of going to several 4th of July barbeques and functions when I should have been in bed resting, I figured I would be ready to head back to work. It was an outpatient surgery so of course I would up to it. SO NOT THE CASE!! I went to work on Tuesday and was in a constant state of haze, discomfort, pain, and a fever. It was the hardest day I have ever had at work. I decided that the next day I was definitley going to be staying home and recovering in bed. So Wednesday I stayed home and slept most of the day because on Thursday Blake and I were headed to Ensign Ranch for 3 days to be chaperones for 11 youth at Youth Conference. As we pulled out of the driveway that morning tears were starting to stream down my face as I was reminded how sore I still was after my procedure. Nonetheless we went to the Youth Conference and had such an amazing time. We had such a great group of kids, met a lot of really nice people, and had some great testimony enriching activities. Now this brings us to this past weekend. Blake and I have talked so much about getting a golden retriever puppy. We've talked about the pros and cons and I think we would have had one months ago, but I was a little hesitant. On Friday I was looking online at puppies in our area and came across a listing for some 10 minutes from our house. So I suggested to Blake that we may want to check them out. We went there to look, and everyone knows you don't really just look. So at about 9:30pm we became parents to our 12 week old golden retriever we named "Lucy." We love her so much!! We've only had her with us for 2 days but we've learned so much about her already. She's a 5:00am kind of girl, which will be great during the week but rough on the weekends. She loves being outside in the grass. My lawn will never look the same again but she is so happy to just be laying or running outside in the yard. She does love to eat leaves or flowers off my plants so we've been working on that with her and I think she's starting to get the hang of that. Potty training has been a little challenging. She knows where the door is to go outside, but because she's outside so much we don't know how often she's actually going potty so it's hard to make her go if she maybe already has recently. She's loves attention. She will be fine playing all by herself and then start to whimper if she thinks your not paying enough attention to her. We've tried to get some pictures of her but haven't been too successfull at that yet. We will take some more and post them later.

Before and After

2010-07-18T20:13:00.000-07:00

After about 2 months of hard work, our yard is finally coming together. We really like the results. Drumroll please...

BACKYARD BEFORE

BACKYARD AFTER

SIDE BACKYARD BEFORE

SIDE BACKYARD AFTER

FRONT FLOWER BED BEFORE

FRONT FLOWER BED AFTER

OUR SMALL GARDEN

FRONT FLOWER BEDS

FRONT OF OUR HOUSE

Our Backyard Just Got a Touch of "MANLINESS"

So this was pretty much the hardest project that I have ever completed in my life. Sheena and I will probably be spending the next 12 months or so in physical therapy. Wish us well.

This made my heart SMILE!

2010-06-07T19:55:00.000-07:00

My mom told me this story last week and it made my day. My grandparents have a things for hummingbirds; well all birds. I remember being a kid and learning of all the different types of birds that would land outside my grandparents windows. Robins and Blue jays are what I remember most. As my grandparents have gotten older they have had so much fun just looking out there big window at the hummingbirds that would come up to eat from the hummingbird feeder. My grandpa even looked up the best syrup concoction to give the hummingbirds. "Not that stuff you buy at the store...one part sugar to 2 parts water," is what he always tell us. Since my grandmas passing hummingbirds have become a thing that always reminds us of her. A few weeks ago my mom was in her living room watching TV with my dad when she looked out the window and swore she saw a hummingbird. So they rushed to the window and saw nothing, but my mom insisted that there was one out there. So the next day they went out and bought a hummingbird feeder, put the special syrup in it and waited. Later that day they came, not one but two hummingbirds! In the 20 plus years that my parents have lived in there house not once have I ever seen a single hummingbird. As my mom told me this story I could see how excited she was that she too had hummingbirds at her house that her and my dad could watch and enjoy just like my grandpa and grandma did. And that she believed that it was a sign from my grandma reminding them of her and how much she loved them.

Memorial Weekend

2010-06-07T19:49:00.001-07:00

Last weekend we had the opportunity to go to Whidbey Island with Blake's parents and sister Mikell for some bike riding. I have to admit I was a little skeptical of the weather, since when we left our home it was raining fairly hard. There's something about bike riding and the rain that just don't do much for me. Once we boarded the ferry and were headed toward the island we were headed toward blue skies. The weather turned out great, and the trip was a blast. We rode our bikes, had a yummy lunch, and explored around the quaint little town of Langley. I can't wait to make the trip over again.

