Zariph and Lisa

The house TODAY!

2011-05-15T16:45:00.000-07:00

The outside is almost complete - just rain gutters and light fixtures need to be installed.

The porch to the side of our front door.

The view from Boston's room (looking out the front of our house)

The nursery looking into our bedroom

Front door and office - I love the color of that front door!

The loft - open to entry on the side Zariph and Boston are looking on, and open to the great room on the other side.

Linen closet in an upstairs bathroom

The walk-in linen closet in the other side of the upstairs bathroom.

Boston's bedroom

The playroom

The closed in part of the loft

The great room/entry/stairs

The hot tub room - we tiled the wall 3/4 up, to hopefully help with peeling paint and the steam. It looks really good under the plastic, I'll take another picture later.

My side of the closet, you can't see it all in the picture, though.

This is Zariph's project for the past two weeks - our master walk-in shower. It's almost ready to tile! The great room My craft room - could I be any more excited!

Happy boy in our mud room

The garage door in the back of our garage.

The back of our house. The side of our house (this side faces the south and is on a road - we're on a corner lot)

New House in April

2011-05-15T09:59:00.001-07:00

Here is how the house was coming along in April... Brick and Rock finished on outside.
Sheetrock and mudding

Garage doors are in

Closet organizers are put in - this is Zariph's side.

Our mud room bench area.

Brick and rock finished, and stucco just needing color (which was finished the first week in May).

New House in March

2011-05-15T09:31:00.000-07:00

Okay, so I haven't updated our new house building like I wanted to, but here is a quick recap of the last few months... This is the end of March - the insulation is complete.

The elecrical and plumbing is all put in.

Zariph did all the low voltage wiring.

The Master Bath - jetted tub and double sided fireplace. I can't wait, I'm going to relax like I never have before!

Exterior doors are all in.

Windows are all in, and roofing is complete.

The kitchen/great room area. Framing is all complete.

New House Construction

2011-02-06T16:16:00.001-08:00

It all started at The Parade of Homes in 2008, when we saw a house that we fell in love with. Since then, we started working on plans and rearranging the layout to fit exactly what we wanted. Then last February, we purchased our lot, with the intention to build maybe in about 5 years. Then we saw interest rates fall so low, and decided it was time to pursue this dream that we've had for some time now. We shopped around for a builder. And the first week of January we broke ground on our dream house! Here's what it looks like currently:

The front of the house -

the garage on the left, the front door,

the window for the office, and the window for our master retreat

The back of the house -

our closet on the left (with a walkout to the hottub room), the Great Room windows, french doors and window for the dining area, and window for my craft room My craft room, we were able to squeeze out an 8 1/2 ft x 9 ft room for me when we found out our house could actually be 5 feet wider than we thought.

The view from inside looking out our back windows. The stairs to our basement - the basement will be unfinished, but most of it is framed already because the walls are supporting upstairs.

The third car garage, with a 12 ft garage door.

Grrr...

2010-12-10T21:50:00.001-08:00

I've had the video done for a few weeks now, but for some reason I'm having a lot of problems uploading it to blogger. I'll keep trying, stay tuned. :)

Sneak Peak

2010-11-13T16:05:00.000-08:00

Surprise! I'm back to the blogging world. I finally looked through all our pictures from the cruise. I'm working on putting together a video and hope to have it up within a week. But, here is my favorite picture of the whole trip.
Don't we look adventurous? This was during our zipline/repelling excursion. AWESOME!

Anniversary

2010-06-06T14:49:00.000-07:00

Zariph and I celebrated our TENTH Anniversary last Thursday! I woke up early and made him french toast with strawberries for breakfast, while we watched this lovely video that I made which shows pictures from our ten years of married life.

I also bought him another wedding band, because he lost his other one in Las Vegas last August.

Zariph took me out to dinner that night. We went to The Roof at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building which overlooks the Salt Lake Temple (where we were married) and it is where Zariph proposed 10 1/2 years ago! There were ten red roses waiting on our table for me - how special.

Dinner was so good! The restaurant is a really nice buffet. Everything was delicious! I really overate, just check out my dessert plate. I couldn't decide, they all looked so good (and they were)!

The view from our table:

A Night of Michael Buble!

2010-04-10T18:33:00.000-07:00

Wow, I've slacked off on the blog, I know... Anyway, I was lucky enough to attend the Michael Buble concert with my sisters and mom, when he came to SLC about two weeks ago. We met up after work and ate dinner at Wingers.

Then we drove down to the E Center in not much time at all. But the traffic getting off of the freeway was horrible! It took us about 45 minutes to get from the freeway exit to where we finally gave up and ended up parking in a little strip mall just down the street. It was pouring rain and we walked about a mile to the E Center. And I didn't know it, but apperently my shoe had a little hole in the bottom of the sole and was leaking water up into my sock everytime I stepped. It was so cold! So, I enjoyed the concert with one sock off and one sock on, lol. The man himself...It was a great concert!

A little excited...

Our matching shirts...

Here's a little sample from the night. It's amazing how his voice can always be perfect!

Lake Havasu and Las Vegas

2010-03-07T19:50:00.001-08:00

We recently returned from our trip to Lake Havasu, Arizona, and Las Vegas. We had a nice time relaxing and spending time together just the three of us. We stayed in a condo on the beach of Lake Havasu for a week. We walked around by the London Bridge (yes, I know it's a little weird, but they bought the real London Bridge and reassembled it in Lake Havasu - we couldn't stop singing "London Bridge is Falling Down" everytime we drove over it). They have a few cute little shops around the London Bridge and it was nice weather to be outside and walk around. We went up to Laughlin to shop at some outlets - but soon discovered there weren't many people shopping there under 60 and all the stores were geared towards the "older" crowd. One day we drove down to Phoenix, it was Zariph and my first time going there. Once again we gravitated to the shopping. I love that Zariph likes to shop as much as I do. We also had a nice lunch at Rainforest Cafe. My 30th birthday was in the middle of the week. Zairph made me breakfast in bed and pampered me all day with letting me do whatever I wanted. We went on some walks and went on a boat tour of Lake Havasu. He also gave me a fun card with a print out that said I was signed up to skydive that weekend in Vegas! And we went to a nice dinner, too. Overall, the scenery was beautiful and it was a great relaxing week.
On the way home, we spent the weekend in Vegas. Saturday morning I went skydiving! It's something I've kind of always wanted to do, but didn't know if I really had the guts to do it. But I thought since I was turning 30, I just felt like I needed to do something crazy. So, I took the opportunity. When you jump out of an airplane that high in the air, you're not really worried about the ground, yet. It didn't even really feel like I was falling that fast, it's not really like a "falling" feeling at all. I just felt a lot of wind blowing in my face, I was most worried that I couldn't breath. Then finally after probably a whole 10 seconds the parachute was pulled and I felt like we were just stuck in mid air, I couldn't tell that we were getting any closer to the ground at all. Then my instructor taught me how to steer the parachute and coached me to spiral down in circles. It was fun. It is definitely something I'd do again.

My 30th Birthday Adventure

2010-03-07T16:48:00.000-08:00

It's Official!

2010-02-12T12:36:00.000-08:00

For anyone wanting to do any vinyl projects, I created a blog to showcase some projects and to give prices and options. Check it out and pass the word along, to anyone you know. Craftyvinyl.blogspot.com

New Year's in California

2010-01-07T13:23:00.000-08:00

This last weekend, we had an opportunity to get away to California for a few days, over New Year's weekend. We woke up super early Thursday, and got to Universal Studios by about 5:00 p.m. We spent that evening in the park, and hung out at Universal's CityWalk as long as we could Thursday night, for New Year's Eve.

Yummy! There was this excellent crepe place, it was so good!

Boston just couldn't hold in the excitement! (That's actually what I felt like doing, too.)

Then Friday, we went back to Universal.

Who looks more evil in this picture?

Looking out at the view. The weather was absolutely perfect!

Boston LOVES dogs!

Then Saturday, we walked around Hollywood, by the Chinese Theater and looked at the stars. Then we hit an outlet. (what's vacation without a little shopping?)

Saturday night, we went to Downtown Disney. This was in the Lego Store, while killing time, waiting for our table at Rainforest Cafe.

And here's my dad and Carol, we went to dinner together.
Our table was great, right by the big fish tank. Boston was still a little nervous of the gorilla, but he loved looking at the fish.

In-n-Out in Vegas on the drive home (yep, we did that all in one day, too).

Chuck E. Cheese, Skiing, and Tepenyaki

2010-01-06T16:48:00.000-08:00

So, Saturday (the day after Christmas), I went with Misty, Zariph's parents, Boston, and the girls to Chuck E. Cheese. Boston had a blast. He went up to everyone (even strangers) and started talking jibberish and pointing at like the games and stuff.

I love this little drawing thing. This was actually the first take out of three.

Zariph and Roy went skiing at The Canyons. And then we met up for dinner at Tepenyaki. Yum, yum.

Christmas

2010-01-06T16:12:00.001-08:00

Christmas Eve, Zariph gave me this lovely old smelly, corroded bathroom faucet. (Which meant he replaced it with a nice one!)
Christmas morning, Santa left this fun track and car set for Boston. He loved it so much, he just wanted to play with it all day.

Presents from Boston's birth grandma. He knew exactly what the pez were, that's what "candy" was when we taught him the sign language for it.

We had breakfast and opened presents at my mom's house.

Grandma Hanson

Hannah and Jac helping Grandpa Mike open his presents.

Lindsay, Eliza, and Jake

Zariph's fun new toy. He only crashed it a few times.

That evening we went to Zariph's parents house for presents, food, and singing. Boston loves this four wheeler! He's so excited that he can actually make it go.

Zariph's family got him a turkey fryer. What a great idea, he loved it.

After the family party, we all went up to the Christmas Village in Ogden. We bundled up so much, and it was still so cold, we just hurried through it.

TEN Years Ago...

2009-12-24T06:54:00.000-08:00

Ten years ago tonight was a special night for Zariph and me. It was the night Zariph proposed. It's hard to believe it has been that long. Wow! Well, here's the whole story for anyone interested in reading it.

"Someone" did the 12 days of Christmas to me. I started getting these little packages in brown paper sacks left on my doorstep while I was up at Rick's College. (Zariph was living in Layton at the time.) Each day there was a letter that went along with the song, but the items were different than how the song goes. Here's what I got:

One box of Peppermint Tea (that's a little inside joke by itself)
Two Fuzzy Gloves
Three Fountain Pens
Four Boxes of Nerds
Five Candy Rings
Six Candles for Lighting
Seven Divers Swimming
Eight Coins for Spending
Nine Truffles for Enjoying
Ten Packs for Chewing
Eleven Christmas Canes for Hanging
Twelve Crayons for Drawing

On each of the notes there were letters underlined, which spelled out little phrases. During this time I returned home for Christmas break. There was a package mailed from Rexburg to my house. And then the packages continued being left on my doorstep at my mom's house. At this point I was pretty sure it was Zariph, but it kind of threw my off a bit too, and I started worrying that I had some psycho stalker.

Then the last note told me to look at the back of all the papers. There was a letter on the back and it spelled out where to meet on Christmas Eve. The letters spelled out "The Roof". Which is The Roof Restaurant on top of the Jospeh Smith Memorial Building. Zariph and I spent a lot of time together, but for some reason I never brought up these packages that were coming for me. Zariph said he was worried that I wasn't getting them. And he kept asking me if we could get together Christmas Eve. My mom told me to tell him I had to pick up my cousin from the airport. So, he put some doubts in my mind that it was really him. Anyway, I bought a new dress and got all fancied up. I drove down to Salt Lake, nervous as could be! I kept thinking, I really hope it's Zariph, the night would be very awkward if it was some other random guy. So, I checked in with the hostess and told her I was meeting someone. She took me to a table, which had another brown paper sack on it. I opened it and inside was a paper that said, "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy, when skies are gray. You'll never know dear, how much I Love You! So don't take my sunshine away!"

Then I sat there, for what seemed like EVER! It was probably only 5 minutes, but I was so nervous! Then Zariph came to the table (finally). I felt relief that it was him, but still so nervous because I knew it was a big night for us. We talked for a few minutes, then he leaned over to me and said, "Just so you know, I'm not proposing to you tonight." He said that so I wouldn't be so nervous all through dinner. But, my nervous feeling turned into "What the heck?" So, anyway, he had a lovely dinner and dessert overlooking the Salt Lake Temple. But inside I kept thinking, "Why is he not going to propose? What could be more perfect than tonight?" I started to feel a little angry about it, but I kept it pretty well hidden.

So, we finished up dinner and went down to the second floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. There were two chairs perfectly situated by the window and a Christmas tree, in the corner away from people. So we decided to sit down and talk. Then Zariph kept looking down in between the chairs (acting kind of weird, like he wanted me to look down). So, I looked down and there was another paper sack. Then I was thinking, "What?!? He left the ring down here while we were eating?" So, I opened up the paper sack and there was this cone shaped present wrapped up, so I unwrapped that and inside was a ring box. I opened the box and inside that there was a lifesaver. (I had joked months earlier, that I didn't care if he had a ring for me, he could propse with a lifesaver, I just wanted to get married.) So then Zariph asked, "Do you think it will fit?" And I just played along, "Maybe." Then he took the lifesaver out and tried to fit it on my finger. In his hand he switched it for the real ring and started placing it on my finger. Then he knelt down, as we both got a little teary eyed, and asked me to marry him. To which, I shook my head yes, and said, "Of course." Then we hugged. It was the perfect moment.

We don't have any pictures of that night, but here some from Christmas day (Ya, I'm showing off my ring in all the pictures!):

Thanks for TEN great years, Zariph. I love you!

Christmas Came Early!

2009-12-20T14:30:00.000-08:00

Our kitchen is this much closer to being complete! Zariph wanted to surprise me on Christmas with the new range, sink, and faucet, but he also wanted me to help pick them out. So, here are our new additions: (our kitchen is now totally free of yellow appliances!)

