Warning! Warning! A deluge of photos to follow! It's been one thing after another after another! But it's fun being busy, we know we will really miss all of the family functions once we move. We celebrated our niece Jane's first birthday. Those pictures are always the cutest. Who could resist a cute baby covered in frosting?

She got a bunch of musical toys and Daniel promptly stole her drum. He seriously goes to town on that baby. So glad it's not ours!!
I've taken to eating anything wonderful during Daniel's naps. (for example, my healthy choice ice cream bars.) But he showed up right after I opened one up the other day and gave me those puppy dog eyes and demanded it. I caved and gave it to him. Then naively thought that since he already had one in his hand he would let me eat one on my own. Not so. He begged and begged and begged until I gave it to him. So here he is, having his cake and eating it too. (he did share with me after a while)(Mommy was standing by with a wash rag too!)
We went to a park and played for a while with some other young couples from church. Daniel was particularly enamored with the watermelon. This look says, "touch the watermelon and I make you pay!"

We got to go to a bit of the parade of homes the other day and saw some incredible homes. It's amazing what you can spend money on! A few of my favorite things ( a very few)

This was an awesome laundry room, you can't see some of it, but trust me, it was awesome. I especially like the built-in rail to hang all of your clothes on. (and the top of the line machines aren't bad either)

I thought this little toilet was the cutest thing! This bathroom was in the middle of a children's heaven of a bedroom. It had tunnels and murals and everything you could imagine.

This indoor pool was incredible. I seriously wanted to jump right in. The house was kind of built around the pool with entrances from all the major areas of the house.

Outside of the house Bryan found his dream. A beautiful red ferrari. What it was doing in the middle of no where, I'll never know, but I think it made the whole day less miserable for him.

When we got back from our excursion the family all got into the pool for the first time. (My in-laws just got it finished) This is a picture of my crazy (only in a good way!) brother in law jumping into the pool from the balcony. Seriously, awesome.

These floaties were are costco and Daniel loves them! (It took some convincing) I love that he looks like a little fishy when he's swimming.

Okay, it's been way too long. I guess it just shows how my life has been, crazy. I guess if my life ever stopped being crazy I'd get bored, right? The rest of my birthday was wonderful. I was truly spoiled. I got a totally cute purse/scrapbook tote. (it's pink inside) I especially love that it fits my new camera inside and that I can hide a diaper in one of the inside pockets. It's perfect. I loved it so much that it's my new purse, I couldn't just leave it to only be used for crops! I also got some GREAT scrapbooking stuff that I can't wait to use. Someday I'll find the time. I got this cool little "tag curler" that I still have as yet to figure out, some movies that I'm excited to watch and a computer program for all of the old family pics/journals that I've been working on. It looks really cool. http://passageexpress.com/ Now I just need to peg my mom and dad down and get them to identify all of the people in the pics!

I've also gotten to help my sister Shannon out with her wedding preparations. I cut TONS of paper for her menus and place cards, it was actually really soothing to hear the shoosh shoosh of my trimmer all day. I do love my paper. Then I spent two full days trying to track down the last of the paper that we needed. I was seriously giddy when I finally found it online in Nevada. (Google is a wonderful resource!) This looks awesome with the other papers she is using. I've been to the airport 3 times lately, my in-laws went to Mexico and my parents went to Kansas. (yes, Kansas! I have siblings who live there)

Daniel has learned to say "que me" (excuse me) "tank eww" and "wel-cum" the latter two are always one right after the other. His vocabulary and understanding grow everyday, it's impossible to keep up! Bryan and I have been trying to get funding figured out for medical school. (scary, scary!) and have found a few possible places to live.

All of my lessons are going really well, both those I'm teaching and those I'm taking. It's always so refreshing to sing. We've still got so much to do and figure out. It's crazy how quickly time flies!

Just a cute pic of my nephew from the other day...

Happy Birthday to me!

