Zoo Boise

After our cross country travels, we decided that we weren't through! Steve wanted some time to vacation as well so we headed up to Boise for week. We relaxed and swam and golfed and had a great time. We went home and then two days later I turned around with Little Miss and headed back to Boise to be with my mom while the rest of the fam was on a pioneer trek. The only pictures I took of that fun week were of the zoo. E loved it!

E's first big girl piggy tails!

Checking out the monkies.

E loves her gwa gwa (grandma).

She was more than likely caught doing something naughty, like chasing the dog or pulling her tail.

Let's Be Friends. Best Friends.

(Sorry, I just love that quote from the Johnny Depp Willy Wonka movie. It always cracks me up!)

Got to love Olive Garden!

During my years as an Elementary Ed student at BYU I was so lucky to be placed in a program with some amazing women. Some of these girls became some of my best friends. More than likely it was because we were experiencing the same form of torture (girls, you know what I am talking about), but even more than that, it was because we just seemed to get each other. I really miss our freezing morning drives up the canyon and long hours in class watching Meredith watch One Tree Hill! Now it is so fun to see them as we've all grown into our roles as teachers, wives, and mothers. I miss them all and wish we lived closer, but I love those summer lunches. We need to figure out a way to get Leslee out here sometime in the future!!!

Fourth of July

The day I got back from TN, we all headed up to Steve's sister's house in Ogden Valley. We love it there! It is gorgeous beyond words! We had so much fun with the fam, eating food, talking, and celebrating our country at the sweet bash put on by the city of Huntsville.

 Cute nephews loving the glow necklaces and plethora of treats!

 Just waiting for the fireworks to start. There was lots of fun music and we all busted a move or two. I was too busy dancing to get any good move busting photos!

 I love this pic of my sweet sister in law Ashley and Miss E!

Surprisingly she LOVED the fireworks! I was so glad (and relieved) since we had been traveling ALL day I thought for sure she would freak out, but instead she laughed and squealed and pointed throughout the whole show.

Such a fun weekend!!! We love having family close by and I hope we never take that blessing for granted!

Ketchup, Catsup, Catch Up...

So...it's been a while. I have put the blog on the back burner the last few months to put other things first. I was getting a little tired of living my life as the next blog post or Facebook update. I wanted to live life. Because I love reading back on old journal entries and blog posts, I think I'm ready to work on catching up! I am doing this now because I think I have worked out how to do it without letting it consume my daily thinking : ). I hope you enjoy the mind purge as much as I do!
-D

Back to School Book Order

Sorry this is last minute notice but I wanted to let you know that I am closing out a book show tonight on my Usborne website. Here is the rundown for the cost of shipping:

If you order online your shipping will be 8% with a $5 minimum. These will be shipped directly to your home. I would recommend this if your 8% of your order (pre tax) will be $5 or if you live far away from me.
If 8% of your order will be LESS than $5 you can contact me with your order and I will put it through on my system. The tax there will just be 8% regardless of the amount ordered.

Hopefully this cleared up any confusion! Check these books out, though...they are awesome! You can order from this book show until midnight tonight!

Advice Please

This sweet little child has been a bit of a challenge for me lately. I know I post a lot of cheerfulness on this blog, but she is 19 months so you all know it can't be peachy all the time right?! She started nursery last month and hated it from day 1. I thought as each week passed it would get better, but instead, each week has gotten worse. She screams NON stop the whole time, often leading the nice ladies to bring her back to me or Steve. We have tried sneaking out, leaving slowly, bribing her with treats, everything we could think of but to no avail. She HATES nursery. Any ideas?
But wait...the story gets better. Yesterday as the nice nursery lady was bringing a screaming Miss E back to me, our sweet child BIT her on the neck. Nice, huh? Yep, biting is her new favorite defense. Any ideas for that one?
Thanks in advance to all of you smart, wonderful women/mothers that I am privileged enough to call friends. You are all great examples to me and I need your knowledge now!

Tennessee!

The day after I got back from NYC, Little Miss and I packed up and flew to Tennessee to visit our good friends, the Reids. These are some of our very best friends: Steve grew up with Parker and I was lucky enough that he married Jessie, since we were going to be spending a lot of time together, like it or not!!! They have two cute little girls that aren't that much older than Miss E, so we knew they needed to spend a little quality time together. 

We started the week off right by going to this orchard that had a yummy restaurant and farmer's market. Our favorite feature, however, was the candy store! We stopped there one more time later in the week. Yum!

The girls had fun playing together! Miss E jumped in that pool fully clothed and "shoed." Good thing it was plenty warm so she dried off quickly.

After a long day of shopping the girls were SO tired!

This was a fun splash park that the girls loved. Jessie and I made sure to put the girls in matching swimsuits. So cute!

On our last day, Parker's mom, Jill, came to visit. We drove to the Smoky Mountains and hiked Clingmans Dome. It is not a very long hike, but it is really steep, as shown by the next picture...

Parker was "helping" Jessie and Jill up the mountain. :) Still doesn't do the steep incline justice.

This is the cool lookout tower that is Clingmans Dome. It overlooks both North Carolina (?) and Tennessee. It was very cool!

Beautiful view!

All in all it was a very fun trip. The Reids were so nice to us...Jessie even let me take a long nap while she played with E! It was just what we needed after being away from our friends for WAY too long! Next time Steve needs to come too!!!