Remember the oven from last Christmas? I still love it!Only a slight gash out of the counter. Obviously, I don't love the brown crappy countertops, but they'll have to do until we can afford granite. I'm so excited about this faucet. It has the detachable head that can come out and spray wherever. It's awesome. And when deciding whether to put the handle on the right or left side, I thought it should be on the right since we're both right handed. After I started using it, I realized I'm used to turning the water on with my left hand. Weird, hopefully I can get used to it. And, yeah! A disposal IN the kitchen sink (my old one was on the side of the sink, it was weird). And best of all it's all installed AND the mess is all cleaned up! So, now I can just enjoy this Christmas week and not worry about the installation.

Melting Pot and the (Lights)?

2009-12-13T12:59:00.000-08:00

So, as tradition would have it, we set off for our annual Melting Pot and Temple Square Lights adventure last night. Zariph and Boston picked me up from the mall (since I had to work yesterday afternoon). We did some shopping then set off for Salt Lake. We left with plenty of time, because last year we missed out on the lights because traffic downtown was HORRIBLE and we couldn't find a parking spot anywhere. Well, who would've thought the freeway was CLOSED and all four lanes had to exit on either 215 or Beck Street. It took us a good two hours to get to Salt Lake from Layton. Needless to say, we missed out on the lights again. (Although, we were just there two weeks ago, so it wasn't a big deal to me.) Luckily, the people at the Melting Pot were nice and weren't upset about us missing our reservation by an hour. Here are some photos of our fun night. Jake and Hannah
Julie and Eliza
Lindsay
Boston is ready to eat!

This is the best picture of the three of us. Sad, I think we took about seven...

This is one of my favorites. Look how happy he is eating chocolate.

Megan, Jacqueline, Cameron, and Mike

Emily and my mom

You can't see it that well, but both of his cheeks are completly stuffed!

Walking through the Galivan Center on our way to the car. At least we did see some lights, and watching the ice skaters was fun.

And can I just say, I am SO glad we decided to buy a heavy duty snow thrower this year. We've been without one for about four years and finally decided it was time to get one last Wednesday before the stores were all out. Zariph used it twice yesterday and once today, but is totally excited about using it again tonight. ha ha. I may be out of that duty for a while.

Rodizio's

2009-12-09T06:37:00.000-08:00

Monday, Zariph's sister, Misty and her family came up to visit for the day. Roy and Zariph went skiing and played laser tag, then we all went to dinner at Rodizio's in Trolley Square for Roy's birthday. I love the pineapple. I had six slices! Boston loves this place, too. There's so much for him to eat, he always stuffs himself.
Teliece and Destiny

Olivia and Dexter

Zariph, Roy, and Misty

Boston (I love how he's actually looking at the camera!)

Time to stop

Silly cousins

The whole group

Posing in Santa's sleigh

December, Really?

2009-12-04T06:55:00.000-08:00

Yes, I know it's December 4, already. But, my desktop calendar was still on October. I finally updated it this morning. I get these cute calendar templates from Shabby Princess (for free!).

Thanksgiving and Weekend Stuff

2009-11-30T05:50:00.000-08:00

For Thanksgiving, we went up to my mom's house. Lindsay set the table, everything looked "fancy". Mike deep fried the turkey. It was a great dinner. We played farkle, and my mom won! This is my grandma, who is now living in my mom's basement. Notice Boston sneaking up to the counter in the background. He found out how to climb up this little stool and reach whatever he wanted on the counter, including chocolates and left out pop.My mom and step-dad, Mike

My neice, Mikyla

The whole fancy table. Apparently, not everyone noticed we were taking a picture. Then Black Friday, Zariph and I went out shopping in the early hours. I was at WalMart about 10 minutes before 5 a.m. when all their doorbuster crates were opened up. We got the two big items we went for and then some other stuff, too. It actually wasn't as crazy as I thought it would be. Except I had to park at Sam's Club and then walk over to WalMart. We also went to Sam's Club and I went to ShopKo while Zariph went to work. Then Boston and I came home and slept. I put up the tree Friday, but we didn't start decorating it until Saturday.

Doesn't he look like a good little helper?

This face looks a little mischievous.

He loved picking up the ornaments and putting them back in the container. He was totally excited about putting up the decorations. He kept saying "ball" and throwing the ornaments on the floor hoping they would bounce. They are shatterproof, but I wasn't sure how much they could actually take from him. So far, he hasn't broken any.

Saturday night, we drove down to Draper to the new In n Out. I think we'll be making that drive more now, those are the best burgers ever! Then we stopped by Temple Square on the way home. It was so lovely walking around, looking at the lights. Boston loved it, he was so excited about the lights. Even from the car he was squealing.

There was a little nativity in the middle of the reflecting pond. So peaceful. At the big nativity by the Christus, when we first stopped, Boston thought the lambs and people were real. He made the sound like he does when there's an animal around him (it's kind of a grunt squeal, it's hard to explain) and he waved to the statue people. It was funny.

On our way walking back to the car, we decided to stop by The Lion House. We'd never eaten there before, so we checked it out. It was so yummy! Zariph and I both got the chicken noodle soup and all three of us had a roll. Mmmmmm...

Zariph let Boston finish off his raspberry lime drink. This was Boston's first taste of carbonation.
He wouldn't let us put the bottle down, he loved it!

Weekend in Grand Junction

2009-11-18T12:34:00.000-08:00

We went down to Grand Junction, Colorado, over the weekend to visit Misty and her family. We're not going to be able to see her on Thanksgiving (it's probably been five or six years we've been together every Thanksgiving) because Zariph and I both have to work the day after Thanksgiving. So we took our trip this last weekend. We left early Friday morning (5 a.m.) and made it down there a little after 10. We went out for lunch and hung out. Saphire had a cheerleading competition that night.

Destiny and Boston

A couple of goofballs

Miranda and her boyfriend, Neals

Saphire is helping hold up the really blonde girl

After the competition...We sat there for too many hours! Those bleachers were not very comfortable.

Misty bought her flowers and a cheerleading teddy bear. It was a little emotional because their team didn't win any trophies. I know she worked really hard and has gained a lot of confidence and broken out of her shell a bit.
Misty bought a deep fryer. Zariph showed them how to fry the turkey, since he's had some experience with that. Here's Roy carving the turkey.

Miranda and Neals

Me and Boston - he loves to chew on ice, just like me.

Playing Phase 10 - This was Boston's card.

Playing Texas Hold 'Em. The last hand we all put it all in and Misty won the pot.

Sunday afternoon, we went for a walk by the river. It was a pretty walk, but VERY COLD!

Here are a couple videos of Zariph and the girls playing in the pool...

Another Great Weekend

2009-11-08T13:30:00.000-08:00

I guess our weekend kind of started on Thursday night. My mom watched Boston while Zariph and I went to the temple. It was great going back, it had been too long. Then we went for dinner to Santa Monica pizza and shared a calzone. It was very good!

Friday...Well, let me start with last Friday, Zariph asked if we had plans yet for this weekend. I said we didn't. He said for me to line up a babysitter and he was planning a date. It was determined that it would be a late date, so we decided to invite Teliece to come watch Boston for us and spend the night. I was glad she was able to, so that Boston could still go to bed at his normal time in his own bed. So, then this last Friday we started our date with dinner at PF Changs.

So yummy! I love their crisp honey shrimp. Then we walked from there to our next event - which I still didn't know what it was. Everywhere we were walking by I was like, "Is it at the Energy Solutions Arena?" "Is it at the Planetarium?" I really didn't know what we were doing, until we walked past the Gateway and I saw The Depot and on their sign outside it said They Might Be Giants was playing there that night. What a great surprise! It was a fun night. They played their entire Flood CD, with a few new songs mixed in here and there. Hearing those songs reminded me of when I was first dating Zariph back in high school. It was a nice little reminiscing date. Zariph planned a great surprise!

Here is our lovely view from the second floor. The little balcony in front of us was reserved seating, so most of the night we watched the drummer or the big screen overhead that was filming the whole stage.

Here is a little video clip for you to enjoy.

Halloween Weekend

2009-11-01T12:16:00.000-08:00

We have had a great Halloween weekend.

Friday night we went down to Lagoon for Frightmares. Zariph wanted to go out and do something "Halloween-y", because we hadn't done anything on the "scary" side of Halloween, yet. So, I looked for some discounts and found some tickets on KSL for pretty cheap. She was selling a set of four so we invited Teliece to come with us. It was cold, but fun.

He didn't cry at all on the rides this time!

Saturday we went over to my mom's house in the early evening. We had chili and hung out.

Boston's trying to steal some candy. BTW, I taught him the sign for candy in preperation for this holiday. He picked it up within one day and loves to make the sign whenever I say candy.

Glenda and Dorothy

Then we went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. Boston loved picking out his candy from neighbors selection and putting it in his Spiderman bowl. He got the hang of that pretty fast!

He was excited. I think he knows what this was all about, at least better than last year.

Playing with Kimmy

2009-10-29T06:55:00.000-07:00

There are FOUR new posts today...So keep scrolling.

On Wednesday, we went outside to play again, so that I could rake all the leaves off the patio. While we were outside, Kimmy came over to play with us. We played for about a half hour outside, then it was too cold so we went inside. (By the way, I was able to rake most of the leaves into a pile, I just need to go out again today and get it all cleaned up.)

Kimmy showed Boston how to dig in the leaves.

The phones for you.

I think the flash was too bright, she closed her eyes in all the pictures I took of her with Boston's Mickey ears.

She kept telling me the cow was broken...(the letters are magnetic, and come apart)

Boston to the rescue...He found the head and put it on for her.

Trick-or-Treat

The lightsaber from Dollartree, Zariph will buy all things Star Wars for Boston.

Boston loves climbing up on this stool. It's right by the window so he can stand on it and look out.

First Snow

2009-10-29T06:43:00.000-07:00

Tuesday was our first snow of the year. I really wanted to go out with Boston and play, but we didn't go until after naptime, so most of the snow was already melted. Here are some pictures from our adventure: I thought I was bundeling Boston up, too much and that we'd be taking some things off when we got outside. Luckily, I had bundeled him up that much, it was SOOO COLD!

See? There's some snow in this picture...

Carving Pumpkins

2009-10-29T06:30:00.000-07:00

Monday night for FHE, we carved pumpkins (we got free pumpkins last Saturday at J & J, including a hay ride). It's been many years since I've carved a pumpkin, I thought we could just use a knife, but Zariph wanted templates, so I went out hunting for something. I found a kit at JoAnn's for two knives and 10 templates to choose from, it was $9.99, but was 60% off! Score! Here are some photos from our fun evening:

I stripped Boston down because I thought he would get messy. He actually didn't care that much to get his hands in it, he just watched us.

Can you guess what Zariph's pumpkin will be?

Can you guess what my pumpkin will be?

Ta-Da!

The finished projects...A dragon and Frankenstein and his wife dancing in front of the full moon.

Halloween Decorations

2009-10-29T06:13:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to post these pics, but was a little busy organizing all the Florida vacation photos and working on the video, that I'm just getting around to it now. Here are a few of my favorite Halloween decorations:
My front door...I bought this little holder probably 5 years ago after Halloween when it was clearenced at JoAnn's, but never did anything with it until this year.
My cute pumpkins...Thanks to Rachael for the idea and supplies, I just accessorized them.

A little wax Jack-o-Lantern...I don't think it will last many years, Boston likes to throw it and I noticed a little crack in it. It's lit up with the battery opperated tea lights - love those things.

