Spring- Summer 2015

Okay, skipping right from Christmas to Summer and doing so in November... pretty much par for the course with me. Though you can probably already tell what we are up to at any given time with a glance at my Facebook page, I  like to have things written out for our family to look back on so I try (not well) to record our adventures. I wish I was better at doing this more often because now I'm reaching back alllll the way to Easter and trying to remember what even happened.

Easter, as it often does, landed on a Conference weekend this year. We had a pretty simple holiday but I was excited to play the Easter bunny more so than last year now that Luke is more little boy than baby. On Saturday I took Luke to a neighborhood Easter Egg hunt during Priesthood session. I think I got there maybe five minutes late (if that) and all the eggs were already gone! I've learned for next year that kids are voracious when it comes to Easter Egg hunts! A friend let me use some of her daughter's empty eggs to set around and let Luke pick them up, so that was nice. The next day was simple. We got up and had cinnamon rolls (trying to make that a conference tradition) and let Luke find his basket. We gave him a little candy and some simple toys. We watched Conference and then had Ham and Cheesy Potatoes for dinner-- my Easter classic dinner.

Luke "hunting" for eggs.

A week or so later we had such a treat to have our friends David and Weston come and stay with us for a weekend. Bryan grew up with these guys and then they all lived together in college. In fact, before Bryan and I were Bryan and I we were all just good friends. I've written about them before. It was a pretty relaxing weekend of playing games and just hanging out. We went out to eat at The Counter (drool) and they got to meet Luke, which was really neat.

Luke and his new buddy Weston playing on the computer.

A few days before Easter our niece Ella called us multiple times begging us to come visit them in Utah for the weekend. It was pretty last minute so we didn't go but we promised we would visit over Memorial Day weekend so that was our next trip! Road trips are hard with kids. But we had fun and mostly just relaxed and played games. My favorite kind of vacation!

Luke helping Ethan play at the park near Grandma Sandi's house

A couple posts ago I wrote about our sweet Callie and how she died. I was really not sure when I'd be ready to have another cat because I didn't want to feel like we were replacing her. However, it just so happened that a family in our ward/neighborhood had two cats that had a litter of kittens each right around the same time. They had twelve kittens to find homes for! We wanted to help them out and we love kittens so we decided to go for it... we got two! Just after memorial day we were finally able to bring them home. We named them Clara (after Clara the companion from Doctor Who) and Watson (From Sherlock).

Clara and Watson join the family

In June Luke and I had Mommy & Me swim lessons from a family in our stake. For two weeks we got up and out the door by 9 with our friends Jennifer and Tyson. Luke had fun in the water but was also pretty independent and didn't want to do the things we were trying to learn a lot of the time. Still, he did learn a lot. One thing he loved to do was jump in the pool into my arms. We had fun showing off his skills to dad over the summer.

Also in July I cut my hair to my chin, updated my Etsy shop, we had Father's day and Luke went to nursery! He... did not like it at first. He cried a lot the first few times and then for several Sundays we was just kind of sober but now I drop him off and he runs off to play without so much as a goodbye when I'm trying to smother him with kisses.

We invited Bryan's mom and his brother Mike to come visit us for the 4th of July and again we had a nice relaxing time. We had delicious food and set off poppers in the street. Luke LOVED those! Then after Luke went to bed Grandma stayed home with him while the rest of us checked out fireworks all around the neighborhood. It was a lot of fun!

4th of July Spread

Luke didn't want to let me take a picture of him in his Captain America shirt

Sandi had to go back to Utah after the weekend but Mike was able to stay with us for a week. We are pretty chill so we didn't have a lot of activities planned or anything but on Saturday we all went to the World Center for Birds of Prey that happens to be, oh, a 10 minute drive from our house. It was seriously awesome too!

We also went to Bryan's company (Clearwater Analytics) party. They decided to host at the zoo, which was so fun! We didn't get to be there too long because I'm kind of strict about Luke's bed time but we did get to do some fun things-- like feed a giraffe! Luke was in awe.

Just a little bit later than that a few friends and I decided to check out a petting zoo in Caldwell, ID. it was a lot of fun but also like 45 minutes away waaay out in the country. We had fun but man, was that a hot day. My cousin Melissa came and she was super pregnant with twins-- poor girl.

We also had a fun Stake pancake breakfast celebrating pioneer day. We had a pie baking contest and then got together later with friends for swimming and a barbecue.

Climbing trees at the pioneer day celebration!

At the end of the month my sister Natalie came to visit for a couple days with her kids. She lives overseas most of the year but they set up camp in Utah for the summer and, since Boise is not too bad of a road trip, I begged convinced her to come. It just so happened to land on a little family holiday we celebrate-- Harry Potter's birthday! So, since we all love Harry Potter I decided to throw a simple party.

Pin the scar on the wizard

Mixing potions

Drawing our Patronuses

Last of all, Butterbeer!