Small and Simple Things

2010-06-07T19:44:00.000-07:00

Maybe it's all the yard work, or maybe the time of year, but I find myself feeling such joy from planting flowers and watching them grow into something so colorful and beautiful. Here are a few things I worked on this past weekend.

Almost Finished!

2010-05-30T07:27:00.000-07:00

We've been working so hard every weekend since the beginning of April. We've taken on the challenge of landscaping our backyard. It started with the heavy stone to build the retaining wall; all 1,000 plus of them. Then it continued with 8 cubic yards of gravel delivered along with 5 cubic yards of sand. That was not fun to move from the front yard to the backyard with wheel barrels. Next was the 16 cubic yards of topsoil that we hauled from the front yard into the backyard last weekend. Finally, yesterday we moved 3 full pallets of sod into the backyard for our lawn. It looks so great! I can't wait for it to grow together and get out there to plant some trees and flowers. It's still not finished but at least our idea of what we hoped it would look like up to this point is exactly what we were wanting.

It was so cold and rainy all day when we were laying the sod. It made for some really heavy sod rolls.

Doesn't Blake look so excited to be doing so much manual labor :)

This is one of our front yard flower beds. It already had 3 rhododendrens in it when we moved in, so I just added some flowers to brighten it up.

Take That Acne!

2010-05-30T07:19:00.000-07:00

I was a little skeptical of this tiny $18.00 bottle, but it has proven me oh so wrong. I have a tendency to pick and bumps on my face that aren't anything you can see on the surface and then they turn into red bumps. Well this is a solution to that problem. If I feel a bump I put this on and the bumps gone by morning, not to mention good old fashioned pimples as well. The best part about it is that it's clear and not thick so you can even put it on before applying makeup. I bought mine at Ulta, but I think Sephora carries it also. It's a must have!

Double Vision

2010-05-30T07:02:00.000-07:00

The other day I had a random thought about being blind. I asked Blake if he thought it would be easier to cope with being blind if 1. You were born with the condition and never knew what you were missing your whole life? or 2. If you had been able to see most of your life and then your sight was suddenly gone? We agreed that there were both pros and cons to both options, and that we were very grateful for our sight. A few days later I was putting in my contacts as usual and after I had put them in, my eyes were completely blurry. I figured it was because the contacts were to wet from the contact solution and it would take a second for the fluid to dissipate and then they would be fine. Well the fluid did dissipate and they were still blurry. I thought back for a second on the conversation Blake and I had a few days prior about being blind, and thought maybe that random question came into my head because it was to prepare me for this day. I know far fetched right?!! After realizing nothing was changing with the blurry eyes situation I decided to take out the contact lenses to see if there was some film on the lenses that would be making them blurry. As I took them out I realized the funniest thing.....I could still see perfectly without the contact lenses in (If I don't have contacts or my glasses on I can see shapes, but everything for the most part is blurry). That's when I realized the stupid and still mind boggling mistake as to what caused my blurred eyes...I had two pairs of contact lenses in each eye! Apparently I forgot to throw away my old set of contacts that were in my cleaning case and I also fell asleep with my new set of contacts still in my eyes, so in the morning I already had contacts in my eyes and decided to add the old pair in the cleaning case to my eyes as well. I must have been really tired that morning to not even realize that I could see so well before I added my second pair of contacts into my eyes.

Going Private

2010-04-27T21:15:00.000-07:00

We've been getting some weird comments on our blog lately so we're going private. If you email me your email address then I can add you to be able to view our blog. I don't know if it has to be a gmail account to work. Email me your email address even if it's not a gmail account and I will try and add it.

What we've been up to....

2010-04-25T17:35:00.000-07:00

For the past month each Saturday Blake and I have been working diligently in our front and backyard. Our backyard isn't landscaped and it has a dreadful drop off to the perimeter fence. To make this less severe we've been building a retaining wall to build up the slope and then we'll be able to sod the backyard. The front yard did come landscaped but I've moved a few plants and planted some new ones to spruce it up.

We did have the smallest strip of grass when we moved in, but we decided to make it wider with some more sod.

As you can see we have a few different colors of sod right now. The kind of grass is all the same, but the age of the grass is different. We'll be fertilizing it this week.

