Coming May 11, 2010

New Project

Brad found this log bed on Craigslist a couple of weeks ago. I went to look at it and it was in pretty good condition, it was the lighter log color and it had a few pen marks and scratches, but other than that it looked nice. So we decided to get it. We got the bed, the mattress and box springs, and the bedding (not what you see here) all for $75! I wanted to get a before picture, but thought about it too late so you just get the after. We went to Home Depot and got a deep mahogany minwax stain which requires little prep work. Brad went to work sanding it down, applied 2 coats of the stain, and this is what we got!

We're really happy with the way it turned out, now we want to stain our dresser and night stand to match it. (And we really need a bed skirt, my mom made our quilt and we have been using it since we've been married.)

Dance Competition

My little sister, Lori, had her first dance competition at BYU! She competed the waltz against all the other 184 students, and did pretty good! They got a couple of call backs. We went to watch and cheer her on, it brought back so many fun memories of my dancing days at BYU. I was in her same shoes as a freshmen, competing the waltz in my very first dance competition and my partner and I won 2nd place! I realized how old I am getting though, I didn't know anyone there, not even the teachers! Just the heads of departments. It was a fun night, way to go Lori!

BYE BYE SUMMER

It's sad for me to think summer is really over.

But when I see this outside my window...

there's no denying the truth.
Winter is coming.

I wish my camera could have captured

the colors better. The mountains are

absolutely BEAUTIFUL right now.

The yellows and reds with the white snow,

these pictures just don't do them justice.

You'll just have to take my word for it

BEAUTIFUL!

HURRAY!!

(I couldn't get him to look at the camera, he wanted to look at himself.)

Guess who is potty trained!!

DAYLEN! Give him a hip hip hurray!

I kept saying I would potty train Daylen after we moved.

Well, we moved so I was out of excuses.

The hardest part was convincing him to wear underwear.

For the first 2 weeks he would pee almost every time

in the toilet,but he refused to poop.

He wanted his diaper for that.

I finally convinced him we were out of diapers

so if he wanted to go play at the park he

had to put underwear on.

That did it.

This was Labor Day, and he's been in

underwear ever since.

He had a couple of poop accidents,

but I blame that on the diarrhea.

He has never wet the bed, never had a wet accident.

It's been 1 week and now he even goes

by himself without even telling me!

He's been awesome.

Yeah for having only 1 in diapers!

Little Miss Kater keeps us laughing.

She loves to eat and has resorted to licking her plate clean.

She also drinks everything out of her bowl because its

just easier than using a fork or spoon!

Come Again?

Actually I think my exact words when the

bishop gave me my new calling were

WHAT? REALLY?

Are you SURE?

Curious yet?

WARD CHIOR DIRECTOR!

Huh?? Me?? Ward Choir Director?

Yes, I love music.

Yes, I have music in my background.

Yes, I have sung in choir.

Yes, I was in band all growing up.

Yes, I play the piano, though not well.

BUT, choir director? REALLY?

Yes apparently.

Never in a million years would I have expected this.

Here goes nothing.

Aloha Run

Yeah! We finally have the internet again! We just got connected last night, I feel like I've been cut off from the world, but I am back. Now that I am back I can post pictures from my very first 5K run! It was the Aloha run in Mapleton a week and a half ago. Namifiers sponsered it, so I actually didn't even think about doing it until the night before. Rachel and I decided to do it together, the only time I can run with her is when she is pregnant, that way I can't slow her down. Brad ran it pushing the kids in the jogging stroller and still killed us. I hadn't run in about a month so I was a little nervous, but we jogged the whole time and felt good! It was just a small race so I never found out what my time was which I am bummed about. We didn't even think about wearing a watch, but we think we did it somewhere between 40-45 minutes. It was a fun experience!

I put Miss Kater's hair in her very first ponytail the other day. 15 months old and barely has enough for somewhat of a decent hairdo. It sticks straight up, but I thought she looked cute!

Home Sweet Home

A few pictures for your viewing pleasure.

We are slowly getting unpacked.

We have accumulated quite a bit of "stuff"

over the past 3 1/2 years.

We really hope the dead grass comes back.

Family Room

Kitchen

Entry Room/Front Room

Master Bath

We love our new home, I am just so anxious to get all boxes out of my sight!

Can it Really be TRUE??

We don't have to eat all our meals on the kitchen floor anymore?

Or live in a house with no toys? (Although soccer is much easier with no furniture!)

Remember how 2 weeks ago I posted how excited we were to have closed on our brand new house? Yeah. Well, 2 weeks later we finally get to move in to that house which has been so generously holding all of our stuff just waiting for us! We have survived an absolutely crazy, nightmare of 2 weeks, living in our house with just our bed (thankfully), computer, and piano. Paper plates, bowls, and cups have been our friends, creative juices have flowed to help us come up with dinners, with the help of friends and family, and lots of getting out of the house activities. We have overcome it all and actually will get to live in it now! (Good thing since my family is coming to bring Lori to school TODAY!) I will post pictures as soon as I can!

P.S. I do not plan on moving again for a VERY LONG TIME IF EVER.

P.P.S. If you plan on moving soon take my advise and use a financial institution, DO NOT USE A MORGTAGE BROKER!

$2 Tuesday!

Thanksgiving Point has $2 Tuesdays for the month of August so we decided to take advantage of the opportunity and go check out the Dinosaur Museum. Unfortunately, half of the Salt Lake Valley had the same great idea. The line wrapped around 3 sides of the building! It's a big building. Luckily the line moved pretty fast, it only took us about 45-50 minutes to make it to the door. We went with our friends Becky, Ben, and Julia so the time in line seemed to go fast. The kids had fun playing with the dinosaurs, puzzles, running up and down the ramps, and digging for bones in the sand. It was impossible to get many pictures of their faces, they were just too busy for pictures, definately worth the $2 for a fun morning. Thanks for going with us Becky, Ben, and Julia!