2009-10-26T06:47:00.001-07:00

2009-10-26T06:44:00.001-07:00

Disney World - Part 2

2009-10-22T11:45:00.000-07:00

Here's the rest of our trip, I'll get the pictures in when I can:
On Wednesday, we went back to Magic Kingdom. The weather was a lot better this day, it felt like a nice warm fall day back in Utah - not humid really at all. We had a great time riding all the rides we wanted. We also met Alice in Wonderland, she was very nice. That night there was the light parade, which was really neat. And a fireworks show over the castle. A person dressed as Tinkerbell flew out from the top of the castle on a zip line, to somewhere out into the park, she was really high up there.
Thursday we went to Animal Kingdom. It was a little warmer this day, but still okay. My favorite ride at this park was Mt. Everest. It's a rollercoaster that goes backwards and down steep drops. It's awesome. The park closed at 5 p.m., so we went to Rainforest Cafe, which was just outside the park. Boston loved the gorillas. I took him up close to look at one and he would turn his head and grab onto me really tight. After dinner we went to Hollywood Studios for their night show, "Fantasmic". The stadium is huge! It holds like 10,000 people! And the show is awesome! There's fireworks, movies showing on the waterfountains, characters come through on boats, and Malificent turns into a huge fire breathing dragon, which Mickey slays with the Sword in the Stone. We had to go to the show Thursday night, because it wasn't showing on Friday, the day we were going to be at the park.
So, Friday we went to Hollywood Studios. They have a couple of new attractions since we were there last. They have American Idol, we watched three guests sing and then we got to vote for our favorite. Another new ride was the Toy Story ride. It's a 3D ride where you play Midway games and try and get the most points. So of course, Zariph and I were a little competitive on this ride. It was lots of fun! Friday night we had to do all the laundry and pack up because we had to check out of the condo the next morning. There was a little problem with the dryer though, after drying the first load for three hours the clothes were still wet! At this point I was too tired and needed to get to bed and hoped it would dry during the night.
Zariph took out the clothes during the night and let them air dry and put the next load in the dryer to start. Since we had this little problem, Saturday morning, I stayed back and finished up the laundry and packing while Zariph took Misty and her family to the airport and his parents and Teliece to Animal Kingdom. This was our extra day to go to any park and ride whatever we wanted. By the time Zariph got back to pick me up, his parents were done at Animal Kingdom so we picked them up and went to Hollywood Studios. We rode Toy Story again and Rock'n'Rollercoaster, then had lunch. Then we were debating whether to go to Epcot, but we were all pretty tired. I wanted to do some outlet shopping and then head out to Tampa to our hotel there. So, that's what we did. We found a fun little outlet mall, hit my favorite stores, and Zariph sold back our unused days on our tickets and made $30. Then off to our nice hotel in Tampa.
We got a nice 2-bedroom condo that we shared with Zariph's parents. It was right on the water and really nice. We had a kitchen and everything. We stayed there two nights, and Olivia stayed there all day Sunday with Boston while we went to Busch Gardens.
Busch Gardens was awesome. They have about 5 huge rollercoasters. My favorite is called Sheikra. You sit in this huge car - 3 rows of about 8 seats each row. Once you're in, the floor lowers and stays behind as you're off heading up this huge hill. You wrap around and get close to where you drop off, but then it STOPS and you're dangling there for a couple seconds. I'm pretty sure it's only holding on by a little bit on the back seat, so the front row is already facing straight down just waiting to drop. My heart beats a little faster just thinking about it. It was awesome! Then it drops you straight down. Our first time, we rode in the third row, then we had to ride it again in the front row. Then later in the day we rode it two more times.
Monday morning we checked out of our hotel. Zariph dropped us off at the cruise port, and returned the van while we did some window shopping, waiting to get on the cruise ship. Zariph met back up with us and we proceeded to wait in the first of a few lines to get on the ship. Eventually we made it on to the ship, it was so exciting! I love cruising! It was Zariph's parents and Teliece's first cruise, so it was exciting to see how they liked it. We first went up to the buffet for lunch. The choices there are amazing, they had several options of what to eat. Surprisingly, Teliece and Olivia couldn't find anything they wanted to eat. Teliece was just being picky and Olivia was scared to leave the table because she didn't want to get lost (it was a big room and she gets lost easily). Anyway, I loved it. Then we went down to check out our rooms. Our luggage hadn't been delivered yet, so we went to explore the ship. This was Zariph and my fourth Carnival cruise, so we were pretty familiar with how the ship was set up. Then we went back to our room, unpacked, slept a little, participated in the wonderful lifeboat drill, checked out the ship some more, had our late seating dinner (which I love) at 8:15 - we sat at a table for 10, but we always had four empty chairs, we were the only ones on our table. Then Zariph, Boston, and I went to the Welcome Aboard Show that night. Boston didn't make it that long, so Zariph went back to the room with him. I stayed by myself. The dancers did one song, then the comedian was on for about 30 minutes, it was pretty good.
Tuesday was a relaxing Day at Sea. Teliece did a lot of activities with Circle C (the 12-14 year old group). She made some friends that she hung out with most of the time. The rest of us relaxed and did some of the activities. Olivia and I went to a scrapbooking activity. We went to the ice carving demonstration, a game of Win, Lose, or Draw where I drew for the winning point on our team! And of course, we had lunch and dinner. Dinner that night was our formal night with lobster tail - yum! The show that night was probably my favorite of all week. The dancers put on a show to music from the 50s through the 80s. I love all the costume changes, it was a fun show. Boston even sat through all of it! We were in the front row, at the end they had sparklers come out from the front of the stage.
Wednesday was our day in Grand Cayman. Here we booked an exursion to go snorkeling and swim with stingrays. I was a little nervous to be with the stingrays, but was able to relax and have fun once I warmed up to it. When they swam against me, they felt really smooth, like freshly shaven legs, so it wasn't as scary. Then we also stopped in two other places to snorkel. I liked the snorkeling and I liked being on the catamaran. It was a fun day. I burned my back though on the ride back to the cruise ship. I was sitting in the sun for about 30 minutes, I should have reapplied more sunblock or put my dress back on. It was red, but actually didn't hurt enough to ruin the next day. That night was the comedian. We sat again on the front row - Boston does a lot better if he sits that close. I laughed so hard at some parts. The comedian was bald and he was making jokes about it, then he could see that Dexter was bald also. And he said something like, "It's bad enough you're bald, but then you add that pimp mustache, too. Yeah, let's see how much ugly we can get onto one head." Dexter was just laughing. Also, Boston was getting a little squirmy and we were trying to hold him still. And the comedian said something like I get that reaction a lot from parents trying to hold their kids a safe distance from me. Joking about his looks - he was bald and a pretty big size guy. It was funny.
Thursday was our day in Cozumel. We booked an excursion that was pretty much our whole time. We got on a ferry over to the mainland of Mexico, Playa del Carmen (I think). Then we rode a bus for about an hour to the Mayan ruins. These were awesome! Aside from the heat returning at full blast and humidity unbearable again, I loved the view! There was a rock wall all around these ruins and our tour guide was explaining that there were lots of buildings and they were mostly used as temples. When I stepped through the little walkway in the wall, the view that opened up was totally amazing! I could tell it was a sacred place. It was beautiful. There were ruins everywhere, everything was so green, palm trees were all around, and the ocean was just right behind all of this. It made me think of what it would be like to be a Lamanite and live back then. It was really neat. There were also some little shops where we could bargain for some souveniers. We didn't get done with the tour until about 6:30 and the cruise ship was leaving at 7, so there wasn't much time, but Zariph wanted to do some quick shopping at the port, and he met us back on the ship later. We had dinner and the show that night was a talent show, which was actually really good. There were about 8 or so guests that sung.
Friday was our last Day at Sea. We had breakfast at the dining room, but I was starting to feel sick - congested. I bought a decongestant and slept the rest of the day away. Zariph took Boston up to the water park and let him play, he also went and had lunch, then we all took a nap and packed up. We had to have our luggage ready to go by dinner. There was an early show that the dancers put on, it was all Latin music, and then we had our normal dinner time. The waiters sang goodbye to us. I really liked our waiters, they were very good with Boston. On the formal night, they played a song for all the couples to get up and slow dance and the waiter sat with Boston, so we could dance. He entertained him with a little light that he had.
Saturday morning, we woke up early had breakfast and were part of the first group off the ship with checked luggage, Zariph's parents were flying out at noon. We caught a shuttle to the airport and then sat and waited for our flight that wasn't until 2 something. We sat at the kids play area for a couple hours, and the airport had free WiFi, so I could catch up reading my blogs and facebook. The flight home was normal, we had a layover in Dallas again and Lindsay picked us up from the airport in Salt Lake around 8. Then we came home and started the joy of unpacking and laundry.

2009-10-18T19:26:00.001-07:00

Disney World - Part 1

2009-10-18T14:23:00.000-07:00

Photobucket is still importing pictures, so here is the first bit of what we did:
We had a FABULOUS time in Florida! We left on Friday, September 25. First of all, we woke up around 3 a.m. to catch our 6 a.m. flight out of Salt Lake. This was Boston's first airplane ride and I thought he might be a little scared. But, he wasn't, he feel asleep while the plane was taxi-ing to the runway, and he stayed asleep for the first hour or so. I discovered on this flight, that although the airplane bathrooms are VERY small, they still have a baby changer. We landed in Dallas a couple hours later, and only had like an hour lay over, so we were back in the air before too long. We made it to Tampa around 2 p.m. their time, picked up our HUGE 12-passenger van, and started the hour drive to Orlando. We stopped by Wendy's for some lunch, checked into our Orlando hotel, and headed out for Epcot. The first thing to hit me was the HUMIDITY! I knew it was going to be humid, but I was not expecting it to be SOOO bad! It was also still very hot! It was like 95 degrees and 100% humidity! And that was just evening time. I wasn't sure how I was going to make it through a whole week of Disney World in this kind of weather. I decided to not care how my hair looked and just wear a ponytail the whole week - that helped a little. Boston's first ride at Disney World was Journey Into Imagination. It has this little dragon "Figment" that comes around throughout the ride and "messes things up". Boston kept laughing whenever he would appear - it was too funny. So, we were able to ride quite a few rides that evening and then we watched the fireworks show. It was awesome.
Saturday morning, we checked out of our hotel (because we were checking into our condo later that day), so we had all our luggage in the van while we went to Magic Kingdom. We wanted to make it a point to ride all the "kiddy rides" for Boston, while it was just the three of us. He loved the rides, he just didn't like waiting in line. The lines really weren't that bad. I think the longest we waited the whole trip was like 20 minutes, and that was only like once a day. Most of the lines we were through in about 5-10 minutes. But, Zariph knows how to work the system with the Fast Passes. Anyway, we were only at Magic Kingdom for half the day (which was fine with me because I was getting a little overheated), because we needed to go to the airport and pick up the rest of the family. We picked up Zariph's parents and Teliece from the Tampa airport, did some grocery shopping, checked into our condo, then Zariph went to pick up Misty and her family from the Orlando airport while I stayed back and got some things ready for our SURPRISES that night.
We wanted to have like a big vacation kick-off party once everyone got there. I made dinner for everyone - BBQ chicken, baked beans, salad, and biscuits. It turned out okay, but was a little stressful because I didn't have all the right pans. Anyway, once everyone got there we ate and first gave Destiny her birthday present. Then we had presents for all the adults. Zariph and I had made everyone "matching" t-shirts. We picked a character that we thought each person liked and put that on their shirt on the front. Then we photoshoped a big picture of everyone's characters on the back. We used the iron-on transfer paper that you just put through the printer and ordered pastel colored t-shirts off the internet. We made everyone two shirts, because I wasn't sure exactly on what sizes to get. Anyway, we gave them to the adults first and the kids kind of just sat there like "I want that, too". Then we told the kids that we got them all some pins. Disney does this pin trading and we got a bunch of cheap Disney pins from ebay so we could trade them out. So we explained the rules of pin trading and then gave the kids each 10 pins and a lanyard. We gave Miranda both the pins and t-shirts, we said we didn't know if she was a kid or an adult so we gave her both. And people thought she was pretty lucky to get both. Then Zariph asked if the kids wanted t-shirts too and they were like "Ya". So then we brought out their shirts. And then he asked the adults if they wanted pins, too and they were like "Ya" so we brought out all the pins for the adults. For the kids, we had them in a little competition to see who could get the most of their character. But, the adults can just trade to get whatever they wanted to. It was a good night. Everyone was totally surprised, and it was fun because when they thought we were done giving out gifts, we brought out more.
Sunday morning, I had to drive Roy and Zariph to Epcot earlier than the rest of the group. We told Roy that we had early passes for just the two of them to get in early, but actually they were going on a Segway tour of the World Showcase. Unfortunately, Roy didn't know to bring his admission ticket, so we had to go back to the condo and get it. Luckily, they had another group going out an hour later and they just hopped in on that group. Then I went back and picked up the rest of the group. Everything went really smoothly. I got the fast passes we needed and we rode the rides exactly like the schedule that Zariph and I had rehearsed several times - I know that may sound weird, but it works. It was, again, another hot day. When we rode Test Track (an indoor and outdoor ride), it had started to rain while we were waiting inside (we didn't know). So we were riding along and when it started for the fast outdoor part, we started screeming, not because of the speed, but because we were getting sprayed with little fast water pellets! We stayed in the front part of the park until 2, when we went back to Italy for lunch. Then we roamed around the World Showcase and saw a few performances and shows. It was awesome. Then that night we watched the fireworks show (again, for Zariph, Boston, and me).
Monday we went to Universal Studios. They have two parks in Florida. One is set up more about the movies (similar to the Hollywood Universal Studios), and the other park is all about roller coasters. We went to both parks in just one day. I thought it would be too much for one day, but it really wasn't. The weather was hot, but not as humid, it was starting to feel a little better. My favorite rides of the day were the Spiderman ride - it's a 3D ride, where you're in a vehicle flying, and like the villans jump on your car, it was pretty cool. My other favorite was the huge roller coaster. It goes straight up to begin with, then straight down. It's awesome because you can choose your own music. Each person sits in this comforable chair and the speaker system comes down around you, so everyone can hear their own music. Then after, we saw that they took video of you during the ride, so we watched our video. It was hilarious, I probably should have bought it, it was way funny watching yourself scream, not knowing that I was being video tapped.
Tuesday, we went to the Disney water parks. First, to Typhoon Lagoon, then Blizzard Beach. They were lots of fun. I really enjoyed spending some relaxing time with Boston. I mostly, stayed and played with him in the kiddy area. But we did ride this way fun family raft - which Boston could go on. He even was tall enough to ride the ski lift up to the top. He had to be 32". And he was even a little over the measuring stick - standing in bare feet. I was kind of surprised he was actually tall enough. At Typhoon Lagoon, there is a pool that you swim across that has little sharks in the bottom. I was a little scared of this, but tried to talk myself into it. You get snorkel gear and everything, but when I actually put my face in the water I couldn't calm myself down enough to do it. Anyway, we still had a good time.
Well, that's all for now. I didn't proofread this at all, so hopefully there aren't too many typos!

1,988

2009-10-18T13:35:00.001-07:00

For those of you wondering where my post about Florida and our cruise is, it's coming...We took 1,988 photos and video clips. Wow! I'll see what I can get through in the next couple of hours.

"Mine!"

2009-09-12T12:25:00.000-07:00

Here is the inspiration for Boston's first "real" word. He's been saying "Hi" and "Oh, wow" since before he was one, but last night he said his first word with real meaning. Zariph picked up his cup to take a drink and Boston reached for it and yelled, "Mine!"
He's also been signing a lot more. He knows: more, milk, all done, and up. He does talk a lot, I can't wait until I can actually understand what he's saying.

Sunday Best

2009-09-03T16:08:00.001-07:00

I had to take pictures of Boston last Sunday, I thought he looked so cute. I've been wanting a more dressy look for Boston for church, but didn't want to spend a ton on something he'll outgrow soon. Zariph found this shirt and tie at Ross for $4! What a deal, and what a cutie!

Babysitting Fun

2009-08-13T06:34:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week, I was able to watch Eliza and Hannah. I tried to have something fun planned for both days, so we wouldn't be bored just staying at home. Our schedule turned out to be pretty packed, but it was fun. First, we played dress up until it was hot enough to go to the Splash Pad.
Then we went to the Splash Pad. It was still a little cold, but it was nice because there was only one other person there when we first got there.
Boston loved having the whole place pretty much to himself.