We have the Verizon box and sewer box on our property. So I planted some hydrangeas and a flower pot in the area to lessen the look of them.

Before-not to many plants. Just our maple tree and burning bushes by the front door.

After-a mini rhododendron, azalea, and a few ornamental grasses later

Backyard pictures to come in a few weeks.

The little things in life....

2010-04-22T20:05:00.000-07:00

Lately I feel like when it rains it pours...and not just because we live in Seattle. I haven't been feeling to well the last few weeks. I thought it was just the stomach flu that was going around, and Blake thought it was stress, but when it wasn't getting any better I thought I should go see my doctor. The one great thing about my internist is she is very thorough and never overlooks any possibilities of what could be going on. The downside to her is that she sends you home with homework. I had 6 things on my homework list this time. I won't bore you with all the details about the list, but the number one thing read no dairy or wheat products for 2 weeks. My first thought was "how hard could that be?!" So today was day one. My morning started out with oatmeal with no milk. It was okay. Then for lunch a salad; not to bad. Then for dinner, well since I had practically nothing that was wheat and dairy free but another salad I chose to have some lentil and potato curls. They were actually fairly good but seriously this sucks! I stopped by Trader Joes on the way home and was able to find some rice pasta and rice tortilla shells that didn't look half bad, but the loaf of bread was a different story. It looked like oversized croutons. The lady tried to convince me that the bread wasn't all that bad, but I could see right through that lie. Just when I thought I had accomplished day one without any wheat or dairy, I was informed by Blake that my red vines that I was so happily consuming this evening had wheat flour in them. I thought he was joking at first, but believe it or not there in the ingredients it was....the dreadful WHEAT FLOUR. I never realized how unpleasant celiac disease was until today. Hopefully my celiac panel will come back negative so I can go back to enjoying the foods I love. I'll keep you posted how it goes.

Going green isn't always easy!

2010-04-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

We've been in desperate need to purchase a lawn mower, so I finally convinced Blake to come with me to pick on out. We've talked a lot about the pros and cons to self propelled mowers, electric mowers, and the momentum mowers (you determine the momentum and they don't require fuel). So there we were standing in Lowe's comparing prices, and I decided I definitely wanted to purchase the Fiskars momentum lawn mower. Blake tried to talk me out of it saying that I would probably hate that it doesn't have a bag to catch the clippings, but I insisted that it would be better because we're reducing our carbon footprint, and that the clippings couldn't be that bad. Boy did I eat my words! First of all the momentum portion of the mower is a lot harder then I had anticipated it. Blake soared through the lawn without a problem, but it was a little more of a challenge for me. Also because our grass had gotten so long the clippings went all over the driveway. Solution to the problem....keep moving the mower and don't stop because it's hard to get going again, and the solution to the grass clippings going everywhere...vacuum them up with the shop vac. Growing up my mom used to vacuum up the leaves in our grass with her shop vac and it used to embarrass me when the neighbors saw her doing it. Don't worry not only did I do what I swore I never would, but I also felt a little embarrassed when someone drove by so I would act as if I was vacuuming out the car and then return to my grass clipping task when they weren't looking. The end result of the grass was beautiful. We're going to continue to use our momentum mower and not through in the towel quite yet. Who knows I could get really strong from mowing the lawn, and grow to appreciate all the things my mom taught me; even the crazy things.

Tricks of the Trade

2010-04-10T19:08:00.001-07:00

My mother in law filled me in on the best kept secret...how to get your whites really white, as in no armpit stains, or dingy whitish t-shirts from them being old. I must admit I was slightly skeptical at first, but this is genius and it works so well. After I tried it I was so excited that I went searching the house for more whites to beautify. The recipe is:

1 gallon of hot water
1 cup of powdered dishwashing soap
1/2-3/4 cup of bleach

Put the ingredients and your whites into a plastic bucket and soak for 1 hour. Once the hour is up put the clothes and the water the clothes were soaking in, into the washing machine and wash with hot water on the white cycle. Don't add laundry soap to the clothes. I know weird right?, but I'm telling you PURE MAGIC!

