Beatles Quiet Book

Wow. It's been a long time. I'm surprised I remembered my password. 

But yes, I'm finally posting.

I just have to share the pressie I made for the cutest little boy ever, Gordie. 

See Kelsey (Gordie's mom/my BFF) and I are total Beatles freaks! And I decided Gordie must be too!

So I made this ...

a Beatles quiet book

This book was SO much fun to make! 

And it looks like Gordie is enjoying it too. He was born with Beatle Mania in his blood.

 What a little scholar.

Baby Max

A couple weeks ago I got to visit my very best friend/sister and her beautiful little family.

I got to meet Baby Max for the first time. He is such a cutie! He looks just like his momma!

The little noises he made while he was sleeping were precious. I loved holding him!

I miss my bestie!

I had been working on a rag quilt for baby but got pretty busy at home. Mom helped me finish it in the hotel room the day we were leaving. I'm so glad we got it done. And here is the rag quilt modeled by baby Max himself.



Santa Rosa Plateau

For our June datey we went hiking with doggies! We went to Santa Rosa Plateau. We had never been there and the nice forest ranger gave us a map of all the trails ... too bad we lost it! And when I say "we" I mean Nick :P It was just nice that it wasn't me for once.

Well, we parked and started on our little hike. At first the dogs were wildly towing us through, but luckily it was hot and they got tired pretty quick. Pretty soon Koda was so tired he was stopping to lay down at any and every shaded spot he found! Poor pup!

We got pretty hot ourselves and were grateful when we saw the signs for parking and visitor's center. However, when we came around the corner we realized that it was not the parking lot we had parked in. Eesh!

We found out our parking lot was 2 miles away. Nick volunteered to go get the car and pick Koda and me up. Good thing because Koda was just about to pass out from exhaustion.

Santa Rosa Plateau wasn't quite what I was expecting, it was dry and there wasn't a whole lot to look at, BUT we still had a lot of fun getting a little excercise and some vitamin D!

Treasure Hunt

A couple of weeks ago Nick went to father & son camp with our stake. 

I spent the weekend with my parents; I didn't want to be home all by myself. Scary! 

Saturday morning I went to yard sales with my parents!

&& I picked up this beauty from 1942

When I brought it home Nick was impressed, but he had a completely different idea for it than what I had in mind.

Nick:  Whoa! It looks like a pirate treasure chest! ... I have an idea! Let's put treasure in it, bury it in the backyard, and make a map leading to it!!!

Me: ummm ... no

I quickly dragged it into the garage and got to work. 

Here's what I came up with: 

Now we have a cute little "treasure chest" to put all our games in!

Washington D.C.

Early last month I visited our nation's capital, Washington D.C.

I attended the grantee meeting for the Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (what a mouth full!). It was so nice to see what other organizations are doing with this grant. Thay have so many great ideas!

I also had the opportunity to attend the 18th annual conference on child abuse and neglect. I learned SO much! I loved it!

Me, Tonier Cain "Neen", and my coworker Kim

The closing speaker was Tonier Cain, what a powerful speaker! She has been through more than I can ever imagine and she is now doing so much work for others. You can hear some of her story here. Her story is so motivational! If you have a spare 10 minutes listen to it, you won't be sorry!


One workshop I attended was by Harvey Karp, author of The Happiest Baby on the Block. Nick and I actually read his book and watched the DVD in our Infant Toddler class at BYU-Idaho. Check it out if you have a baby in your life It works wonders! Nick can now calm any fussy screaming baby! We call him the baby whisperer, lucky me!

On top of learning lots we got to play the tourist part too!

No reflecting pool :(

Kimmy!

Awkward me

Baby You Can Drive My Car

We got a new car!



April Datey

Another month, another date with my husband!

(our March date was watching the midnight showing of Hunger Games but we forgot to get pictures)

Saturday we went to the San Diego Zoo and had a great time! Nick had an extra credit assignment for his anthropology class that had to be done here so we took full advantage of the opportunity.

We spent a lot of time on "monkey trail" since Nick's assignment was on primates.

My favorite picture! This bonobo is living the life!

Then we rode the Sky-fari up to see the polar bears. 

What a view!

It was mating season for the polar bears so they took out the Male's twin sister and brought in his girlfriend. The zoo worker told us that the Female had been leading him on for 2 weeks already.

Cute!

He just watched her as she slept and when she finally woke up he followed her everywhere while she paid no attention to him.

female: For the last time NOOO!!!

male: awww

Sometimes Nick and I like to narrate what we think the animals are thinking. Makes this more fun :)

Koda's Birthday Present

I decided it was time for Koda to have a dog house. I'll be the first to admit, that little guy is spoiled!

So of course he deserved nothing but the best! He got a custom, quality made dog house made by my dad!

First we got supplies

Then we cut the materials and made the first wall

Pretty soon this became ...

{{That's Pepito (my parents' dog) testing out our work}}

I couldn't help myself at this point, I had to show Koda his birthday present!

My dad was so nice to deliver it to our house when he finished. He, with help from Nick set it up in our backyard.

The next day Nick and I painted it and here is the end result:

KODA LOVES IT!!!

February Date brought to you by Chef Nick

On Valentines Day I got a text from Nick that said, "Hey Mike's car broke down and we're at Paul's. Can you pick up Taylor in a half hour and bring her here? Plz call before you come."

So of course Taylor and I didn't fall for this BUT we were excited to see what the boys were up to.  

We arrived to Paul and Eva's house and Paul (host) welcomed us to "The House of Love." He took us back to the kitchen where we found this:

{Chef Michael and Chef Nicholas}

They had a menu for us and the table had been set!

{haha notice they just got a menu and blacked out what they didn't offer}



They cooked LOTS of food and it was all good too! Taylor, Eva and I were all impressed! We all had a great time! They also bought us HUGE cards and planned to watch a chick flick with us. But by the time we got to eat we were all too tired for a movie. You bet we took a rain check!