13/13 - 1st birthday's that is...

When my first niece Grace was born, I made a commitment to be at every one of my niblings 1st birthday's. This promise has taken me to NYC, LA, Wisconsin, Clifton, and now Mountain Home AFB in Idaho. Cailin is my 13th nibling and she is SOOOOO stinkin' cute! Just a few weeks ago, she would cry if I even looked at her, let alone tried to hold her. (I tried not to take it personally, since she did that with everyone, but still!) I don't know if it was that she was in a familiar setting this weekend or just finally growing out of that phase, but she was adorable!!!! Alexa Jo. is the cutest big sister, too. She basically took over Cailin's doll and accessories, but Cailin didn't seem to mind.
I don't know if you do this in your house, but we love to see them make a mess with the cake. Cailin did pretty good. Here's a collage of photos I took:

Brad and Cassi are perfect hosts and me mum is a hilarious travelling companion. We went to Boise and had lunch at Cheesecake Factory and then got pedicures. Well, Brad just watched the little girls while the ladies went to have pedis. A few games of TRAINS and some awesome PhillySteak sammiches, makes for a great party. I love my family!!

Merry Christmas and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Well, you may or may not know this, but the only camera I have owned was one that you had to advance FILM with your thumb...Yes, I know, it's been a while. But, thanks to my awesome brother and sister in-love Lissa (and new nephew Pierce) I am the proud owner of a new camera and it's DIGITAL!!! So, now i have gone hog-wild in the first few days of ownership. You're welcome!

The Niblings:

Duke's Family (above)
Random poses with commentary (below) - (Click to enlarge)

More random (more commentary) - more clicking to enlarge.

New Years Day we celebrated with our tradition of bowling. I scored a 163. Not bad for a gimp.

Hopefully having a camera will mean I do better at blogging. Cuz this is kind of like my journal. (I said kind of. :) )

Give said the little stream...

http://randomthoughtsfromthezoo.blogspot.com My friend Catey --yes, the beautiful woman in the picture below--is hosting a give-away on her blog. Ever been to the CSN website? They have amazing deals on practically everything. And Catey is one of the most positive people I have ever met. Check out her blog and join in the fun!

Some of my heros

I know, this is probably a cop-out, but I have a LOT of heros in my life. And I mean A LOT! This particular group of heros has been on my mind a lot lately. They are weeks (we hope, huh Catey?) away from having child #8. This has been a more difficult pregnancy as they realized early on that he was going to come into this life with a few challenges. They have handled this news with grace, humility, and courage. I truly love them and feel buoyed up when I read Catey's blog. Aaron served his mission in Georgia with me, and when he got home he met and quickly fell in love with Catey. I used to babysit for them before they moved to Egypt...or Eagle Mountain, I mean. I don't see them as often, but love that we keep in touch. An amazing family that I am blessed to have in my life.
(I stole this picture off the photographer's blog, so I hope that isn't illegal. )

Aaron and Catey - Malia, Taylor, Alaina, Jacob, Dallin, Lincoln, Charlotte--Samuel is on the way!

Vignettes --I looked it up, they're what I thought they were

The following are just comments I made on that I would like to remember.

Mar 13 - Made homemade whole wheat spaghetti tonight with my Dad ♥

It was the best spaghetti EVER and prompted me to buy a pasta maker. This turned out to be a fiasco since the item arrived from eBay sans crank. After 4 weeks of the seller's attempt to make it better, it resulted in a refund. So I am still on the hunt.

Mar 15 - "O, death, where is thy sting?"

Same weekend that I had the best spaghetti of my life, I woke up Monday morning with the worst case of the flu I have ever encountered. I didn't hardly move for 3 days. I was miserable to say the least. My dad says this when he camps. I think it's appropriate to be used in cases where you think you are not going to make it to the next sunrise. Thankfully, I did.

Mar 23 - Loves Trader Joe's "mini milk chocolate peanut butter cups"!!!

My wonderful sister in-law Michelle is they one I hold responsible for my new addiction to this tasty treat. She gave me some and I tried to ration it a month...I made it a week. My cousin Susie offered to get me some more a few weeks later when she went to CA. She got me three. They, too, were gone in a week. I need help.

Mar 31 - I like a little apple with my peanut butter :)

See? I don't have to have the unhealthiest form of PB. I can make my apples fattening too! Haha.

Apr 6 – Who doesn't like a good snog? Isn't that right, Harry?

I think I'll leave this one "as is":)

Apr 6 - Conflict is where the car in front of you has a NY Yankee sticker in one corner AND a University of Utah in the other. Do I like them or do I not? Thankfully, the Jazz sticker by the breaklight broke the tie. I like them, but they have poor taste in sticker placement.

I am definitely a NY Yankee fan. And a Jazz fan. Not a Ute fan.

In the past, on April 15th, I would write "I hate taxes!" on every check I wrote--including the one to the IRS. This year, I actually got a refund, so I'm not feeling the same animosity. YAY!

It was a great feeling paying off some debt and saving for my new Bosch mixer with tax refund money. Much better than seeing that amount come OUT of your checking account--convenient as it is.

Apr 18 -Hard to beat a weekend with family, picnics, and gorgeous weather. I even got my first sunburn of the season. Love it!