Just a week or so later we took our second road trip to Utah for the summer for my nephews Elijah and Tyler's baptism! We had a lot of fun with almost all of our family together, playing games and hanging out. One day we had the chance to go down to BYU and check things out and that was neat to see. We met up with my old roomie Alicia and caught up. A lot of stuff has drastically changed there since I was in school. Sigh, I'm old. The baptisms themselves were so neat and the spirit was really strong there. I'm so so glad that I got to be a part of it. That evening I even got to see my long lost best friend Ashley who I hadn't seen in over four years! I miss my friends!

Hanging out at BYU

After we got back to Boise, we had yet another fun time when Bryan's cousin Brynn and her family came to stay. They have a daughter about two weeks younger than Luke so those two had fun romping around together. We got to go to the zoo again but this time we spent a lot more time looking at every exhibit and it was so fun! But... then it got hot. We also went to Brynn's sister's wedding open house, played games and hit up H&M (a must when Brynn comes to town).

Lastly, we finally got a new oven. I haven't written about it on here but we were dealing with a horrible mouse situation where the mice had peed on the insulation of the old oven and taken some out, which made it unusable. It smelled like mouse pee every time I turned it on and the safety of it's use was compromised. We tried to get our builder to pay for it since the mice got in through a hole they hadn't sealed but they wouldn't So, we relented and just bought a new one over labor day when we thought the mice were all gone, Spoiler: they weren't actually >:( but we are working hard on that issue now and they haven't done anything to the new oven so far. The oven is covered under a 3 year warranty that would cover situations like that, though. That is making a veeeery long story short. But we were without the use of an oven for over 6 months. Stove top, Slow cooker, Grill. At least it was summer time!

Well anyway, we sure did a lot this summer but I loved giving Luke all of these new experiences! Next up, Halloween... which will be much more timely!

Busy Bees

Well, September was sure a whirlwind month! It went by the fastest of all the months we've lived here so far. Last post was about us going to Ethan's baby blessing at the beginning of the month. We visited Utah again in the middle of the month so that Bryan could take part in recruiting for his company at BYU! It was fun to be back there as a visitor even though it hasn't been all that long since we lived there.

Here is Bryan at Clearwater's booth. I came to meet him at the end so it was half taken down by this point but I wanted to get a shot of him here anyway.

When we were done in Provo we headed up to South Jordan and had a fondue party with our friends the Pfaffs and the Jasps and then we spent the rest of the weekend with family. I didn't really take pictures to post up here but I happened to be taking a video of cute Ethan when the following occurred. (Sorry it is sideways!)

We came back to Boise for less than a week and then flew out to Maryland that next Saturday for Jack and Sylvie's baby blessings! I was so excited to meet these little guys for the first time and to spend time at my home with my family. There is nothing quite so comforting as that, it seems.

Here are a a few pictures I took from our time in Maryland. Here is sweet Sylvie, sleeping soundly in mom's arms. She spent a lot of time sleeping!

I liked this picture of my mom. I don't think she knew I was taking a picture. She just seems so genuinely happy. Jack is, of course, so adorable. On Sunday he slept in my arms and it was the most precious thing.

Ivy loved playing hide and go seek with us. I found her in a cabinet like this. She didn't seem to realize she'd been found-- I think she thought if she couldn't see you, you couldn't see her.

Here's Uncle Bryan entertaining Ava by pretending his tie is an elephant nose. I just love the look on her face.

Here are Jack and I on the blessing day. I almost missed the blessings altogether! I was sitting with Ivy on my lap as Sacrament Meeting began and she suddenly got a bloody nose. I had to run her to the bathroom to help with it. By the time it was finally done and she was cleaned up I walked back in and they were announcing the blessings. That was close! I'm so glad her nose cleared up just in time.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture with either baby in their blessing outfits-- I think their parents wanted to get them out of white clothes before they did what babies do best.

Do you see what I mean about the sleeping? She would be in her car seat for what seemed like hours just sleeping while we all talked loudly around her. I lifted up her car seat cover and snapped this shot (don't worry, no flash!).

I could have sworn I had gotten a picture of Bryan holding Jack as well but I can't find that anywhere. Pretty disappointing but this one is still pretty cute.

I know you thought that picture of Sylvie smiling was precious so here you go!

We flew back home on Monday-- what a short trip!We are glad to be done with traveling for a while and ready to enjoy our first autumn in Boise. The weather is starting to cool down and some of the leaves are changing color. I think this is one of the most exciting times of the year!

Life in Provo

Well, I'm finally updating the blog. I've had many comments on my long hiatus. Bryan has been threatening to update with a picture of a scared pug if I didn't post something soon! I have an excuse, though. My trusty camera has met an untimely end. Yes, one day I turned it on to find the LCD display screen looking cracked. The glass was fine, it was just the inside. Luckily, Bryan had a camera at his mom's house so we brought that back. I still dragged my feet getting pictures taken and figuring out how to upload from his camera, so sorry for that.

So, we're back in Provo! We had a great summer in Boise but boy, am I glad to have furniture again! I'm also happy to have the rest of our belongings again. It makes a huge difference in the feeling of a place to be surrounded by your things. I feel a lot more homey now. We moved into Union Square Apartments-- married student housing. Despite the fact that I thought they had dissolved all special wards into family wards, we attend a Provo Married Student ward. I have never before lived in a ward that had the exact same number of men as women!

