Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Thanksgiving... Get ready for too many pictures!!!

The pictures are in a sort of reverse order and I do not know how to arrange the pictures once they have been uploaded... Anyone know how to do this??? Anyway, we went to Boise this year for Thanksgiving with my Dad's side of the family. We stayed at Bryan and Lana's house and had a great time catching up with them! We really need to see them more often!!! Thanksgiving was held at the very fancy house my Uncle Ted and Aunt Mari are building. It's a good thing the house was so large since there were over thirty people there!!! We were only missing Eric and his family, Sean and Kyra, and Tom and Shanna. We missed them, but it was so much fun to see everyone that could make it! Nothing like a huge meal to bring everyone together!! Everyone went all out cooking up a storm so there was a gynormous amount of food, then games, and us girls even had a foot spa set up for us by Lana! As usual, it's always a good time hanging out with family!!!


Here is Chloe getting her first spa treatment!!!
My three lovely aunts!

Chloe and her 2nd cousin Spencer!


Nelson and Chloe hamming it up!

Chloe and her Daddy!


Todd and Crystal

Family picture!


I love Chloe in this picture!!! Try and ignore me! :)

The girls in the foot spa!

The Great Grandparents!!!


Grandma and Grandpa with Chloe!

Getting ready to eat!!


The Waldo family + Rachael


Benji, Kyla, and sweet baby Keaton!!!




The Thanksgiving tables!!!

Jill and Justin playing checkers!

Me and Grandma...somehow I always end up looking like a giant!


Bryan and Todd playing pool!


All the food!!!

A yard with grass!

These are pictures of our backyard when we moved in... Notice the pile of rock and the lovely lattice... The green you see is NOT grass, but a bunch of weeds!!! Joe moved the huge pile of river rock and leveled the ground. Then we had someone come in to do the rest...

Before we left for Thanksgiving we had dirt for a backyard, but when we got home the sod had been put in!!! Yea! We now have a functional backyard, although it's not exactly backyard weather these days! I love it and can't wait for spring so we can finish the rest and hopefully plant a little garden!!!
These are the picture of our yard before we left for Thanksgiving... I don't know why they came up out of order!!!
Now we have NO excuse for not having everyone over for a backyard barbecue this summer!!!

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

We're off... Well, in the morning!

While I should be packing for our trip to Boise, I sit here typing away! Nothing like putting things off to the very last minute! I have finished packing Chloe's stuff though, so I'm not a *total* slacker!!! I'm quite excited for this Thanksgiving.... Can't wait to see everyone... Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, second cousins, and even a friend or two!!! What I'm not looking forward to is the drive. Part of the problem is I can never remember just how long it takes us to get there and even if I could remember, it probably doesn't matter because that was B.C., or Before Chloe!!! Oh well, we are in no hurry and have all day (which we will probably need) but then we'll be there! Anyway, Happy traveling for anyone else out there taking a trip for Turkey Day!!!

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Three Beautiful Things!

1.) Chloe's laugh! When you hear a baby laugh it makes you want to laugh right along with them!!! Just thinking of it now makes me smile!!!
2.) A lazy Sunday afternoon! Nothing to do, but that's kind of nice sometimes!
3.) Cornbread! I've been on a cornbread kick lately... Got a whole bag of the stuff at Costco the other day and I'm thinking I may need to go back and get more!! (it's Marie Callender's- all you do is add water and it's perfect every time!!!)

We hate it when the Kings lose!!!

We love watching or listening to the Kings games and tonight the Kings played San Antonio and unfortunately lost! Our little Kings fan wasn't too happy with that outcome! Chloe showing her displeasure over the Kings loss!!!

Chloe and her Daddy Cheering for the Kings!!!



But in the end the Kings lost...

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Chloe and her Daddy!

I took this picture this morning before Joe headed off for work! Joe was sitting in his chair and Chloe was sitting in what we call her "daddy chair." They were just looking out at the backyard, enjoying the morning!!!















I took this picture of Chloe sleeping yesterday! I love to watch her sleep! There is something so perfect about a sleeping baby!!!

A few more pictures from last weekend


There were a few more pictures from last weekend that I wanted to put up.


Me and Nicole striking a pose!!!














Sage and Mom's incredibly adorable, but incredibly annoying puppy!!! I think that's what all puppies are though!!! Grizzly (mom's dog) would NOT leave poor Sagey alone! I don't think Sage was too sad to see them go!









Isn't this an adorable picture of my sweet sweet daughter and her lovely Auntie!!!

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Tea Time!!!

Since Brynna and Dad were off tramping through the forest hunting for elk last weekend, Mom and Nicole decided to make a quick trip down to our house! They got here Friday afternoon and we decided to go have tea on Saturday. We put on our fancy tea dresses and hats and headed up the hill for "An Afternoon to Remember." We had so much fun! The food was delicious and the tea was perfect! It was a great day for tea too, all rainy and blustery! Just the kind of day you want to sip a hot cup of tea and talk to good friends.