This was another full weekend. On the 17th we had our NCAA March Madness "Steady Boy Steady" dinner. Then Saturday, we moved our Easter picnic to this weekend. It was so great to be able to go down to the creek and roast hotdogs, roll our Easter eggs, and hang out with family. This was ONE weekend where it didn't rain...so you gotta love that!

Randomness

Other March/April events (in chronological order) --March madness. I took 2^nd this year in the Round by Round. Chow won the whole thing by less than 1.5 points. It was a fun tournament. BYU made it passed round 1—a very exciting miracle. Kansas lost in the 2^nd round. Many people—including me –had them winning the whole thing so it was no wonder my post was “Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
oooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!”
The end of the tournament had me rooting for Butler since Clancy picked Duke. In my heart I thought Duke would win, but I was still hoping for the underdog.

I heard Michael Bublé was coming in concert back in November. I purposely decided to wait to purchase my tickets until the day of the concert because of our luck when Matchbox Twenty came to town. We found that they sold floor seats at GA prices. So you can imagine my disappointment when I didn't get to go, but instead chose to get my dryer fixed instead. "Mar 31 - Well, I was fiscally responsible today. Don't everybody pass out. I forfeited the Michael Bublé concert for a working dryer. I'll be honest, the sweet hum of a working appliance is pretty satisfying --Not Michael Bublé satisfying...but I digress."

A couple weeks later, I had a chance to go to Alabama to spend some time with Cassi and the two cuties while Brad was receiving training and accommodations from the Pentagon in DC. I had SOO MUCH FUN on this trip! Alexa Jo. is one funny little girl. Cassi is such a great Mom, too. One of the best things I learned from Alexa Jo. is when you ask her "Why are you so cute?" and she responds in her darling voice "Because my Papi is cute." I guess Cassi taught her this. When Brad learned of this he looked at Cassi and said "Cute? Couldn't you teach her I was 'ruggedly handsome'?" Sooo funny! Apr 10th's status read: "Alabama rocks! Friendly people, beautiful weather, authentic BBQ, fried green tomatoes, Montgomery Zoo, and hot Krispe Kremes---It is quite possible I am too full!"

My brother Baa Haa graduated on April 25th with his MPA from BYU. It was an awesome day!! My parents came down from Idaho, as well as Lincoln with Field and Abram, and Brad and Cassi with the two cuties. They packed up their moving van that same night and we had a delicious dinner at Baa and Lissa's with Ben and Ashley, and Marianne. That kicked off a busy weekend with Cailin being blessed up in Cassi's home ward in Garland and then Baa leaving for Wichita. They hit a snowstorm for a lot of their trip. (See!?? I told you this weather was lame!!) I was worried as I would talk to him and so after I hung up, I got down on my knees and prayed. Probably not the first thing most people do, but I went and put this on my FB: "We can't ask for bump-free, no-bugs-on-the-windshield, a-tank-of-gas-lasting-700-miles, travels...but we can ask for safe travels...and that brings a lot of peace of mind." I really did feel peace that they would be ok. I will miss them terribly. It's been awesome to have them so close.

March and April --In like a lion, out like a ....lion

I've been able to go through the next few months and find "trends" in my FB posts. I’ll break it up, since it’s very long...

Weather - As the caption of this blog post states, the weather influenced a lot of my facebook status. It rained, and rained, then we had a few good days, then it would rain or worse…SNOW! On April 29^th I was glad for a warm house. This weather has been so frustrating! (That “trend” has not stopped even at this writing date of May 29^th. But more on that later:))

TV
I was watching TV one night and I usually skip through the commercials, but on caught my eye on supporting your Vet. I had a blonde moment (no offense to blondes) and put this on my FB status: Mar 16 – “FYI, SupportYourVet.org is a website to support our wonderful Veterans of our Armed Forces, not support of your veterinarian. Sorry Linc. I feel so foolish.”

There's a show on TV that makes me laugh. It is about a community college and a study group that has gotten close to each other. It kind of reminds me of my awesome group in grad school and the various dynamics that each relationship has. Now there's not a lot of comparison to the actual character, but that's why I like to watch it. One episode caught me a little off guard, when a guy I thought was a wimpy, geeky, nerd --but in a pool competition, he had deltoids and laterals and triceps...after having watched that part ten times I wrote on FB "Wow Joel McHale/Jeff Winger. Who knew?"

And finally on my TV trend, on Apr 22^nd I wrote “Loves it when I see places I've been on TV shows I watch. Makes me feel so cool. :)” This after I had been watching House Hunters International and they were in the exact area of Barcelona where my brother Brad and Cassi lived. And then again on In Plain Sight when they were filming in Old Town in Albuquerque…the same place I stayed when I was down there for a conference last year. This is a perk of travelling, since it’s rare anyone is filming in Cottonwood Heights, UT.

BABIES!
Babies were another trend that I commented on a few times during these couple of months. My friends Coralie and Justin Stokes had their 2^nd baby, a girl on March 10^th. They named her Bailey. That is a cute name.
My new niece was born on May 3^rd. We didn’t know the gender and I’ll be honest…that made it even more exciting when Linc called and told me it was a girl!!! I was so happy, I cried. She’s soooo cute!!! And her name (after a nearly a month of deliberation is Anslea McNeil Mumford. I LOVE the name and am so happy she has arrived safely. Her two older brothers are all ready to protect “Lil Sis”.