Bryan seems to be doing well in school this semester and enjoying most of his classes. A few classes he has really been enjoying are Ethics and Computers in Society, Software Engineering and Cryptography. One reason he likes the first two so much is that they share the same professor, who is excellent. In Cryptography he is breaking down ciphers, something he has done as a hobby since he was a teenager so he's really enjoying it as a class.

I am still job searching. There have been a lot of ups and downs in the process and, as yet, nothing has panned out. I had a pretty severe disappointment yesterday when my temp agency, OfficeTeam, called saying they had a job for me. I had an interview elsewhere and told them I would call afterward with a definite decision. I decided the position OfficeTeam offered was a better one for me right now but when I called back she'd given it to someone else! Oh well. I'm still waiting to hear about the actual interview, though.

Anyway, a wise friend once told me that no one wants to read full text in a blog so I thought I'd take some pictures of our apartment as introduction to our new life in Provo (I mean, these are the reason I haven't updated in so long so they better be pretty good, right?).


Here is the first thing you see when you come to our apartment (sans my lovely shadow). In late August my parents came out to visit and to see my half-sister Tammy's adorable new baby girl, Hannah Blanche. My mom brought a surprise with her! She'd had our favorite wedding picture printed on canvas and took me out to have it framed. She also decided she wanted to do something nice for me and get a wreath for our door and a welcome mat. We found this nice wreath on Etsy and the mat at a personalization store online. Unfortunately, these were lost in the mail for a couple of weeks! I realized I'd been giving the wrong street for part of our address. What a disaster! Luckily, I called the DMV in time to correct my address before they sent out my Drivers License!There is another apartment 309 in this complex so I assumed the packages had gone there but they hadn't seen it. We ended up finding a house with the address I'd been using and they had kept the packages there for us. This doorstep was well worth it! The wreath makes our apartment smell amazing.

This is what you see when you open our door. Notice the Christmas lights lining the walls-- those were absolutely free! Courtesy of our wedding decorations... I even have a LOT left over. I love hanging Christmas lights-- they bring such a warm homey feeling to our apartment.

Here is the canvas picture that my mom framed for us-- we love it. We also have an army of WiiMotes chillin' under there in the entertainment center and a brand new Blu-Ray player. We had some money left over from our wedding on our Target gift card and decided it was worth the purchase. It connects to HuluPlus, NetFlix, Pandora, Picasa, YouTube, etc. It has 3D capabilities which is nice because we one day intend to own a 3D TV.

This is an unfortunate attempt at taking a picture of the curtains I sewed for our apartment. No matter how I took it, during the day they were simply not to be seen on film. Suffice it to say that they are two panels of fabric that hang from a rod (held up by Command Hooks) on either side of a window...

Here is a better idea of what the actual fabric of the curtains is like, though. This was the only pattern in JoAnn's that I really liked for it. It's not lying flat because I kept them hanging and held it up to the camera by my hand.

The entertainment center they provided with this apartment was not going to work with our wide, flatscreen TV so I turned it into a much needed book/game shelf. I think the couches are pretty nice, actually! We got a throw pillow from IKEA for it that you can faintly see in the dark picture above. It was very difficult figuring out how to arrange the furniture. We finally decided to have the back of the couch act as a hallway into the apartment. So, in a way, I guess the couches really section it off as it's own room. The gap between the chair and couch is slightly narrow but do-able.

We call this our "office." It really just shares the living/family room but it kind of feels like it's own little place. That may or may not be Pinterest up on the screen. I've become slightly obsessed.

I just wanted to zoom in on this part because I really enjoy the decorations we have up here. Minus the fish food. Darn, I should have moved that when taking pictures. I only just noticed it now. This is Bryan's our beta fish, Gordon. No, it's not after Gordon B. Hinckley. Instead, he's named after Gordon Freeman. In his old age (1.5 years) he has gotten rather ornery! He puffs out his gills at us if we just walk by him! Poor Gordon.

Yes, uninteresting but I thought I'd post our vanity. Be happy I left out the pictures of the shower room. Bryan said, "No one wants to see our toilet." You know, I'm sure he's right. I was just taking pictures of everything.

I just like this closet because there is a lot of opportunity for storage. I don't feel at all cramped in this apartment.

Same bedspread, more decorations. Luckily, this coloring followed the same theme I had when I was single so I just used the same pillows to spruce it up. Other than this, we have a couple framed wedding photos on our dresser. The only other interesting thing is comparing our closets. Talk about polar opposites!


Bryan snapped this not-so flattering picture of me last night.You can kind of get a better idea of what the curtains look like, though they are closed in this. Oh! And there is the aforementioned IKEA pillow!

So, this is our life for the next 8ish months. In April, Bryan will graduate. We hope to be back in Boise with him working for Clearwater Analytics, where he had his internship. Come next May we will probably be moving somewhere! It's exciting for real life to really start.