Mom and Nicole left Sunday after meeting and as usual I was sad to see them go! I think it's harder when I've seen a lot of family consistently. You wouldn't think so, but somehow seeing them often makes me realize how much I miss them!!!





Sunday, November 12, 2006

Hot water...

Okay, so for those of you waiting with bated breath for the follow-up on where the expression "in hot water" came from (I'm sure you are all *so* anxious for this info!) I have a book called A Hog on Ice & Other Curious Expressions: The Origin & Development of the Pungent & Colorful Phrases We All Use, by Charles Earle Funk (I know, I'm a dork!) which says that "People first got into trouble thousands of years ago, though English-speaking people didn't refer to it as 'hot water' until about the beginning of the sixteenth century. Possibly the allusion was to the ancient way that unwelcome guests were sometimes warded off--by heaving a kettleful of boiling water, when available, upon troublesome intruders. But, oddly enough, more than two centuries after the figurative use was a matter of record, James Harris, before starting on the great diplomatic career that eventually caused him to be created Earl of Malmesbury, supposed that 'in hot water' was a modern phrase of his period, and called it such, in 1765, in one of his letters." So there you have it! You are no longer ignorant as to the origins of that phrase! Phew, you can breath a sigh of relief! One less thing to wonder about... You're welcome!

P.S.

1.) A real fire, with real wood! I love standing around a fire!
2.) Homemade apple pie and to top it off, homemade ice cream!!! Thanks to the Johnsons for # 1 and #2!!
3.) So good to hear the phone ring and have the call be from my mom and sister saying they made it home safely... Even though it took longer than usual because of snow!

Friday, November 10, 2006

Car Doors, Dancing, and Hot Tubs!!!

1.) Hearing car doors slam outside our house, knowing that it's Mom and Nicole just getting here for the weekend!!! Yea!!!!

2.) Dancing around the room with Chloe! Which makes her laugh, by the way! I'm thinking it's my dance moves that make her laugh!!! :)

3.) Sitting in the hot tub on a cold night! I especially like seeing the steam rising up from the water before I even get in... Somehow it makes the anticipation of the hot water even greater!!! And I love hot water, except for when I'm in it figuratively! I wonder where that saying came from? Because I really love hot water, and why wouldn't you like hot water? I mean that is what everyone is aiming for when you go to take your shower at convention, right... Hummm? I'll have to look into that some more!

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Flower Child!


This was taken after Chloe's bath today! What a little cutie!!!











1.) The sweet smell of a freshly bathed little baby after they've been lotioned and powdered!!! Nothing sweeter smelling in the world!

2.) An early morning walk after the rain. (early for me anyway!!!)

3.) Walking around a used book store! Only wish I could have stayed a bit longer... Maybe next time!!!

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Spit bubbles!!!

Chloe's newest trick these days is blowing spit bubbles! Very exciting, I know! And while it may seem kind of strange that I'm blogging about spit bubbles, it's because she's just so darn cute when she blows them. She finds it quite entertaining and so do we!!! So, here's some pictures of the newest amazing feat of our adorable daughter! :)



































I'm wondering if she can puff her cheeks out any more???















And in case you're wondering about my three things, I haven't forgotten, I've just gotten really behind, and I guess from now on I'm going to do them whenever I feel like it and not feel too bad about missing every once in a while! So, here goes.... 1.) Spending time with my brother! I really love that guy! He's just so cool and we always have really good talks way late into the night... 2.) Playing games with family! If you're looking for a really easy, but fun game to play Apples to Apples is your game! We played with Sean, Jim, and Alyssa and had a great time (at least I think everyone did, I know I did!) 3.) Chocolate chip cookies! Even though they weren't homemade, the Nestle toll house cookie dough that you bake at home is a pretty close imitation of the real deal!!

Thursday, November 02, 2006

More Halloween fun!!!




The Whole Gang!!!














Carmen Miranda and her little pod... Where'd the peas go???


Okay, so I've tried to fix the Halloween blog so that things line up right like five times now and when I preview, everything looks great, but when I publish it's a mess, so that's what we're leaving it at! I can't figure it out and I'm sick of trying! There were just a few more pictures I wanted to post from the party... Here they are!!!

Halloween Fun!!!

My Little Sweet Pea
J.F.K. and Marilyn had better watch their backs!!!

Brynna made a lovely Geisha!
Mom was a cute pink Dorothy with her little dog Totto
Nurse Nicole!!!

Well, the actual night of Halloween we didn't dress up, but my sisters had a Halloween party when I was in Bend, so we had a night of Halloween fun! Sean and Kyra and our good friend Nelson was there too making it especially fun!!! We mostly just looked at each others costumes, and ate a lot of food, but we did play a mean game of Mafia, where the Zinikers worked the poor innocents over! :) The Zinikers in question were me, Nicole and Sean! Here are a few pictures of our night!