I had an absolutely wonderful birthday. The night before my in-laws had a dinner for me, which was really sweet not only because it was nice of them, but they had just gotten back into town and were leaving town again the next day. I'm sure they were way stressed out, but they made time for it anyways. My mother in law made the BEST spare ribs. Seriously, my mouth is watering just typing about them! I got some really great gifts, one of which was a tripod that I am very excited to make use of. The day of my birthday (yesterday) Bryan had the day off so he, Daniel and I drove my in-laws to the airport then went to see This is the Place State Park since we were pretty nearby anyway. It was nice to read all of the history that went into settling this place and the scenery was beautiful! Daniel loved getting to run free, except for one incident involving a goose.... it scared him to death and I'm still chuckling about it. (yeah, I'm a mean mommy)

Afterwards we went to my parents' house to drop Daniel off so that we could catch a matinee of Spiderman 3. I enjoyed it. It is definitely a must see movie. The effects were awesome and it was a fun show. I'll probably buy it just to round out the trilogy. It wasn't the best movie I'd ever seen, but I wouldn't mind seeing it again either. Then we watched part of the documentary called "The Mormons" on PBS. It was.... interesting. I wish that they would have clarified a lot of things and gotten much more in depth, but I guess for the limited time they had it was an okay "glossing over" of the religion. Later that evening we went to dinner at Macaroni Grill with Bryan's siblings. It was delicious as always even if we did have to wait almost two hours to eat. I got the Mushroom Ravioli, soooo good!!!! It tastes the most like the food I had in Italy of all of their dishes. Then Bryan and I went to Target and bought Superman so we could watch it on our new tv. (It was awesome!) Too bad we both fell asleep halfway through. I guess we're getting old...

today I got to see one of my dearests friends for lunch. Anna is in town for an old roommates wedding and we met at the California Pizza Kitchen to eat. It was so great to see her. It felt just like we'd never left college. She looks great too. The best I've ever seen her look. Brat. (You know I love you!) And her daughter is the cutest thing!!! It was just like looking at a mini-Anna. She was a real sweetheart too. She and Daniel fought over crayons, shared food and held hands every once in a while. It was pretty crazy for us to be together with our children.

We (Bryan and I and his bro) watched the Jazz game tonight and are so stoked that they won!!! We knew they had it in them. Tomorrow I'm getting together with my family to celebrate my bday. I'm just trying to soak it all in, because I know that next year we won't get to celebrate it with anyone. Ohio here we come!

It's been a while, but I still wanted to post a few pics from the end of our vacation. We soooo miss the ocean! Our last day there was supposed to be 75 degrees, so I had big plans for getting a suntan. Too bad the sun forgot to show! The ocean was covered in fog. So sad. We did get to see some dolphins again this trip. It's always fun to watch them play in the waves. Later that day we decided to go to the Irvine Spectrum mall. It was a really cool place. It's an outdoor mall filled with fountains and stages for performers. As the sun set it lit up and was beautiful. They also had a Ferris wheel that we took a ride on. Beautiful views. Daniel liked it for about 2 mins and then started whining. I think its a general rule for trips, no matter how much fun they are, kids MUST whine! It's just what they do. Daniel did make a new friend on the trip, Gabe. Gabe is about 5years old and such a sweet boy. He was so good to Daniel. He did wonder why Daniel couldn't figure things out, I don't think he understood how much younger Daniel is. I can see us having to deal with this a lot in the future! He just looks sooo big! But they held hands all through the outdoor mall, it was pretty dang cute! Gabe was such a good sport.When the evening was over he decided that only grandma would do and made her carry him all the way back. Sorry Grandma! (I think she secretly loved it!)

All in all it was an absolutely perfect trip. Sigh. Bryan and I wish everyday that we could go back. This is the perfect time to visit Newport. The sand is cool and velvety, the water is refreshingly cool. The dolphins are out in plain site and it's never too hot. Love it, love it love it!

Since we've gotten home I have been doing serious house cleaning and still have quite a ways to go. Bryan is working a ton and Daniel is perfecting his alphabet and counting skills.