Trip to Utah

2010-04-03T19:21:00.000-07:00

I recently went back to Utah to visit some friends and family. Two of my college girlfriends had babies over the past few months, so I flew into Utah from Seattle and our other college girlfriend flew in from Minneapolis to have 5 days of girl time. It was so nice to see the new babies and for the 4 of us to spend time together. Our last night together we went to the Legally Blonde musical. It was great! Maybe we all thought that because we all love the movies, but the musical was surprising better than expected. While being in Utah I was also able to visit some family and spend some time with them. It was nice to see them and it reminded me how much I miss living closer to Blake's siblings and our niece and nephews. I guess we'll have to visit Utah more often.

How ugly are these headbands?!!! We had fun doing a little headband fashion show in Forever 21

Old Spice for Men - "I'm on a horse"

2010-03-07T09:42:00.000-08:00

I picked this little gem up from Brent and Ashley's blog. Pretty funny, pretty awesome, and full of testosterone.

Family Fun

2010-03-06T22:29:00.000-08:00

For the past 3 weeks we've been able to have my brother's family in town. They made the trip up from Colorado for my grandma's funeral and decided to stay a while to spend time with family. Today we had a little birthday party for our nephew Hunter who turned "4." It was so fun to see him get so excited over his new toys. We had to even tell him that the Hot Wheels cars were sleeping for the night just so that he would feel okay putting them down and going to bed himself. Kids are so funny. Our niece, Payton is hilarious too. She loves to give kisses whenever you ask for them, and then she makes this super cute shy look right after she does it. It was so fun to be around them and see how much they've changed.

That's my grandpa with his 4 great grandchildren. I think he loved the party hats more than the kids did.

"Girl Moments"

2010-03-06T22:10:00.001-08:00

I'm so excited for a fresh month to be here. February was a tough month for us. So I have a funny story to share on just how dramatic girls may be at times. Blake had a beautiful Subaru Legacy that he bought before we got married. It had all the bells and whistles, and was a really fun car to drive. Since we've been living in Washington I've been driving his car and he's been driving my Mazda 3. We made the switch because the gas mileage is much better in the Mazda as well as the maintenance costs of that car. Towards the end of this past summer the Legacy needed a lot of things done to it. New tires, new spark plugs, new brake pads....on and on and on and then when we thought the worst was behind us the turbo charged engine began to fail last month. Needless to say we were stuck between a rock and a hard spot. Do we pay and replace the turbo and hope the next one lasts us another 100,000 miles or do we trade in the Legacy for an Outback. We had always talked about getting an Outback because it has much more room in the back end for our future dog and kids. So after many weeks of contemplation we traded in the Legacy and bought an Outback. Now most people would be so excited to be driving around a new (not brand new 08') car, but not me I was in tears over it. When we went to the dealership the night we bought Greta-that's what we named her, we knew that we wouldn't be coming home with our old car. I was okay with that. But as we made the decision and we were cleaning out the car to put our belongings into Greta the tears began to flow. And they continued when we signed over the Legacy, and boy did they flow as we were driving down the freeway home with our new car. Blake was beside himself. He was at a loss of words to comfort me. I had to resort to calling my mom and asking her to give me the "buck up speech." That's what we call it when we need to talk someone into toughening up. My mom was so confused as to why the new car was causing so many tears. I went on to tell her that I was sad about having to put down our family dog; I was sad that my grandma's health was declining so fast; and I was sad that we had just traded in our young and hip car for a grocery getter for a life we didn't have yet. I know dramatic-right?! Blake calls them "girl moments" and boy did I have a serious one. After that dreadful, dramatic night I was fine and love my new car a lot. I do still miss the sportiness of the Legacy, but I love the space that the Outback has for all my groceries :)

Amazing Woman

2010-02-13T12:53:00.000-08:00

Today my heart is full. As some of you already know my grandma was diagnosed with terminal cancer this past August. Five years ago she was diagnosed with breast cancer and beat it, so when the doctors said the cancer was back I thought, it's okay she can beat this too. My grandma is so strong, and the most amazing woman I know. I have felt so blessed for Blake and I to be able to live in Washington again and be only 30 minutes from my grandparents. My grandma was born and raised in Bozeman, Montana- the most beautiful place I know. I've spent countless hours listening to her tell stories of her childhood and where she's been in life. She comes from a family of 13, and both her parents came to the United State from Switzerland. I have so many memories of my siblings, cousins, and I spending the night at my grandparents house as kids. We used to go to Dairy Queen for blizzards and McDonalds for breakfast. My grandma has taught me so many valuable lessons in life. I will always remember her favorite phrase "Do unto others, as you would like them to do unto you." She taught me how to sew, the importance of saving for a rainy day, how to garden, how to search for a good deal, how to play checkers, and most importantly how to love unconditionally and to not judge others. When I think about my grandma I think of someone so beautiful on the inside and out. She is so unselfish! I truly mean that. She would do anything for anyone and never think twice about it. Even to this day as she is lying in bed holding onto life, she is worried about us being bored while visiting her. The doctors think she will only be here with us one more week. As I prepare myself for that day to come I pray that she is able to go in peace and that I will be able to honor her always in my life.

