Winter, Anyone?

I do this every year. In the dead of winter, I sit inside wishing it was summertime and thinking of flip flops and lemonade. In the summer, I daydream of snow days and hot chocolate. Well, now that summer has come in all its fury and I'm quite pregnant and seem to have an extra heater in my body going full blast, I'm sitting here wishing for winter again.
Oh what I wouldn't give to make a snow angel...

Since I can't have winter in the summer, at least I can reminisce.

Our family get-together over the holidays at my Mom and Dad's house. We had so much fun playing in the snow and sledding behind the four-wheelers!


My parents, my brothers and me


The whole family


Ellie sledding behind the 4 wheeler with Uncle Preston driving and Uncle Taylor on standby in case she falls off

Ellie and her cousin, Deann ready to ride


Supervising the little hoodlums


Grandpa giving Elliett and Deann a sled ride


Getting warm in the sunroom with Grandma Maxwell


The two fluffy snow bunnies calling it quits

Adventure on the High Seas

My Mom and Dad invited Ellie and I out for a boat ride at the dam this morning. The weather was perfect and the company was even better! Ellie loved it and kept asking grandpa to go faster.

Hot stuff in her new sunglasses

As a side note: it's a little tricky getting into a little boat when you're 8 months pregnant. Just saying. Totally worth it though.

Have You Slurped Yet?

Check out Blurb!

If you are one who blogs as a way of journaling you definitely need to CLICK HERE.

It's a website where you can create your own books with their free software. You can do it with your blog too! You 'slurp' your blog to Blurb and you're all set! I have a friend who told me about this site and she prints her blog book once a year. I think it is the best idea ever. I love blogging but I miss having real pages to flip through. This is the best of both worlds!

Let's Go See What's Next!

That was Ellie's favorite line this weekend when we went to the Boise zoo. I cannot begin to tell you how much she loved it. Although I was a little worried when the she wanted to go back and see the hissing cockroaches at least 4 times. All I have to say is, "Eeeeew." We had a so much fun despite having to see the cockroaches. Rob's friend from law school met us at the zoo with is awesome wife and two sweet little girls so Ellie got to make new friends AND see animals. She was in heaven.

Ellie checking out the lions

The giraffe slide

A thousand hissing cockroaches. Just looking at them gives me the creepy crawlies. I'm so glad we don't have cockroaches here in Idaho.

Ellie's new friends Paige and Kenna

We stayed at the Hampton Inn (if I have a choice I will never stay at any other hotel as long as I live - Hampton Inns are the best!) and we went swimming and Ellie got to sleep in a magic bed a.k.a hide-a-bed.



A big thanks to my brother Shane and his family for letting Ellie come over and play with her cousins while Rob and I went out to dinner.

It wasn't just any dinner. It was our anniversary dinner. Seven years on May 31st!! Can you believe it? It has really flown by! It's crazy to think that we've been together (off and on) for 13 years. And it's even crazier that I knew the day I met him so many years ago that we would end up together. It was just something I always knew. I think that's why we survived all the high school/college/post-mission drama. Well, that and the fact that Rob is so amazingly understanding and sweet. I love that we have a history. I love that we have mission letters from each other. I love that he knows me better than I know me. It's been a wonderful seven years and I can't wait to see what's next!

Bye Bye

We said goodbye to our dog, Mickey, last Monday. We haven't been able to give her the attention she needed so Rob put up an ad on Craigslist for Mickey and for his brother's dog, Buddy, who has been Mickey's partner in crime since Buddy was a puppy. Less than a week later they were both gone. Thankfully they went to the same home, they will be well taken care of and they will get to hunt a lot more with their new owner.





Maybe it's because I'm pregnant but I cried way more than I thought I would. I think it's because I cried for Rob too. I know he was sad to let Mickey go. She was perfect for him. She was a pure liver german shorthair pointer. We've had her since she was a puppy although his dad took care of her while we were living in Moscow. She was a natural hunter and could run for miles. She and Buddy were so good with Ellie and our nieces who live next door. Even though the dogs drove me crazy when they barked at each other or the garbage man, our back yard seems so empty and quiet without them. Ellie keeps asking where Mickey is. At least when I tell her she went to live on a farm to go hunting I'm actually telling the truth.

My Little Secret

Rob and I have talked a lot about selling our house. We feel really good about it. It's a positive thing to get out of debt and we are going to do it as quickly as possible by selling our house and paying off our student loans then saving like maniacs. We've been feverishly working on our house getting ready to put it up for sale. It's going to be so awesome when we finish it.

So what's my little secret?

This entire time I've secretly been wishing that no one would buy it.

That the market would be too bad.
That the price would be too high.
That it would be too small.
That it wouldn't be cute enough.
That it needed too much work.

Well, for the couple we just met yesterday, the market is good, the price is right, it's just the right size, it is cuter than anything they have looked at, and it doesn't need any work. It's the perfect house for them.

And for me.

I love this house. Rob loves this house. We love it so much that if the time ever comes that we can build a house of our own, this is the very house we want to build. There is nothing incredible about our house. It's a square little 1940's cottage with plaster walls and squeaky floors. But it has a great kitchen and charming arched doorways and big beautiful windows.

Why am I having such a hard time even thinking of letting it go? Maybe because it was our first house. Maybe because we love our neighbors so much (Rob's brother and his wife and two fun little girls). Maybe because it just feels like home like no other place has. Maybe because I'm way too sentimental for my own good. I don't know. But when the time comes to leave this home for good you can bet I'll be shedding more than my share of tears.

Toddler Logic

Elliett seriously cracks us up all the time. We never know what is going to come out of her mouth at any given moment which is usually okay unless we're at the grocery store and she points and says to me in a very loud voice: Mommy - dat guy has a giant head!
I appreciate her honesty but how do you recover from that?

Some recent conversations I've had with Ellie this last week.

Ellie: I need a bubble tubby.
Me: Why?
Ellie: Because I'm all dirty wis worms and ladybugs.


Me: Ellie why are you nakey?
Ellie: Because - I want to read books.

Ellie: Are you want it on or off? [Translation: Do you want the flashlight on or off?]
Me: Off
Ellie: No, on.

Me: Ellie, please don't pick your nose. It's gross and that's how we get sick.
Ellie: Okay Mom. I'll put it back in my nose.

Ellie: Mother, my baby sister will come out in the summer? (by the way, I LOVE that she calls me mother sometimes - so cute!)
Me: Yes sweetpea, she will be here in the summer.
Ellie: Can she come out and play today?

Ellie: (eating a fruit snack) Mmmm! This gum is yummy!
Me: That's a fruit snack, sweetie.
Ellie: I call it gum, you call it a fruit snack, and Daddy call it a apple!

Ellie: And that's a Zebraba?
Me: Yup - it's a zebra.
Ellie: I call it a zebraba, you call it a zebra, and Daddy call it a deer.

Apparently Ellie thinks her Dad doesn't know much about fruit snacks or animals.