Weekend Getaway

Ever need to just get away? Forget all your problems and just have fun and spend time with the ones you love? This last weekend was one of those weekends. We decided Thursday night to just take off and have fun! So Friday after Brad got off work we headed to Rexburg to stay with Mandy, Tyrel, and Ivan (Brad's sister and family), then head on to Yellowstone and take advantage of their free admission weekend! We had a blast, it was just what the doctor ordered. My sister, Rachel, came along with us since her hubby just left for India to study up in the Himalayas for 2 1/2 weeks. Have I mentioned she's expecting her first baby? Due the end of January and we are all VERY EXCITED! I haven't been to Yellowstone since I was about 2 so this was all a new experience for me. We saw the mud pots, geysers, Old Faithful, the Upper Falls, Artist's Point, the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, lots of Buffalo, Elk, and beautiful scenery!

We got to Old Fatihful at the perfect time. It was supposed to blow in the next 20 minutes or so, I was very impressed with the height of the blow!

We camped with the kids for the first time here. Kate enjoyed pushing her stroller around and getting dirty.

Daylen and Ivan enjoyed playing in the back of Brad's truck. They just randomly started singing "I love you" from Barney and giving each other hugs. These boys are so cute together!

After Uncle Tyrel's fun bedtime story we put the kids in bed and called it a night.

The kids did great, Daylen slept the whole night, Kate woke up a couple of times but I just snuggled with her on my tummy and she went right back to sleep. We didn't bring a pack 'n play for her so I'm glad it went as well as it did. I've decided next time I'm bringing some kind of mattress for me though, my hips just can't take the hard ground anymore.

Here we are at the Upper Falls. They look cool from here at the top, but don't seem quite as tall as they do from far away.

Here are the falls again from the Artist's Point and they look huge from here. Isn't that a georgous site! I can see why they call this the Artist's Point. Breathtaking.

This guy was standing right on the side of the road, not moving, just staring traffic down.

We rounded a corner and there were about 200 buffalo along both sides of the road. We got held up a few times by these guys walking down the road, right along side traffic or slowly leading the long train of cars down the middle of the lane. They think they own the place. :) After 2 days we only saw a fraction of Yellowstone, I think we would need a week to see everything there is to see there. Beautiful, super cool place to visit, highly recommend it if you haven't yet. Just beware, I didn't realized Yellowstone was a volcano about 50,000 years overdue for erruption, it could blow at ANY TIME. Really, you should go.

Alaska-Part 3

To finish off our fabulous trip to Alaska here a couple of georgous pictures of the Alaskan scenery.

Wednesday morning we decided to do a session at the Anchorage Temple, and low and behold in this small world, I saw someone I knew there! One of my best friends and roomates from college is from Palmer which is about 45 min north of Anchorage, anyways, her mom was working in the Temple that day! She helped us in the dressing room, AND helped me out later in our session! It was so fun to see her!

That afternoon we headed to Kinkaid Park for a round of frisbee golf. It was the most beautiful course I have ever played, not that I've played a whole lot of different courses, but is was so peaceful. There were a LOT of trees which was challenge, but you just felt like you were in your own little world. The park is over 100 acres, it has mountain biking trails, large open areas, lots of trees...we saw a big bull moose here the last time came, but not this time. No moose sitings as of yet on this trip.

This is throw number 2 on this hole for Brad.

And throw number 3 on the same hole. Like I said, the trees were a challenge.

Michael, Daren, and Landon.

Dave taking a turn.

Our frisbee golfing crew.

Thursday we went to Whittiar, a super small town, which includes exacltly 1 apartment building, and is only accessible through a 2 1/2 mile tunnel. Daylen LOVED the tunnel drive and talked about it the rest of the day, luckily we got to go through it again on the way back. We were hoping to hike up Whittiars Pass and see the great views from up there, but rain and fog foiled that idea. So instead we walked around a bit, went in a few shops, bought some yummy donuts, and met up with Heather and the boys at Portage Glacier to take that cruise.

Here we are in front of Portage Glacier, did you know that glaciers are blue? That's how you can tell if it is really a glacier or just snow. Blue with lots of crevasses, really cool looking.

On the way home we stopped at Potters Marsh to see some wildlife. We saw a couple of bald eagles and lots of fish. No moose. No bears.

Friday we headed north to Eklutna Lake and did some kayaking. My first time kayaking and it was really fun, kinda cold, but fun.

Saturday morning we decided to hike the infamous Flat Top mountain. It was our last chance since we were all leaving later that day. On the way to pick up Brad's brother, Chad, what did we FINALLY see? A MOOSE!! A mama and her 2 babies just walking down the street. So of course we had to pull over and watch them for a minute and take some pictures. They were literally RIGHT THERE. It always is like this, the very end of our trip we finally see a moose in the wild.

My batteries died after just a couple of pictures. Here we are at what is called the "saddle." After this point your just a hop, skip, and a jump from the top. Except that last jump you are pretty much just climbing up rocks, no trail. My mom made it to the top! And on our way down we passed Chad finishing the last part for the 2nd time helping his mom up to the top. So Karen made it all the way as well! Our moms are awesome!

We went to the zoo that afternoon to see our bears, then it was time to eat dinner and pack and be on our way. We love our visits to Alaska, we just wish we could make more often than every 3 years. We loved having both our families there (well, part of both of our families) and hope to make it back soon!