Sad Day

2010-01-15T21:45:00.000-08:00

Today was a sad day. We had to put down our family dog, Sierra. It was a hard decision, but it was the best thing to do. She was 14 years old, and was having some medical complications that were starting to affect her quality of life. She was truly the best dog that anyone could ever ask for. She would shake with both paws, she knew all basic commands, she would mimic a howl if you started to howl, she snored when she slept (I thought it was cute, Blake thought it was hard to sleep with this summer when we lived with my parents), she loved licorice and bananas, she knew when it was 7:00pm on the dot for her nightly dog treat. She really started to love Blake this past summer. She always got up for breakfast when Blake ate breakfast. Needless to say she always got a little of what Blake was having for breakfast on her breakfast. It became such a ritual that when we moved out my parents had to continue it or she wouldn't eat her food. My favorite thing she did to Blake was when he was packing to go to Spokane for work she actually climbed into his suitcase and laid on top of his clothes. She really was the best dog, and I'm really going to miss her!

How could you not love that face....

Workin' Girl

2010-01-15T21:31:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's true I finally went back to work. I had decided that after the holidays I would start looking for a job and go back to work at least part time. I loved not working, but I was starting to get a little bored and thought I should maybe do a little more with my days then running errands and watching 90210 re-runs. I know I can't help it with the 90210 re-runs. Anyways, I sent out my resume to a few places and a few days later I had a call from one of the places. I wasn't expecting the job search to go as smoothly as it had, so I did end up going back to work a little faster then I had anticipated. This week was my first week. The word that comes to mind to describe my week is hectic. I'm working as a medical assistant in an orthopedic clinic about 30 minutes from our home. It's only about 10 miles away, but with the traffic I have a little commute-nothing bad. I was so excited to accept this job, but I must say that it's very mentally exhausting. I haven't been in school for 5 years, so I feel a little rusty. Did I mention the best part about my job.. I get to wear my scrubs again-yeah!

Welcome 2010!

2010-01-01T19:56:00.000-08:00

New Years Eve was such a blast for us this year. Blake and I had the idea to spend it in Seattle and get a hotel close to the Space Needle so we wouldn't have to drive home after the fireworks with all the crazy drunk drivers on the road. We booked our hotel and then thought it might be more fun if we invited more people to come along. We ended up having my parents, Blake's parents, his 2 brothers and his brothers wife all with us. We all checked into our rooms, and then headed to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. It was such a long wait, 2 hours, but so worth it once we tasted our food. Then we headed back to our hotel where we attempted to play some games, but we all fizzled out fairly fast. Some people took naps, some watched ultimate fighting on the tv, and others just talked to try to stay awake until midnight. Once 11:30 came around I thought we should walk to the Space Needle and see the fireworks at midnight since that's what we planned to do. (The room we were all hanging out in had a view of the Space Needle and we were contemplating watching the firework show from the window so we didn't have to walk in the cold). With only minutes to spare we made it to the Space Needle with the best view we could have ever wanted. There was bumper to bumper traffic, horns honking, and so many people who were making there way towards the Space Needle for the show, but once the fireworks started the whole town stood still until they were over. Happy New Year!

Top 10 for 2009

2009-12-24T14:33:00.001-08:00

These are a few highlights of our year, in no particular order. It's been a great year, and we're anxious to see what 2010 brings. We hope everyone has a great New Year!

1. We bought our first home.
2. Blake graduated from BYU.
3. We got to move to Washington and be close to family.
4. Blake got a new, great job.
5. Sheena was called into the Primary Presidency-yikes.
6. We made wonderful friends while living in Enumclaw, and Bothell.
7. We were blessed with the birth of a new nephew-now we have 2 nieces, and nephews.
8. We went on several camping trips this past summer.
9. Sheena learned how to can this summer.
10. Our families are happy and healthy.