Then we played on the toys by the Splash Pad.
They had lots of fun toys, different types than the ones just by my house.

Eliza made a friend.
Hannah wanted me to take her picture with everything she did.
After the splash pad, we went back home for lunch and let Boston take his nap, while we played Barbies. That's something I haven't done in many years, I remember that being more fun playing as a kid, rather than playing as an adult.

Then we went to the park by house.
I think Hannah ate some goldfish. Boston is a little possesive of his goldfish.
What a cutie! We brought a blanket and sat in the shade, while Eliza and Hannah played on the toys.

Then Tuesday, we started off playing Barbies. Boston was acting kind of crabby, so we let him nap while the girls watched High School Musical and I got in a little workout on my eliptical. After Boston woke up, we had lunch then filled up the pool in my backyard for a little swim.

While swimming my mom and Mike stopped by on their way home from their vacation to Colorado. Mike sprayed down a couple hornet's nests (that makes me shiver just thinking about it). Then my mom took Hannah home with her, but Eliza wanted to stay because I had talked about feeding the ducks earlier. So, went driving to find some ducks. I thought there might be ducks in the pond by the hospital, so we stopped there first...
No ducks, but pretty scenery.
It was a nice little area to walk around. I was pretty sure there were ducks at the Layton Park, so we started that way. We were kind of hot from walking around by the hospital, so it sounded good to stop for some ice cream on the way. Well, by the time we picked up the ice cream and got to the park, a lot of the ice cream melted. When I removed the top part it all came down and made a big sticky mess. Luckily we were outside so it wasn't messy anywhere I had to clean up.

This was Boston's first time feeding the ducks. He loved it. He would throw a couple pieces to the ducks, then he's take a piece for himself.

Then we played on the toys at the Layton Park.
We had such a fun time!

3 kids

2 days of fun

1 tired aunt

Weekend in Vegas

2009-08-02T13:47:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we had the opportunity to go to Las Vegas with Zariph's parents and neice, Teliece. We had a lot of fun and it actually wasn't as hot as I had prepared myself for. On Friday, we bought a Power Pass which lets you do a lot of fun things, as much as you can cram into one day, all for one price. (The more you do, the more you save.) We went to the Natural History Museum, the zoo, the wax museum, Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden, a pet comedy show, and a fun center that had arcade games and race cars. Teliece and I even sang karaoke at the wax museum on the American Idol stage. We went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, rode the New York, New York rollercoaster, and went to the AdventureDome at Circus Circus. Saturday, we went outlet shopping (so fun after you've just dropped 20 pounds and 4 sizes!) and Sunday we drove back home.

Our 4th of July

2009-07-12T19:55:00.000-07:00

I know a little late, but here it is anyway...

For the Fourth, we went down to Colorado to celebrate with Zariph's sister, Misty and her family. On the fourth, we went to a local lake. It had a nice park area with a beach and an area roped off for swimming, then it also had an area for boating and jet skiis. It was really nice weather and fun being in the water. If it got too hot, we'd just go for a swim. I think Boston had fun, too. He really liked the water floaty, and it was nice for me, too, because I didn't have to hold him, and he had his own shade.
Then that night, we went over to Misty's house and did our own little fireworks show.

Boston was so funny with the fireworks, he would ohh and ahh, it was way cute. Here's a video clip, the first part is kind of cute.

Then on Sunday, we went for a hike to Devil's Kitchen. It's only a 3/4 mile hike, so it was just about perfect. It was really pretty scenery. Here's Misty, holding up the walls...

Hello, Dolly!

2009-07-01T10:43:00.001-07:00

We had a fun night last night! Rachael's mom got tickets for "Hello, Dolly!" and let both of her daughters bring a friend. The play was great, very entertaining. It was funny in a lot of parts, but also had a good message. I'd seen parts of it before for school field trips, but this was the first time I saw the whole thing. Afterwards, we got some pictures with the actors. It was a great night. Thanks, Rachael!

Hello, New Friend!

2009-06-13T15:17:00.001-07:00

Well, we quickly found a newer car that was an awesome deal, so we had to jump on it. We just sold our Audi on Monday and after "sharing" one car for a few days, we were ready to look for another car. So Thursday evening, after I went to the gym, I picked up Zariph from work. We dropped off some things at his parents house, went to dinner at Fazoli's, then called to look at a few cars. We only got a hold of one place that happened to be very close to our house. They were advertising for a Kia Rio, which we weren't totally extatic about, but it was cheap, so I wanted to at least look at it. I'm glad that we looked. It was a small car lot and he had a bunch of other cars, all at great prices. This Pontiac Grand Prix caught our eye. The interior was nicer than all the others we've looked at. It has leather interior, heated seats, a lot of nice little extras. It's similar to our Audi, but less miles, 2 years newer (it's a 2004) and we still ended up saving about $1500 from selling our Audi.So, Thursday night we went home, researched about it, thought about it, prayed about it, and slept on the idea. We knew we'd have to act fast, because it was priced so low, and the guy had only bought it about a week before from an auction, he had only had it listed for like two days. And we knew people would look at it over this weekend. So, Friday morning, Zariph called him from work and made an offer. They worked out the price and we were going to go pay for it after Zariph got off work at 3:30. In the meantime, there were two other people that wanted to come look at it. The guy called Zariph and told him if we can go get the cashier's check, then he'll tell everyone that it's already sold. So, I went down to the bank, got the cashier's check and called up the dealer. He said we could still wait and come at 3:30 like we planned and that he'd mark it as sold.
So, we're now the proud owners of a 2004 Pontiac Grand Prix!

Day 7

2009-06-13T15:10:00.001-07:00

School Baby Shower:

This is my final day of scrapbooking (for a little while). I'm all out of pictures, I'll have to print some more and go back and do all the journaling. But I definitely will challenge myself again, it's probably the only way I'll get caught up.

Day 5 & 6

2009-06-12T21:25:00.000-07:00

I missed scrapbooking yesterday, but I made up for it tonight. I got two layouts done. Yeah!

Boston's First Week:

Boston's First Month:

I'm thinking of putting a title or something on it that says "The many faces of Boston", but I'm not sure yet...

Day 4

2009-06-10T16:04:00.000-07:00

Relief Society Baby Shower

Day 3

2009-06-09T15:29:00.000-07:00

Family Baby Shower

Today, I also worked on the cover for Boston's DVD. Here are the outside,

inside,

and DVD menu.

Goodbye, Old Friend

2009-06-09T07:40:00.001-07:00

It finally happened. We sold our Audi! We've been trying to sell it off and on the last two years. It's good that we sold it, we got an okay price for it. But I'll miss driving it, especially in the snow. It was a nice car. It's gone with us on a lot of vacations, and we have a lot of memories with it.

The story of how we got it is a little unique. We had been looking for a luxury car online and dreaming about getting one. We were looking online on a Friday in October 2005 and found a good deal, but it was out in Georgia. Zariph talked to the guy who owned it on the phone and we decided to fly out there and look at it and probably buy it. So Friday night we booked one way tickets for both of us to Georgia. We flew out EARLY Saturday morning. I think we left our house around 4 a.m. We landed in Georgia later that afternoon. A guy from the car place picked us up from the airport. We looked at the car, took it for a test drive and decided it was the car for us. So, we paid for it, filled it up with gas (around $80 for the tank-gas was really expensive there) and off we drove headed for St. Louis, to spend the night. I think we drove until 1 or 2 a.m. The next day we were going to relax a little and tour around St. Louis, but Zariph accidentally booked our hotel in Denver for the wrong night. We had to drive all the way to Denver that day! So another long day of driving. That night was the scariest snow storm I had ever been in. I couldn't even watch the road, I'm glad Zariph was driving. I had to occupy myself with other things because I was so scared. There were a lot of people pulling over and spending the night in their cars. That's when I was first glad that our new car had all wheel drive. (It doesn't look like much in the picture, but the night before in the mountain was way worse!)Luckily, we made it to Denver safe and sound. I heard that they closed that road just after we made it through. So, it's good we came a day early. The next day we finished our big adventure and made it home with our new car!

Day 2

2009-06-09T07:34:00.000-07:00

Here is the layout I finished yesterday. It's missing one picture still that I need to reprint for the upper left hand corner. I accidentally printed it too big, and it's really pixely. (Notice the metal tags on the right side?)

I'm so excited that my tag curler that I ordered from Crop Chocolate came yesterday. Yeah! I'm so excited to use this to make cute cards.

Rainy Day

2009-06-08T06:30:00.001-07:00

I really enjoyed the rainy day yesterday. It was nice to just stay inside and spend some time scrapbooking. Zariph played with Boston for a few hours, while I scrapbooked. When I got out my pictures to see what was next, I realized I was pretty much exactly a year behind. I thought I was getting caught up, but time is going faster than I'm scrapbooking it. So...this week it's my goal to scrapbook at least a two page layout everyday on average (minus the journaling). I will post photos so you can all enjoy the pages too. Here's yesterday's page:

I covered chipboard with paper for the title. The chipboard I got really cheap from the expo and wasn't sure if I was going to use it. It took a while to do the title. Once I replaced my xacto knife blade, it went a little faster. Does anyone know a good adhesive to stick the paper onto the chipboard? I just used my adhesive runner, but it doesn't get in all the corners. I was wondering if the spray adhesive would work. Anyone try it?

I also used some glittery flowers that I got in a little pack from the expo. I love glitter, and this piece was already put together and ready to go. So, no mess for me.

I still need to journal on it, but other than that it's done.

The week in photos

2009-06-07T15:26:00.001-07:00

We've had a fun week!

Wednesday we went to the Splash Pad.

We also celebrated our 9th Anniversary on Wednesday. Zariph surprised me by bringing me home flowers.Then we dropped off Boston at the in-laws and went to The Melting Pot for dinner.

Friday, we went to the Dinosaur Park. It was my first time going. It was pretty neat. Boston really liked looking at the dinosaurs. He wasn't even afraid of the moving ones. He just tried to talk to them.

Arctic Circle

2009-05-29T15:00:00.000-07:00

Today I needed to go visit my sister and get the pictures she took at Boston's Birthday Party. She was going out to lunch with my sister-in-law and invited me to come along too. Boston was glad to see Jacqueline, he had to sit right next to her (they kept taking each others' fries). Anyway, here are some goofy pictures of the event. Oh, and this is the first time I ordered something specifically for Boston - his first Kid's Meal! I got the mini corndogs for him, he liked the corn bread part, but I think all of the hotdog pieces ended up on the floor.

Make sure to keep scrolling to my other posts I added today...

Splash Pad Fun

2009-05-29T14:25:00.000-07:00

I was so excited to go to the splash pad. We went once last year, but Boston was only a couple of months old, so he didn't really get to enjoy it. This time, he was excited at first, then was kind of iffy about it, then the last two times we got into the water, he REALLY LOVED it! I'm sure he will be way excited when we get to go back. Next time I will have to remember to have someone else put sunblock on my back, because I didn't get it good enough by myself and am now dealing with the pain of my foolishness - I hate being sunburned.

Memorial Day Continued

2009-05-29T14:17:00.000-07:00

So, after the aquarium we stopped by a little park in Sandy and had a picnic. The weather was great and I was glad I made lunch rather than eating out.

Then we came home, Boston napped and Zariph finished installing a new chandelier in our entryway. Then we went to a BBQ at a neighbors house. Boston made some new friends! They were so cute with him, and he loved this little playhouse.And here is our cute family picture of the three of us in our matching shirts. (We'll probably have a similar picture for the 4th of July-stay tuned.)

The Aquarium

2009-05-28T11:43:00.000-07:00

For Memorial Day, we decided to go down to the aquarium in Sandy. It was pretty cool. It had lots of cool murals painted on the walls and the tanks were decorated pretty neat. Boston loved it! He would squill in delight when he first saw the fish. He was sometimes afriad of the fish, it was cute!

Boston's First Birthday

2009-05-22T07:45:00.000-07:00

We had Boston's Birthday Party last Saturday. It was fun. We grilled hamburgers and had family bring the side dishes. The food was great! I think Boston had a lot of fun, although it doesn't really look like it from the pictures. Hopefully, other people got some good pictures. It was such nice weather, it was a perfect day. I made the cake. It was my first time making something creative out of the cake. It turned out okay. Enjoy the pictures.

Boston's First Year

2009-05-18T08:05:00.000-07:00

This is the video I made of Boston's first year.

Coming soon: A post and pictures from his birthday party.

TEETH!!!

2009-05-06T06:27:00.000-07:00

When I was feeding Boston lunch after church last Sunday I noticed two little white things sticking out from his bottom gums! What I thought was a reaction to missing his binky (whining and sticking his fingers in his mouth) must have been him teething. It wasn't so bad, I hope he's that good with the rest of his teeth.

I've been into grilled chicken lately, since I've been trying to lose weight. I saw this coupon for KFC that is available to print today only, but good until the 19th. It's a totally free meal, you can print up to four. http://www.unthinkfc.com/

Where Has the Time Gone?

2009-04-29T16:24:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted so this will be a little catch up...

First here is the five things that Boston has to have in his room:

(He was tagged by Hayden)

1. His binky. He loves his binky! I'm starting to take it away during the daytime, now that he's getting a little older. But he really gets whiny when he wants it.

2. Mr. Potato Head Collection. His favorite is Darth Mash (pretty scary in his bunny slippers).

This is when I discovered he could reach the top of the dresser from his crib...

And he can reach the laundry basket. He grabs anything he can get his hands on...

(Back to the list.)

3. His super soft blankies. He's had these since he was first born. Now he rubs his face into the softness.

4. The lantern that both he and his birthmom have. We bought it to remind both of us, that sometimes you have to step forward into the darkness and have faith that the Lord will light the way.

5. Boston Red Sox stuff - this isn't all of it, but this is the stuff that is out right now.

It's been almost two weeks now, but I wanted to post these pictures from when we met Rachael, Hayden, and Kimmy at the park. It was a little chilly, but still fun.

Then this is us enjoying the warmer weather in Rachael's backyard.

I'm glad it's starting to warm up. Boston really enjoys being outside. It's nice to be able to get out every once in a while and feel the sunshine.

Also, these last couple of weeks I started a new job at Sylvan Learning Center. I am a teacher/tutor there. So far, the schedule has been nice. Only a couple days a week for two or three hours each day. I'm trying to get four hours each day, but it's not that busy yet. It should really pick up in the summer, I hear.

Boston's First Easter

2009-04-16T06:27:00.000-07:00

For Easter Weekend we visited Misty (Zariph's sister) in Colorado. Boston was so good in the car. We hooked up our portable DVD player to see if he would like that. During some parts of the movies he would laugh, so I guess he enjoyed it. I tried to teach Boston "peek-a-boo", and he's starting to get it.

At dinner on Saturday night Boston looked right at Roy and did peek a boo perfectly (covering his eyes and pulling his hands away quickly). That made the whole table laugh. We had a fun time in Colorado just hanging out, coloring easter eggs, and spending time together. Although, I was hoping the weather would be nicer than it was. Zariph made up an egg hunt with clues that the girls had to decipher and bought fun little prizes for them. The girls were so excited that I would jump on the trampoline with them. ( I needed some excersize from eating out all weekend.) We went shopping on Saturday and Zariph saw these blocks that he thought would be really fun for Boston. He loved to tear down what Zariph and Destiny made.Sunday morning Saphire and Destiny looked for the 80 eggs the Easter Bunny hid. I'm not sure if they found them all. They were hid in some weird places.

Boston loved what the Easter Bunny left for him. Hmmm, didn't he play with those blocks the night before?

This is Boston in his "Easter outfit". It was a little cold for shorts, but he didn't wear them all day. The shorts kept falling off of him when he'd stand up anyway. Both the onesie and shorts are 18 months, so they'll fit him this summer.

After church on Sunday, we went to one of Roy's relative's house for lunch. From there we headed out on the road back home

Changes

2009-04-02T13:00:00.000-07:00

This week I decided to set up a new scrapbooking space for me...

Boston is not napping as long now, and it's been hard to get anything done while he is awake. He always wants to be right by me. Even sometimes when we're in the same room together he just wants to be held. But, at least I can scrapbook a little at a time while he is playing. I can't scrapbook where all my stuff is because that is also the computer room. Boston loves buttons and cords, so he is quickly attracted to everything I don't want him to touch. So this works out good. Hopefully now I can get some pages completed.

Here is a video I took of Boston this morning. He has pulled himself up before, but I think he gets scared of falling, so he's a little more cautious.

Scrapbook Expo

2009-03-27T15:47:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know this happened a week ago...I feel like I've been out of it all week, Boston's been sick (three weeks now) and I got sick again yesterday. I ended up taking Boston to the doctor Wednesday and both ears were infected. Poor little guy. So, I've been giving him amoxicillin (which he loves!) and hopefully he'll feel better soon...

Anyway, about the expo. It was a blast, it always is. Rachael and I did early bird again. We went even earlier this time. I was up before 5 a.m., and ready by 5:30. I must have been excited to go, because I am not a morning person. We were in line at 6:45, to sit around a wait until the doors opened at 9 a.m. We met some interesting people in line :)

We found a new favorite company - Fancy Pants. The highlight of my day was getting Madison's autograph. He used to work for My Mind's Eye, then last expo he wasn't there, now he works for Fancy Pants. This picture was taken a year ago when I won the raffle at MME, and since I was scrapbooking it and he was there, my mom and Julie, told me to get his autograph. Silly, I know...

I completed 12 pages - pictures only, I still need to journal and embellish them.

This is all the stuff I bought - three paper packs, eight cat eyes, three packs of acrylic stamps, felt (way cute dinosaur cutouts), four packs of chipboard, a lacing card kit, some blackboard letters and shapes, two metal signs, stickers... I think that's everything. The whole day cost $120 - That's for the early bird ticket ($20), lunch ($1.60 - thanks to Julie's coupons), Cold Stone ($2), and all my stuff. What a fun day!

Free Week Long Vacation

2009-03-18T15:59:00.000-07:00

Is anyone interested in a free vacation? (well, the lodging anyway) I am having a party at my house next Thursday, March 26 from 6:30 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Just for coming you get a free 8 day, 7 night stay at a condo at one of the following places:
o Orlando, Fl
o Daytona Beach, Fl
o Destin, Fl.
o Kauai, Hawaii
o Big Island, Hawaii
o Myrtle Beach, SC
o Breckenridge, Co.
o Frisco, Co.
o Branson, Mo.
o Gatlinburg, Tn.
o Wisconsin Dells
o Las Vegas, NV
o Santa Fe, NM
o Cancun, Mexico
o Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
By the way, airfare is really cheap right now.
Yes, it will be a bit of a sales pitch, but I really like this company. It's called Global Travel, and Zariph and I bought into it about six years ago, and have not been disappointed. I think it's the best condo company out there - the most reasonably priced anyway. It sounded like a good deal and we wanted to try it out, so we first started with just one week a year, which we purchased for $1000. Since then we have purchased more weeks, and used them all every year. The maintenance fees are around $350 per year (our contract is that if we don't want to use it for a year or two, then we don't have to pay the yearly fee that year). And then each week that we use is $89 when we book it. We love staying in condos because it's so nice to have all the things I'm used to from home - a kitchen, laundry, etc. And sometimes we've stayed with family and we can get a two or three bedroom condo. The extra space is nice.
If you are at all interested in learning more, please come. Both spouses need to attend, and they'd prefer that children don't come. If nothing else, you can at least line up a free vacation. And I think there will only be one salesman for the whole group, so it won't be that much pressure. Please leave a comment if you would like to come, so I know how many to count on.

Cleaning

2009-03-14T11:53:00.000-07:00

I'm so proud that I spent most of the day deep cleaning my house yesterday. I guess I'm getting into the spring cleaning a bit. And Boston's been sick all week, so I figured this may kill a few sick germs. Take a look at my wonderfully organized scrap space.

And I was able to finish up my sister-in-law's birthday present. I found this shelf on clearance at JoAnn's a long time ago and hadn't done anything with it, but with some vinyl lettering and personal pictures I think it turned out pretty cute. I hope she likes it.

Spring Fever

2009-03-05T16:56:00.001-08:00

Did anyone else love the 60 degree weather last Tuesday? I couldn't believe how warm it was and all the snow that melted. I had to get outside and take advantage of the warmth. Boston and I went on a walk to the park - his first time at the park. Then when we got home, Zariph was already home from work, so we went to the park again. Boston loved the slide. He kept leaning forward trying to go down by himself. I hope we have warm weather again soon.

My Latest Addiction

2009-03-03T12:42:00.000-08:00

I've been spending a lot of time lately on my new iPod Touch. Zariph gave it to me for my birthday and I'm a little addicted. I love that it holds all of our MP3s, photos for the last 5 years and 100s of games. There are a ton of free games, too. It's perfect for entertaining while waiting for doctor appointments, car repairs, etc. It even entertains Boston.

Cruise

2009-02-25T13:46:00.000-08:00

I'm back into the "blogging world" again. We got back from our cruise last Thursday night, but Zariph's been off work through yesterday (my birthday). So, I've been out having fun with Zariph and Boston. Today is our first day back to our normal schedule, so that gives me time to post - at least about the cruise. I may do another post about birthday celebrations later.
Anyway, we had a blast on our cruise. It was just a short four day cruise to Catalina and Ensenada. We left Boston with my mom. I was a little worried that I would miss him, but it was actually okay. I'm glad my mom was able to watch him and hopefully she had fun. Thanks, mom!
Sunday morning we headed out for the airport for our flight to San Diego. I had the window seat and was closely watching as we passed by everything, trying to recognize things and see where we were at. I thought we were about in central/southern Utah when all of a sudden I saw the Hoover Dam. I didn't know we were that far. I love looking at little miniature things, so it was neat to see the Hoover Dam from the air. After landing we picked up our bags, got a taxi to the port, and quickly went through the lines to get onto the ship. We stopped by our room to check it out and drop of our little bags we were carrying. Then off to our first buffet! We explored around the ship and checked out all the hallways, lounges, restaurants, decks, the spa, etc. The ship was built in 1998, which actually isn't that old, but it kind of had an older feel to it (maybe it was the bright orange doors that reminded me of The Brady Bunch). We had the late seating for dinner - 8:15 p.m. I thought that would be so late, but it actually works out better than the early seating because you can eat lunch and not worry about not being hungry for dinner. Our dinner table had six people at it: Allyssa and Brett from Buffalo, NY (they got engaged on the cruise on Monday) and Jennifer and Jesse from Phoenix, AZ (they have only been dating since December). It was very easy to talk with the people at our table. We were all about the same age so that was nice. That night there was a comedian show that was pretty funny.
Monday we were supposed to be in Catalina, but the port was close because it was so windy the water was choppy and it was too dangerous to load in the tenders to get over to Catalina. So that was changed to our Day at Sea. Since it was so stormy, the ship was really rocking. It made us both feel a little sick, Zariph was feeling worse than I did and he took a motion sickness pill that seemed to help. We just hung out around the ship and relaxed as much as we could. We got Monopoly from the library and played it next to a big window overlooking the ocean. That night was formal night for dinner. I didn't want to bring my formal dress, but I did wear my brown polka dot dress with jacket, which I think was dressy enough. They served lobster for dinner - Yummy! That night the dancers did the show in the Mikado Lounge.

Tuesday was our day in Catalina. We didn't have any excursions planned so we didn't worry about waking up early and getting off the ship, but maybe we should have gotten off earlier. We were ready to leave about 11, we ended up waiting in line for about 1/2 and hour without the line moving at all, before they told us they couldn't load anymore boats because the water was too rough. Apparently there were four boats just circling around with people on them because they couldn't unload in Catalina or back in the ship. At least I wasn't on one of those boats. So, we got out of line and walked around the ship a bit - out on the deck. It was nice to get some fresh air. Then we saw they were loading some boats so we went down to get in line. This time we only waited about 15 minutes and we were on the boat heading for Catalina. We did a bit of shopping on the main street, then we decided to rent a golf cart to drive around the island. I'm glad we did because it was a lot of fun. There's not much traffic in Catalina, so it was a really nice drive and very scenic. Plus we had a cover over our heads when it started to rain. We drove up through the mountain and saw some really pretty views. Our brakes kind of smelled weird, I wasn't sure if I trusted that they were good. The first part of the drive was fine, then when we went up through the mountain side and started coming back down, it got a little scary because there was a lot of sand on the road, it was starting to rain, and there was no fence on the side of the cliff to keep us from falling right off the side of the mountain. I was just praying those brakes would keep working. Luckily we made it back safely. We got to town a little before we needed to return the golf cart so we stopped by a little place and got some hot chocolate. It was nice sweatshirt weather, but when it started to rain, it got a little cold. The hot chocolate hit the spot.Wednesday was our day in Ensenada, Mexico. We woke up earlier and had breakfast in the restaurant. We had actually been to both of these ports before (on a cruise on our honeymoon). Last time in Ensenada we just shopped (haggled with the locals for cheap stuff). So, we were planning on doing that again. But, I kind of wanted to go to the blowhole - Bufadora. But the cruise was going to charge $35 per person for that tour, and I didn't think that was worth it. So, we got on the bus to go downtown to go shopping. On that ticket was a $5 off coupon for the Bufadora tour (original price $20). So, that was a good enough deal not to pass up. We bought both our tickets for less than Carnival was selling one. I was glad we were able to go, too. It was actually really neat.

As the water rises it starts to fill in this little cave, then when the pressure inside gets too much, it blows out the top. Sometimes the water sprayed really high, sometimes lower, but it happened about every minute. The weather was a lot nicer this day, it was sunny and really nice to be outside. The salespeople were very pushy and it was hard to bargain for a great deal. But, we still bought some things. I bought a "cowgirl" hat - the cute kind that looks all beat up and weathered - for $10 haggled down from $20. And we bought a Boston Red Sox Mexican style poncho for about $25 haggled from like $70. Unfortunately, somehow the poncho got a hole worn into it in our travels getting it back home. We spent three hours at the blowhole and shopping and then got back on the bus for the 45 minute ride back to the port. When we got back to the ship we ate lunch then had a little nap. That night the dancers did another show.
Thursday was our last day, we were off the ship by 10 a.m., but our flight didn't leave until 4:20 p.m. So, we started walking along the sidewalk by the beach, with our luggage and everything. It could have easily been 90 degrees, it was so hot! The airport was only about 1 1/2 miles from the cruise ship port, and by the time we were ready to get in a taxi to go to the airport, it felt like we were almost there, so we just kept walking. Actually about the time I was really too hot and tired, and pilot walked right by us pulling his luggage (obviously walking to the airport also). So that at least gave me hope that we were close. We walked to the first terminal and then hopped on the shuttle to get to our terminal (that saved us $15). We still had about 4 hours to wait at the airport, but eventually we loaded the plane to come back home.
Vacations go by so fast, we're always trying to come up with a way to make vacations last longer. We've found that time waiting in an airport goes slowly, so maybe our next vacation we'll spend the whole time in the airport. I've also suggested we could do nothing but sit and stare at each other, time may go slower that way.

The Gateway

2009-02-13T14:50:00.001-08:00

Last Wednesday night we went down to the Gateway for some "Mystery Shopping" jobs. We first went to dinner at Red Lobster. I have been craving crab ever since the buffet in Vegas, so this was great. Lately Boston has been sticking his fingers in his mouth and then gagging and coughing afterwards. I keep taking his hands out of his mouth, but he just loves to do it. So, while we were eating dinner and Boston was just playing in his carrier, we found out that his fingers are indeed long enough to make himself throw up. It was lovely, luckily he had just had a bottle, so it wasn't that bad. Also, when we were in Vegas we let Boston try a lemon. He's so funny with any new food, he always makes the funniest faces. But with the lemon, there was no reaction. So, then at Red Lobster we have him a lemon and I actually got a picture. He sucks on it like he loves it. He's funny.