Bringing in the Season

2009-12-24T14:21:00.000-08:00

Blake and I were talking about how this year it didn't seem like Christmas. We think it comes from a combination of things, such as getting all of our Christmas shopping done before December came, we are already home for the holidays so we don't have the hustle and bustle of flying to our destination to be with family, and the major fact that I don't have a job makes me have all sorts of time to get things ready for the big day. I must admit I missed the craziness of the holiday this year. To help bring in the Christmas season we decided to make a drive over to Leavenworth, WA to see all the Christmas lights and have dinner. It was a lot of fun to get out of town for the day. We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Christmas Came Early

2009-12-07T17:00:00.001-08:00

Today was such a wonderful day! I had a feeling I was going to have a little luck today when I found a huge ladybug in our living room. And boy was I right. At around 2:30pm I was told by my podiatrist that my foot has healed perfectly, and so perfectly that you couldn't even tell on the xrays that I had ever had a stress fracture. He went on to tell me that I should be careful with all the running I like to do given the specialness of my feet and the pressure points I have on the bottoms of my feet, and that as I get older I will be more prone to injuries and the heeling process will be even longer if I keep treating my feet the way I do. But the best news of all is when I asked if I had to keep wearing Clementine (I thought I should name her given the fact that we've become such good friends)and he said "No!" I was so excited that I almost jumped out of my chair to hug him. It was such great news. I know the walker boot doesn't seem like that big of deal to wear, but for me it was a real struggle to be limited in areas of my life. It caused some tears to flow, and then they would flow even harder when I would come to my senses and realize that I had nothing to cry about given that the boot WAS only temporary, and that things could be a lot worse. Clementine and I had a good run together, but I think for now we must part ways, and I'm okay with that.

Tis the Season...

2009-12-05T08:23:00.000-08:00

Tis the season for crafts! These are just a few things I've been up to this week for Christmas gifts. Who doesn't love the chocolate chip cookie in a jar?! I thought it was simple, and a fun gift to make. The tutu is pretty scary looking in this picture, but I think it will look really cute on my 1 year old niece. The crayon rolls are my favorite. They can be a little time consuming, but the end result is great for little kids.

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-28T09:49:00.000-08:00

We hope everyone had as great of a Thanksgiving Day as we did. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, and this year it was extra special to have my grandma with us. The morning started out with Blake playing football with our ward and then it's a family tradition to have dinner at my parent's house. Once dinner's over it's time to scout out our Black Friday events. This year it seemed like the stores were opening earlier than in years past, so it was a little trickier. Blake and I got up at 4:15am to get dressed and make some hot chocolate for the road. First stop Fred Meyer where they had board games buy one, get one free. Can you believe that! Then off to Target to pick up a couple DVD's that were another great buy, but they were sold out. Luckily my mom was able to pick them up for us. Then off to Joann Fabric where it was crazy! Who knew there would be so many crazed fabric women. The cutting table was on number 21 when we got our number, which was 87. We picked up a few things and then skipped the fabric until later this weekend. I didn't have that kind of patience. Then off to Home Depot where we were hoping to get some $.99 poinsettias-they were sold out. We did get a ladder and some Christmas lights that were on sale. Then back home. We did all this by 8:15am. Talk about the early bird getting the worm! After breakfast Blake and I were thinking of heading back to bed. Instead we got the idea to start hanging the Christmas lights outside, finish painting the downstairs bathroom, hang my mountain bike from the ceiling in the garage, plant some tulip bulbs, clean the garage, do some laundry, and go through our closets to make a trip to the Goodwill. Finally by 6:00pm it was time to come in, shower for the day, and put on our sweat pants. After dinner we couldn't believe that it was only 6:30pm. We had accomplished so much, and it was still so early. We talked about putting in a movie, but as 7:30 rolled around I was doing some serious head bobbing on the couch so I decided to head to bed. I know it's early, but I was so exhausted! Here are some pictures from hanging the Christmas lights. Blake was so excited to get a ladder and do some handy work. He's been doing a lot of working on cars, and fixing things lately. He's getting so good, and it's fun to see how much joy he gets from getting his hands a little dirty.