After dinner we headed down to the Gateway for my jobs, then we played at the apple store (Zariph wants an iPod Touch for his birthday). Right when we walked out they started the fountain show...who needs the Bellagio when you've got the Gateway fountains :) And we enjoyed the show sitting by the firepit. The Gateway is a pretty place, all in all it was a fun night.

Honest Scrap

2009-02-13T14:41:00.000-08:00

This was a tag from Jen....
10 honest things about me:
1. I love to sleep in.
2. I love to play games.
3. I like it when my house is clean.
4. I don't like cleaning toilets.
5. If I'm not going anywhere for the day I won't do my hair or makeup (but I always shower).
6. I am a Mystery Shopper - I just signed up about 3 weeks ago and have done 8 jobs and earned $75.
7. I love scrapbooking and crafting.
8. I really don't know how to cook, but I'm trying to learn (especially since I got my new stove).
9. I'm a bit of a pack rat, although I go through spurts when I like to clean out my stuff.
10. I buy stuff when it's a good deal, even if I don't use it. Hello, scrapbook expo!
I tag...anyone that wants to.

Scattergories

2009-02-13T14:35:00.000-08:00

I got this email from Rachael, and I decided to do it as a post. So here it is...
Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following. They have to be real places, names, things.. nothing made up! Try to use different answers if the person in front of you had the same 1st initial. You CAN'T use your name for the boy/girl name question. *

*WHAT IS YOUR NAME:* Lisa
*BOY NAME* Larry
*4 LETTER WORD:* Love
*GIRL NAME:* Lily
*OCCUPATION:* Lawyer
*A COLOR:* Lavendar
*SOMETHING YOU WEAR:* Leggings
*BEVERAGE:* Lemonade
*FOOD:* Lettuce
*SOMETHING FOUND IN A BATHROOM: * Lipstick
*A PLACE :* Layton
*REASON FOR BEING LATE:* Left late
*SOMETHING YOU SHOUT:* Look out!

Anyone else that wants to can also do this.

We're Getting Close!

2009-02-04T08:36:00.000-08:00

Boston is getting closer to crawling. He's able to stay up on his knees for a little while now. So, hopefully soon...

PS - I'm excited for our second yoga class, this Thursday night at 7, again at Tobin's house.

The Ten Best Things About Las Vegas

2009-01-28T15:03:00.001-08:00

10. The Venetian

9. Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood

8. Palm trees

7. M & M World

6. In-N-Out

5. Fremont Street

4. Carnival World Buffet at The Rio

3. Outlet Shopping

2. The Fountains at Bellagio

1. 60 and 70 degree weather in January

This was kind of a spur of the moment trip...We stayed for free at a condo, at a request that I put in a year ago and didn't hear anything back about until last week. So we decided to go for it. The weather was wonderful when we got there, but got pretty cold (like 40's and 50's) on Monday. We also went to the condo presentation and got $125 (that doesn't make the top 10). But that gave us money to spend at the outlets. We found some great bargains at The Children's Place, most of the clothes we bought for Boston were $1-2! We bought 17 things for $50. And I found some great deals for me at Lee and Aeropostale. A sweater was $60, on sale for $6! The most I spent on one item was $10. It was awesome. I'm set for a little while now...

Crafty Thursday

2009-01-15T21:42:00.000-08:00

Well, it's probably time for me to go to bed, but I was so excited about the binky ribbons I made today. (Sorry, Christie, I totally stole your design, but the ribbon was so cute...)I didn't do the math when I was buying the snaps, I will have to go buy more snaps for the rest of the ribbon.He's so excited, can't you tell?
The three little ones wait patiently, as their mother's craft (ha, ha)...

Baby Boston

2009-01-06T11:00:00.000-08:00

I took some photos of Boston today and I think they turned out pretty cute. I'm debating getting "professional" pictures of him, because I have all the equipment to do a decent job, should I still take him in somewhere?

Christmas Day

2009-01-05T16:39:00.001-08:00

Okay, so I will feel a little more caught up after this posting. Christmas was great. Boston was happy and cute. He loved opening the presents. He would peel a little of the paper off, and we would help him with the rest. We woke up around 7:30, and opened our presents here at home. Then we went up to my mom's house to exchange gifts with my family and for brunch. It was snowing pretty bad, I was glad we still had our Audi that has AWD. Then we headed back for home, we got things cleaned up just a bit, then Zariph's parents, grandma, and Teliece came over to exchange gifts. Zariph always has a surprise for me, so I wasn't surprised to only open a few gifts in the morning. He likes to pretend like that's all, and then somehow get me to find the rest...So, he casually invites everyone downstairs. Hmmm, for what? Well, he reached in the cedar chest and it had more presents! He wanted me to think they were all for Boston, which I kind of believed him because now he has two people to spoil. The first gift was for Boston, then the rest were for me. Although, he kept saying, "I think this one is for Boston..." Anyway, it was a great Christmas. I felt a little bad because Zariph didn't have a lot to open on Christmas becasue we bought him skis and all the equipment to go with that, which he's using already. But it was fun. Then when his parents were leaving, there was one more gift upstairs that magically appeared, so I opened it. It was a paper that had a picture of a new stove and oven on it, with "Merry Christmas" written across the top. I was so excited, I've been wanting a new oven for a long time! To top it off, it's top of the line - Electrolux.

It's awesome! It has touch screen buttons across the front, 5 burners with two or the burners adjustable sizes, it's flat top. And the shelves slide in and out so easily. I love it. It came in last Monday and Zariph installed it and it's up and running. We used to have a wall oven (I think it was new when the house was built in 1972!), which we took out. So installing the new oven involved cutting countertops and cabinets and moving some things around. We installed a little pantry with sliding shelves were the old oven used to be.

I cook all the time now. Zariph is quite the handy man.

Christmas in Colorado

2009-01-05T16:09:00.001-08:00

Yeah, I'm finally posting about Christmas. The weekend before Christmas we went down to Colorado for a Christmas party at Misty's and for Destiny's baptism. We left Thursday after Zariph got off work. Friday we just hung out and went shopping. We decorated cookies Friday evening. Saturday, Zariph, Miranda, and Roy all went skiing. It was Miranda's first time snowboarding. Boston got sick from something and ended up throwing up everything he ate all day Saturday. It was a little scary for me, but he was not acting sick. Even when I was changing him out of his thrown up clothes, he was laughing. Zariph's parents and Teliece came down on Saturday. Saturday night was our Christmas party. Misty made a big turkey with all the sides, she really went all out. Roy let out that there was someone coming at 8:15, but Misty quickly stopped him from saying anything else. So, the joke the whole evening was trying to figure out who was coming at 8:15. Misty said that we would want to be thirsty...We had a fun party, we read from Luke chapter 2, then we played the candy bar game, they bought Boston "Puffs" instead of candy, that was thoughtful of them. Then the girls sang a few Christmas songs for us, and we exchanged presents. It was nearing 8:15 and we were all getting curious and asking a lot of questions. She said it was something we've never done before, at least together. I thought maybe Santa was coming, but he came to our party a few years ago. I thought maybe it was a hay ride and we were drinking hot chocolate. We also thought maybe it was some sort of drinking contest. Zariph's mom thought Frosty was coming, and then he'd melt and we had to drink him all up...Anyway, around 8:20 we looked outside and saw a Hummer limo! They rented a limo for us all to ride around and look at Christmas lights together. I couldn't believe it, I was not expecting that at all. It was awesome! We were all really excited. The thirsty part was that the drinks in the limo were included, so she wanted us to drink all that we could. It was a neat experience. I was nervouse that Boston would throw up while we were out, or cry too much because he was hungry, but he really did okay. He cried a bit, but slept most of the time. We rode around for two hours and looked at some neat light displays. There was one house that had their own radio station and the lights were synchronized to go with the music. It was a memorable night. Then Sunday we went to church, and afterwards was Destiny's baptism. She asked Zariph to baptize her. After that baptism Misty had an open house at her house, we ate quickly and packed up the car to come back home. We left about 6 p.m. I thought it was going to be an awful drive through the mountains and with it being dark and we would be tired. But surprisingly, the drive was fast and I wasn't too tired. Zairph drove the whole way, Boston and Miranda slept in the back the whole way, and we didn't even stop. It really was a pretty good drive.

The Melting Pot

2008-12-16T07:20:00.000-08:00

Last Friday night we met my family in Salt Lake. We planned on meeting at the lights at Temple Square and then going to The Melting Pot for dessert afterwards. But traffic was horrible and we couldn't find a place to park. The rest of my family saw the lights, but Zariph, Boston, and I just looked from our car :) But we still met up for dessert afterwards. It was YUMMY!

Hannah and Boston

My mom and Mike

Jacqueline, Emily, and Cameron

Eliza and me

Eliza wanted to make a funny face for the camera.

Zariph, Lindsay, and Jake

Lindsay's a goofball!

How inappropriate! (She was just kidding)

Julie, Hannah, and Eliza

This picture cracks me up, Boston has the funniest look on his face!

All gone! It was soooo good. We got two pots at our table-Milk Chocolate Cookies and Cream and Dark Chocolate with Peanut Butter. I loved the selection of dippers - brownies, strawberries, bananas, rice krispie treates, cheesecake, marshamellows...I'm starting to get hungry.

Christmas Time

2008-12-10T14:17:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday we took Boston to see Santa. I was really wanting a picture with Boston and Santa. I'm glad Boston smiled cute, I just wish Santa looked a little happier! This week I've been busy making cards. Here's what I have finished so far...
There's five of each design. Zariph helped me send the cards through the printer, so inside we printed a message and a picture.

And here's our little eater! This week Boston has been a little whiny, usually he's so happy. So I wasn't sure if he was teething or getting sick or what. I was feeding him a whole container of the 2nd baby foods, twice a day with three bottles of 7 oz each daily. I thought that was plenty. But he was happiest right after he ate the baby food. So, I think he was just hungry, I've had to bump up to three containers of baby food per day! He's no longer happy with just a bottle. He's a growing boy!
Yesterday, I fed him while I ate lunch. Usually, he keeps pretty clean, but while I was taking bites of my food, he managed to get his hand in his mouth and rub it all over his face. What a funny boy...

Thanksgiving Trip

2008-12-04T08:16:00.001-08:00

For Thanksgiving we went to Zariph's sister, Misty's, house in Colorado. Zariph was able to take the whole week off from work, so we were down there all week. It was fun just relaxing and hanging out. We went to Roy's parents house for our Thanksgiving meal. Then we came back to Misty's for dessert and craft time. We made the cute wood blocks (thanks Mindy for the idea!). Even Saphire and Destiny were able to make a wood block without too much help. Then Friday morning we left the house at 4 a.m. to shop on Black Friday. We took Boston with us because Zariph and Roy were going skiing all day. But, as usual, Boston was great! He would whine a little when he was hungry, but other than that he would just sleep in the stroller, or smile and laugh at people as they were shopping. Our first stop was Kohl's, where we waited in line for about an hour. Then we went to Walmart (after it was open for about an hour) so it wasn't too crazy. Then we went to Michael's. Then to the Mall for Sport's Authority, Target, and Herberger's. I got almost all of my shopping done! We got home about noon. Then we all took a nap for a few hours. It was a fun trip.

Our Eternal Family

2008-11-17T13:23:00.001-08:00

I feel a little relieved now that our busy weekend is over.

Saturday morning we were able to have Boston sealed to us. It was a wonderful day! I put Boston in his white outfit the night before to make sure it fit (I had to hem the pants without a sewing machine), so I was prepared for what he was going to look like. But when I first caught a glimpse of him when I was walking into the sealing room and he was sitting on one of the temple workers lap in another room, he just looked so good. I started to get a little teary eyed. Then I walked into the sealing room and there were so many people! I felt so loved. Zariph's parents and my mom and Mike were there, also Julie, Jake, Lindsay, and Cameron, Aunt Eula and Uncle Larry, my grandma, friends from our ward, Rachael and Jesse, and my high school friends, Mindy and Tracy and her husband Matt. It was wonderful kneeling across the alter (again) from Zariph and then having Boston placed on the alter it was just so neat.

After the sealing we took a bunch of photos. We had our photographer friend Rachael, take the pictures. I can't wait to see them, I think they turned out good. I wish Boston would have smiled a little more, he was pretty tired by this point.

Then we all went to lunch at Sizzler. We reserved the banquet room so we could all sit together. I think it turned out well.

Then Sunday we had Boston's blessing. Zariph did a wonderful job, I was really impressed that he put that much details into what he said. Then we had an open house at our house afterwards. It was a fun weekend, but very busy. I'm glad to go back to "normal" life now.

I took Boston in for his 6 month check up this morning. He's 17 lbs. and 28 inches! He also got his shots and he's been sleeping since we got home 2 1/2 hours ago! I know he's wiped out from all the excitement this weekend, too.

It's Official!!!

2008-11-13T09:58:00.000-08:00

Case closed...Boston is now officially ours. We went to court this morning. Our lawyer was great. He works often with LDS Family Services, so he knew everything to ask and it went really smoothly. I wasn't really too nervous, because I was pretty sure everything would go well, but you never know for sure. It was so great to hear as the jugde was officially granting Boston to be ours. I got a little teary-eyed, but it was still good. Our caseworker, Marissa, took the stand first. Zariph and I sat at the table in the front and got to answer our questions from the table. Our lawyer just verified when we were married, where we lived, if we loved Boston like he's ours, and if we intend on raising him and paying for everything for him, etc. All we had to say was "yes".

Then after we got home I wanted to take some pictures of Boston. So, I pulled out the backdrop and tried to get some cute ones. He's so into rolling right now, it was hard to get him to stay in one place.

He's such a cutie, we're so glad to have him as part of our family!

Our Trip to California

2008-11-04T16:54:00.000-08:00

This is really long, but if you want all the details, here they are...
We left on Friday morning, the 24th, around 6:30 a.m. We picked up Miranda from her Dad’s house in West Jordan and were on our way to Las Vegas. We stopped in Washington (by St. George) at In N Out for lunch. We met up with Misty and her family here. Then we continued on our way to Tahiti Village in Las Vegas. We got there about 1 p.m. The condo was very nice. It had nice, new furnishings and décor. There was a flat screen tv in the master bedroom and a full kitchen. We split the condo with Misty and her family. There was even a little kitchenette on her side. Our bathroom was really nice with double sinks, a jetted tub, and separate shower/steam shower. We went swimming pretty soon after arriving. Their pool area was awesome! It had a lot of different areas; it had one part with sand. It was a lot of fun. Friday night we went to Cheesecake Factory in Caesar’s Palace, then walked out to the Bellagio Fountains. Destiny was so excited when they started. It was cool. Then we went down to Fremont Street and saw the light show that’s up above the street. It was the same Queen one that we saw when we came down three weeks ago. But it was still pretty cool.
Saturday morning we met up with Zariph’s parents at Denny’s that was part of Tahiti Village. Then we began our drive to San Diego. We stopped by Ontario Mills, some really good outlets. We ended up staying about 8 hours. Everyone ended up buying something. We found a cute white tux that Boston can wear at the temple and at his blessing in November. I also found some cute sweaters and nice clothes that he can wear to church this winter (that’s something I was really looking for). We stayed in a hotel that night because our condo didn’t start until Sunday.
Sunday we woke up early to go to Disneyland. We drove about 1hour 15 minutes to get to Disneyland and met up with Zariph’s parents before the park opened around 8:40 a.m. When we were pulling up to the parking booth Zariph’s parents pulled up right behind us. After we parked, we found out that they had already circled the parking structure and surrounding streets twice and didn’t know where they were supposed to park. It was a little confusing so we were glad to guide them. Misty and her family didn’t meet up with us until later because they stayed up later getting everything situated in their condo. This was Boston’s first time in Disneyland. His very first ride was Pirate’s of the Caribbean. He was alert and really liked all the rides. I don’t think he cried all day. We took in the stroller so he could sleep when he needed to. Zariph wanted me to call in reservations for The Blue Bayou and Ariel’s Grotto for lunches both days we were going to be in Disneyland. They wouldn’t take a group as big as ours, so I had to call back and put it under two different names. I was making the reservation while we were in line for Alice and Wonderland and they finally answered and took my name and info when we got on the ride. I knew we were getting close to getting on, so I wanted to wait, but Zariph said it would be quieter inside the ride, than outside with all the people around. He was wrong. That ride was really loud inside, I’m sure the guy taking my name could hear Alice in the background. We went to lunch at Ariel’s Grotto in Disney’s California Adventure. We walked down the spiral staircase then had our picture taken with Ariel, she was in a gorgeous gown. Then we went to our table. It was a pretty fancy place. The adult meals were $32 and the children were $18, so it was a little pricey, but it was neat and really good food. They first served bread, then a three tiered thing of vegetables and fruits. I ordered the herb chicken. It was SO good. It was perfectly seasoned and really juicy, it came with red mashed potatoes – YUMMY! Zariph ordered the steak. It was good also. Then they brought out the dessert platter. Wow! It had the yummiest dessert I’ve ever had. There was white chocolate in the shape of a seashell with some fruit in it, little cheesecake bites, brownies, this really rich chocolate fudge cake, it was all delicious! Also, while we were eating, different princesses came out that we could talk to and take pictures with. We rode a lot of rides and got a lot of Fast Passes. We rode the new submarine ride for the first time, which was neat. And we saw fireworks that night. We stayed until about 10:30, and then checked into our condo. We were up late that night unpacking and checking out the condo.
Monday we went up to Universal Studios. It was a long drive, about 2 ½ hours from the condo. The best thing about that day was that we got free tickets. We got them because we’re part of their business fan club, through Specialty Videos. But we had to request them way in advance and we had to select the exact day and not change it. We rode all the rides and saw almost all the shows. Teliece was chosen from the audience to help with the animal show and to help with the sound stage. Destiny was chosen to help control Fluffy, this big monster that ends up coming to life and scaring everyone. We rode Jurassic Park a couple times – you get wet on that one, and I rode the Mummy Ride three times. It takes off really fast and goes backwards through some of it. It’s awesome! And of course we went on the back lot tour, they were actually filming Desperate Housewives while we were there. On the way out we stopped by some of the stores of City Walk, Zariph bought a shirt at Hard Rock Café and I bought a short sleeve hoodie.
Tuesday was our day to relax. We swam at the pool at our condo. It was pretty neat, there was a splash pad, two swimming pools, a hot tub, and a water slide. We also played ping pong and just hung out by the pool all morning. Then Roy, Misty, Zariph and I went out to dinner to Benihana’s while Miranda watched all the kids. We were planning on going to a movie too, but there wasn’t enough time. We drove around trying to get our Go San Diego cards for the next day, but we weren’t going to the right place and it was closed anyway. We went for dessert at Cheesecake Factory – Yummy!
Wednesday we drove down to get the Go San Diego cards, then realized that Legoland was only open Thursday-Monday, so we couldn’t use them until Thursday anyway. So we ended up going to cool open air shopping center in San Diego and going to the movies. We saw City of Ember. It was pretty good, but the sound wasn’t working at first, so we missed what was going on. But I still liked it. Then we went so some other outlets that were right by the US/Mexico border. They were nice outlets also. The Aeropostale was having an even better sale than the first outlets we went to – 2 shirts for $15 (at Ontario Mills it was 2 for $20 – and I split the deal with Misty). So I ended up buying two more from this one – what a great deal! Then we wanted to go to dinner at a Mexican restaurant. We drove by a few, but judging from the outside decided not to stop. Then we ended up going to El Torrito that was right next to Benihana’s. It worked out really well because Wednesday was Kid’s Eat Free Night. The kids even got dessert and a free sombrero, our waiter was really nice and funny, too.

Thursday we went back to Disneyland. Our original plan was to do their Trick-or-Treating this night. But, since it was $30 more per person we were kind of debating if it was worth it. I called to find out more about it and found out it was sold out, so we couldn’t do it anyway. We rode a lot of the kid rides in the morning, then we met at the Blue Bayou for lunch. I had the Monte Cristo – a ham and cheese deep fried sandwich that you dip in this yummy sweet sauce. Zariph had the steak. It was wonderfully delicious. This was a little cheaper that Ariel’s Grotto, but not much. Their rolls were really good, too. We bought a lot more souvenirs this day. It was fun buying things for Boston. Zariph bought Boston a cute hoodie and pants that had all the Disney characters as the Pirates of the Caribbean characters. It’s cute. We also bought Star Wars Mr. Potato Head – Luke Frywalker and Darth Mash – they were both 40% off. And Zariph bought a talking Crush, which was also 40% off.
Friday we did the Go San Diego Card. You get the card for one price then you can do as much as you can in one day. We went to the San Diego Zoo’s Wild Animal Park first thing. We rode their safari and saw a bunch of animals. It was neat because they put a lot of animals all together, obviously ones that don’t eat each other. It was set up pretty cool and it was huge. Next we went to Legoland. It was kind of neat because there is a lot of things made out of legos to look at, they had a life size car made out of legos, and big dinosaurs and people…the rides were okay, too, but kind of babyish. Then we headed down to San Diego to the Miramar Speed Circuit. That was really fun. We raced in these go carts that went up to 40 mph! I was a little scared, but didn’t take the corners very fast. I got in last place of the adults, just right above Destiny and Saphire. Zariph did the best out of our group. Then we changed into our Halloween costumes and headed out for Trick or Treating. We were going to meet up with Zariph’s parents and Teliece at Huntington Beach, but we were running behind schedule and trick or treating would have been over by the time we got there. So I called the nearest mall and they were doing trick or treating for the next hour. So, we hurried over there and it actually turned out to be really fun. The mall was really nice, it was an outside mall. I was dressed up as Tinkerbell, Boston was Peter Pan, Zariph was supposed to be Captain Hook, but he ended up not changing into his costume, and Miranda, Saphire, and Destiny were mermaids and pirates (we were all from Peter Pan). Some of the places gave out nice chocolate bars, but most gave out tootsie rolls and cheap candy. I was pleasantly surprised with how fun it turned out to be.
Saturday we were on our own because Misty and Zariph’s parents all headed home this day. We wanted to go to the beach, so we just looked for the closest beach in our GPS. It was the Carlsbad beach. It was really a fun beach. There were huge waves! People were surfing and boogie boarding, but it wasn’t too busy. There really weren’t that many people and the parking was free. It was really relaxing to just look out at the ocean and watch the waves come in. I went out towards the water and meant to get my feet wet, but of course a big wave came in and soaked the bottom of my shorts. Zariph was trying to rinse off his sandals and the water started to take them away from him, so he had to run out and get them. While he was doing this he jumped over a wave and my sunglasses fell out of his pocket. We watched for a little while, hoping they would turn up, but they didn’t. So, now my glasses are lost in the Pacific Ocean. But, that’s okay because they were cheap and they were too tight on my face. After the beach we wanted to go to the movie. We saw Eagle Eye after having lunch at In N Out. Boston did really well through the movie. He sat on my lap through the first half, then I fed him a bottle and he fell asleep. What a good boy! Saturday night we started packing things up and also did a couple loads of laundry at the condo. We went to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. It was really good.
Sunday we finished packing and loaded up the car. We went to my dad’s house and visited for about an hour, then went out to lunch at this fresh fish place that’s really good. We’ve been there with them before. Carol, Zariph and I all got the fresh salmon with garlic butter, and my dad got the battered fish tacos. YUMMY! You don’t get fresh fish like that here in Utah. This was my dad’s second time seeing Boston. He first saw him when he was only a couple weeks old, so he’s changed a lot. And it was Carol’s first time seeing him. They had fun holding him and showing him around their house. Then we began our drive back home. We were planning on stopping in Las Vegas or St. George, but when we saw that we’d be home around midnight, we decided to just drive all the way home. The drive was a little long, it was especially hard after it got dark. But, we made safe and sound and it was nice to wake up in our own house and still have all day Monday to get unpacked and everything settled again.

Fremont Street

2008-11-04T11:44:00.000-08:00

We're back from our California trip now. We had a blast. It was so fun. It will take me hours to look through all the pictures we took, so I'll post those soon, but until then, here's a little video of our dancing baby. This was down on Fremont Street in Las Vegas on our drive to California.
Sorry, you'll have to tilt your head. He does this when he hears loud music or sounds. Sometimes he'll get his legs and arms moving, too.

Costumes are Ready!

2008-10-21T06:48:00.000-07:00

Yeah, I'm so excited that our Halloween costumes are finally ready. I've been thinking about them for a long time. It's a big event, Boston's first Halloween. And we're going to be in Disneyland, so I had to make it good. Boston is Peter Pan, I am Tinkerbell, and Zariph is Captain Hook. My mom helped A LOT with getting these costumes ready. She totally made Boston's costume - isn't he cute? And helped alter mine so it was modest. I was glad to find a shirt that matched the costume perfectly that I could wear under it. It's a Downeast Basics shirt from Seagull, by the way that is a FUN store! I bought a couple of skirts there also.Also, last Wednesday was my grandma's birthday. Boston and I went to visit her, along with my mom, Eliza, Hannah, and my Aunt Eula and Uncle Larry. I made this little family chipboard project for her. I was so glad to have something on hand that was pretty easy to put together - that's one good thing about going to the Scrapbook Expo and buying everything! It was a fun afternoon and it was good to visit with family.

Pulling Faces

2008-10-15T20:30:00.001-07:00

I went over to my mom's for dinner on Sunday night. My little 16 month old niece was pulling the funniest faces, she was making us all laugh. Her mom would tell her to make a "surprised face"

a "mad face"

another "surprised face"

She had other faces too, it was hilarius.

Here's Boston's "happy face"

and "sleepy face".

Fat Cats

2008-10-12T15:49:00.000-07:00

Zariph's sister, Misty, was up visiting for the weekend. So Saturday night we took two of her girls to Fat Cats to play the arcade games. We had a fun time. Our favorite game to play was Deal or No Deal. Saphire won 101 tickets in one round! My big jackpot was 45. I picked out these cute slinky glasses for Boston with all of my tickets.

Las Vegas

2008-10-06T21:15:00.000-07:00

Zariph and I were wanting to go somewhere over the weekend, and we decided Las Vegas has lots of fun things to do, and it's not that far to drive. So, a couple of hours later we had our bags packed and were on the road. I've never been to Las Vegas over conference weekend before, they actually had conference on tv. We stayed at a really nice place Friday and Saturday nights, it's called the Jockey Club, it's right next to the Bellagio. The picture of the strip was taken from our room window. The hotel was also nice because it had a kitchen, dining room, and living room, seperate from the bedroom. And it had all been remodeled recently with nice cabinets and furniture, etc. I loved being right on the strip. The fountains at the Bellagio are probably my favorite thing to do in Las Vegas. And we could see them from our room. It sprinkled on us just a little, but the weather was really nice overall. Then Sunday night we stayed at a hotel on Fremont Street. It wasn't as nice, but it was okay. It was nice to be right on Freemont Street, because we could walk out of the hotel and see "The Fremont Street Experience". Boston loved to look at all the lights. It was a quick trip, but it was worth it. It was nice to just get away and just be the three of us for three days straight.

Boston

2008-10-01T22:07:00.000-07:00

Boston was tagged by Tia...thanks Tiff!

Five things you may or may not know about Boston...

1 - Probaby everyone reading this knows that he was adopted. We waited a long time, then found out about five weeks before he came that we were getting a baby. Oh, that was exciting!

2 - He's the cutest little boy!

3 - He laughs at everything, and likes just about everything.

4 - He's been sleeping a good 12 hours everynight since he was about 2 months old.

5 - We get to have him sealed to us on November 15!

Zariph's new thing with Boston is to sway him back and forth and say "Tick, tock, I'm a clock." Then of course Boston laughs like crazy. And I kept forgetting to put this picture on of Boston and Hayden.

I haven't been following all the tags, so I'm not sure if they were tagged by someone else, but we tag...

Hayden

Jac

Lindsay

Kyle G.

Hannah J.

Scrapbook Expo

2008-09-24T14:11:00.000-07:00

I love going to the scrapbook expo. I love to buy discounted scrapbook items and spend all day scrapbooking with my sisters, mom, and Rachael. This time, Rachael and I went to the "early bird", she picked me up at 6 a.m. Then we traveled down to Sandy to stand in line for two hours, so that we could get the best table, by My Mind's Eye - I love that place! We ended up getting a pretty good table. I spent my $100 budget before 10 a.m., so I had to increase my budget to $150...Also, I was able to scrapbook 18 pages! And I got lots of good deals on albums, cards, and paper. It was a blast! I was surprised I had so much energy after only getting 4 1/2 hours of sleep. But we made it until 11 p.m.

My mom won a big paper pack from MME during their raffle. If you buy one of their "deals" you get a raffle ticket. This particular deal was to pick out $50 worth of expo priced product and pay $20!

Cheesecake Factory

2008-09-03T20:37:00.001-07:00

I don't know why we love this place... I guess because we always go there on vacation, so we feel like we're on vacation when we go. Anyway, Zariph and I went to Cheesecake Factory on Labor Day with his parents and his niece, Teliece. Here are a few pictures of our fun time...(We only went to Salt Lake.)

Boston's New Trick

2008-08-07T12:17:00.000-07:00

I admit, I don't do "tummy time" everyday, so I was glad to see Boston was able to hold his head up so well when he was on his tummy. So, I decided to get the camera out to take some photos. I set him up on his arms and before I could get a picture...

He rolled all the way to his back! It was like some sort of thrill ride for him, I think he was glad to find a way off of that tummy! Everytime I set him up, he would just tuck and roll. Here are some more pictures of my cute little boy and his new trick.

He finally stayed up for almost a minute, I took all of these photos about 10 seconds apart. Check out his cute facial reactions...

Mikyla

2008-07-24T08:20:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I went up to my mom's house to visit because my niece, Mikyla, was down from BYU-Idaho. I can't believe she's all grown up. Mikyla lived with us when she was 6 months old, until she was a year old. She slept in my room and I got to help take care of her a lot. (I was 9 years old, then).

Mikyla is painting Hannah's nails...

Boston smiles at grandma...Look who's starting to play with toys...

Say Cheese

2008-07-24T08:08:00.001-07:00

My new camera has a smile detector, and takes pictures when the smile is big enough. On Sunday, we tested out the sensitivity of it, and came up with some funny pictures.

Grand Junction/Moab Trip

2008-07-16T11:04:00.001-07:00

Trip to Colorado and Moab

2008-07-16T08:45:00.000-07:00

It's a little late, but...
Over the 4th of July weekend we went to visit Zariph's sister, Misty, and her family. They just moved to Grand Junction, Colorado. Boston did so good for the car ride, and even slept pretty good over night in the hotel.

Memory Lane

2008-07-11T20:23:00.000-07:00

Here are the directions:
1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I had together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses.

2008-07-11T19:42:00.000-07:00

This looked like fun, Rachael.
Everything I have done is in red.
1. Touched an iceberg
2. Slept under the stars
3. Been a part of a hockey fight
4. Changed a baby’s diaper  
5. Watched a meteor shower  
6. Given more than you can afford to charity  
7. Swam with wild dolphins
8. Climbed a mountain (hiked)
9. Held a tarantula  
10. Said “I love you” and meant it  
11. Bungee jumped - Does Skycoaster count? (I've been on that too many times to keep track, I used to work it)
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Stayed up all night long and watched the sun rise  
15. Seen the Northern Lights
16. Gone to a huge sports game
17. Walked the stairs to the top of the Statue of Liberty  
18. Grown and eaten your own vegetables  
19. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
20. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
21. Had a pillow fight  
22. Bet on a winning horse  
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
 25. Held a lamb
 26. Gone skinny dipping  
27. Taken an ice cold bath
28. Had a meaningful conversation with a beggar  
29. Seen a total eclipse  
30. Ridden a roller coaster  
31. Hit a home run  
32. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking (I did care)
33. Adopted an accent for fun
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Felt very happy about your life, even for just a moment
36. Loved your job 90% of the time  
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied - Zariph keeps stashing hidden money as a surprise :)
38. Watched wild whales
39. Gone rock climbing  
40. Gone on a midnight walk on the beach
41. Gone sky diving - want to
42. Visited Ireland
43. Ever bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant - a homeless man at In n Out in Las Vegas, it was a great feeling, I could tell he was genuine
44. Visited India  
45. Bench-pressed your own weight
46. Milked a cow  
47. Alphabetized your personal files - of course!
48. Ever worn a superhero costume
49. Sung karaoke - on our cruise last summer, the dj came to me!
50. Lounged around in bed all day  
51. Gone scuba diving  
52. Kissed in the rain  
53. Played in the mud
 54. Gone to a drive-in theater  
55. Done something you should regret, but don’t  
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class  
59. Been in a movie
60. Gone without food for 3 days  - in the hospital when I broke my arm
61. Made cookies from scratch  
62. Won first prize in a costume contest  
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Been in a combat zone
65. Spoken more than one language fluently  
66. Gotten into a fight while attempting to defend someone  
67. Bounced a check  - ouch, yes
68. Read - and understood - your credit report
69. Recently bought and played with a favorite childhood toy  
70. Found out something significant that your ancestors did  
71. Called or written your Congress person
72. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over - when I started college at Rick's 
73. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge  
74. Helped an animal give birth  
75. Been fired or laid off from a job  
76. Won money  (a few bucks on a nickel slot machine)
77. Broken a bone (my arm in 8 pieces)
78. Ridden a motorcycle
79. Driven any land vehicle at a speed of greater than 100 mph  
80. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
 81. Slept through an entire flight - the red eye back from Hawaii
82. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
83. Eaten sushi  
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read The Bible cover to cover
86. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
87. Gotten someone fired for their actions
88. Gone back to school  
89. Changed your name  
90. Caught a fly in the air with your bare hands - smashed a fly on accident with my hand
91. Eaten fried green tomatoes  
92. Read The Iliad
93. Taught yourself an art from scratch
94. Killed and prepared an animal for eating - turkey on the Pioneer Trek
95. Apologized to someone years after inflicting the hurt
96. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
97. Been elected to public office
98. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
99. Had to put someone you love into hospice care  
100. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you  
101. Had a booth at a street fair
102. Dyed your hair  
103. Been a DJ
104. Rocked a baby to sleep
105. Dropped a cat from a high place to see if it really lands on all fours  
106. Raked your carpet  
107. Brought out the best in people
108. Brought out the worst in people  
109. Worn a mood ring  
110. Ridden a horse  
111. Carved an animal from a piece of wood or bar of soap
112. Cooked a dish where four people asked for the recipe  
113. Buried a child  
114. Gone to a Broadway play  
115. Been inside the pyramids
116. Shot a basketball into a basket  
117. Danced at a disco
118. Played in a band - orchestra (cello, 6th grade)
119. Shot a bird  
120. Gone to an arboretum
121. Tutored someone
122. Ridden a train  
123. Brought an old fad back into style
124. Eaten caviar
125. Let a salesman talk you into something you didn’t need
126. Ridden a giraffe or elephant
127. Published a book
128. Pieced a quilt
129. Lived in an historic place
130. Acted in a play or performed on a stage  
131. Asked for a raise  
132. Made a hole-in-one  
133. Gone deep sea fishing  
134. Gone roller skating  
135. Run a marathon
136. Learned to surf  
137. Invented something  
138. Flown first class (someone wanted to trade me for my coach seat!)
139. Spent the night in a 5-star luxury suite - The Rio upgraded us for free!  
140. Flown in a helicopter - I was barely awake, but when I was lifeflighted after breaking my arm while four-wheeling
141. Visited Africa
142. Sang a solo - I was very young  
143. Gone spelunking
144. Learned how to take a compliment
145. Written a love-story  
146. Seen Michelangelo’s David  
147. Had your portrait painted  
148. Written a fan letter
149. Spent the night in something haunted
150. Owned a St. Bernard or Great Dane
151. Ran away
152. Learned to juggle - I've learned but not practiced to be very good
153. Been a boss
154. Sat on a jury  
155. Lied about your weight - who hasn't? 
156. Gone on a diet
157. Found an arrowhead or a gold nugget  
158. Written a poem  
159. Carried your lunch in a lunchbox
160. Gotten food poisoning  
161. Gone on a service, humanitarian or religious mission  
162. Hiked the Grand Canyon  
163. Sat on a park bench and fed the ducks
164. Gone to the opera  
165. Gotten a letter from someone famous  
166. Worn knickers
167. Ridden in a limousine-I won a fundraising competition in Junior High and got to ride in limo to Pizza Hut for lunch! Then again in Las Vegas at my Dad's wedding.
168. Attended the Olympics  
169. Can hula or waltz  
170. Read a half dozen Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys books
171. Been stuck in an elevator
172. Had a revelatory dream
173. Thought you might crash in an airplane  
174. Had a song dedicated to you on the radio or at a concert  
175. Saved someone’s life
176. Eaten raw whale
177. Know how to tat, smock or do needlepoint  
178. Laughed till your side hurt  
179. Straddled the equator
180. Taken a photograph of something other than people that is worth framing  
181. Gone to a Shakespeare Festival
182. Sent a message in a bottle - in a balloon 
183. Spent the night in a hostel  
184. Been a cashier
185. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt  
186. Joined a union  
187. Donated blood or plasma
188. Built a campfire
189. Kept a blog
190. Had hives  
191. Worn custom made shoes or boots
192. Made a PowerPoint presentation - and taught 5th graders  
193. Taken a Hunter’s Safety Course
194. Served at a soup kitchen  
195. Conquered the Rubik’s cube  
196. Know CPR  
197. Ridden in or owned a convertible  
198. Found a long lost friend
199. Helped solve a crime
200. Responded to a NJP newsletter

Smiley Boy

2008-06-30T14:38:00.000-07:00

This past week Boston has been smiling a lot! He even laughs out loud. Sometimes I don't know what he's laughing at, but it is so cute! He has also started sleeping 7-8 hours most nights. Yeah!Some of Zariph's co-workers gave us this fun jungle "gym". It has fun hanging toys and music. It's pretty cute. Boston loves it!

Weekend BBQ

2008-06-22T15:59:00.000-07:00

This weendend we had two fun BBQ parties at our house. The first one was on Friday night with Zariph's team from work. We had great food, enjoyed the wonderful weather in our shady backyard, and had a blast playing Catch Phrase (one of my favorite games).

The second one was on Saturday night with both Zariph's family and my family and our friends, Rachael and Jesse. It was fun socializing with everyone, and thanks to Jesse for introducing me to Rock Band. I had a blast.

Weekly Update

2008-06-08T19:44:00.000-07:00

Well, I can at least try and post once a week, to update anyone interested in how my week has gone.

I've been wanting to go on a walk with Boston and Zariph for a while, so I decided for FHE on Monday night, we would get out and walk around the block. So, after getting all strapped in a ready we headed off to enjoy the wonderful weather we had. Boston usually is not a "spitty uppy" baby, but I think the ride was a little bouncy and he had just eaten. Well, we go two houses down the street and the spit up started to come... and continued to come. Poor baby! So, we had to end early and turn back for home. Everything was a sticky mess! And of course, I couldn't resist the photo op.

On Tuesday, we went to our nieces high school graduation. Congratulations, Miranda!

Boston during the graduation.

On Thursday, Boston and I went to Rachael's to play (and scrapbook). I worked on a cute "Baby" wooden letters thing for Boston's wall. I will post that after I finish it.

Boston, Hayden, and Kimmy

Also, I tried to get some good, professional looking photos. I thought this one was pretty cute.
On Friday, my sister and family threw a baby shower for Boston and me. Lindsay has the photos on her camera, but here are all the gifts.These are the way cute shoes from Emily.

I've had a few different baby showers the last couple of months. The faculty at school threw one for me, and my 3rd grade class threw one for me before we got Boston. And my ward threw one for me a couple of weeks ago. We've gotten a lot of wonderful things. We appreciate everything!We are definitely loved!

This isn't from this week, but here is Boston in his favorite spot in the house...

Yes, it's his changing table. I guess he just thinks it's peaceful to lay there and look out the window. I can leave him for about 30 minutes here, before he wants to be picked up. This is also a great place to take him when he's upset, it usually calms him right down.

And lastly, here's the "feet shot" for my mom.

How sweet!

First Haircut

2008-06-01T17:40:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a while since I posted, I hope to do better. Anyway, we gave Boston his first haircut this morning. After cutting Zariph's hair I decided I was sick of Boston's scruffy hair over his ears and the long mullet in the back.

Here are the before pictures:

And after:

He's Home!

2008-05-14T10:30:00.000-07:00

I know there's some of you that are dying to see pictures, so here you go! He's such a cutie! Born on Saturday, May 10, at 12:08 p.m. Weighing 7 lbs. 8 oz. 20 3/4 inches long. He still sleeps a lot, but yesterday there was about an hour where he was awake and looking right into my eyes. What a wonderful feeling.

It's almost time!

2008-05-05T18:54:00.000-07:00

This is my last week of school. Yeah! I'm looking forward to the change. I have basically everything ready for our baby to come. Zariph is actually pretty supportive and goes shopping with me. We bought a dresser/changer last weekend and the crib set (it's so cute!) from Babies R' Us. It's so fun. My work had a baby shower for me last Wednesday. I got some great clothes and a nice little rocker/bouncer with the hanging toys. I just can't wait to see him. Hopefully, only one more week.