And....we're off!

We leave in a couple hours to head up to Idaho for Jeremy's brother's wedding! We're so excited. Jeremy's older brother Jared and his wife Mimi and their kids (Ben & Lucy) flew here last night and then headed up to Idaho earlier today. It was so great to visit with them! Jared flew out for Eli's baby blessing last summer, but we hadn't spent more than 12 hours with Mimi and the kids in over a year and a half. :( They live in Virginia, so it's hard to see them. Anyway, we had a great time chatting with them and we're all staying with my sister in Nampa this weekend.

We've been anticipating this weekend for a long time so it's exciting that it's finally here. We all got haircuts this last week (Eli's first), the house is clean, and we're pretty much packed and ready to go! We drive back down on Sunday and then Monday we're going to Park City to spend the week with Jeremy's family. So have a great weekend everyone and I'll give an update about our trip some time next week!

Adios!

Let the Record Show...

...That on May 24, 2010, it snowed. SNOWED. In fact, it has been snowing for almost an hour.Boo, weather. I boo you.

Hard to believe that a week from tomorrow is June 1st.

(Picture was taken about 20 minutes ago - even more snow now).

Mr. and Mrs. Handyman

As I mentioned last Saturday, I had to take our car in to get the Safety & Emissions test done to renew our registration. Well...it didn't pass the safety. Bummer. Apparently our right tail light was out, both rear brake lights (yikes!), we needed 2 new tires, new brake pads, and a new serpentine belt. And of course they wanted to charge us an arm and a leg to fix it all. So we set to work trying to figure out if we could fix all those things ourselves...and we did! (Except for the tires - thank you Costco). I went to Checker Auto more in the last week than ever in my life and I, yes I, changed all the lights. Woohoo! I cannot believe they were going to charge us $12 per bulb in labor costs. It seriously took less than a minute to change each one (once I figured out which lights were the brake lights - I know, embarrassing. But it's hard to check the brake lights by yourself and I couldn't really have Eli push on the brakes to see if they were working).

I also got the tires done at Costco yesterday and then Jeremy and I changed the serpentine belt last night. Jeremy got half of the brake pads done last night too, and would've gotten it all done but he needed a tool that he didn't have. He ended up borrowing one from a neighbor, but by the time he got it, it was late and we had lost all of our daylight. So I'm proud of us! We ended up spending about 1/3 of what we would've spent. I'm so glad Jeremy is always willing to do everything himself. He learned that from his dad, and I guess I learned that kind of spirit from my parents too. My dad was always telling us to "take initiative" and stuff like that. I was thinking of that on my way to Checker the other day. :) I think I shocked Jeremy when I called him and told him I changed the lights, rented a tool for him to change the serpentine belt, and bought the brake pads and belt. By the way, did you know that Checker does tool rental basically for free? You just buy the tool, use it, and bring it back within 3 days and they give you a full refund. Pretty awesome, eh?

Oh, here's Eli in the trunk helping me change the lights (the first one's washed out, I was standing in the sun, sorry).
Anyway, so that has been this week's adventure. Poor Jeremy has been working like crazy lately. He's been working 11-hr+ days for the past week or so, plus he went in on Saturday and will go in again this Sat. That's another reason I've been trying to do most of this car stuff. But brake pads? Not happening. He'll have to finish those tonight. :) We're glad we have a car though and we're glad it will now be safe to drive. Especially because a week from today we're driving up to Idaho! Jeremy's little brother is getting married in the Boise temple a week from Saturday! We're so excited for them and are really looking forward to a little "vacation" (that's in quotes because we all know traveling with babes is never very restful, but it will still be nice to get away and spend time with family). We'll be in Idaho until Sunday and then that whole next week we'll be in Park City with Jeremy's family. He'll have to work a few days, but he'll be commuting from there and I'll get to party all day!

That's what we've been doing! Oh, and I had to throw this picture in. Eli loves strawberries and we were cutting some up for dinner last night and he just grabbed this giant one and wouldn't let go. He ended up eating the whole thing though and it didn't take him very long to do it.

Julie B. Beck

We finally got our Ensign last week so I've started reading the talks from Conference. I just read Sister Beck's talk, "And upon the Handmaids in Those Days Will I Pour Out My Spirit". Every time I hear her speak, it makes me so happy to be a woman! She is such a great lady and she just lays everything out there and always stresses the importance of women. I highlighted some things, so I thought I would share my favorites from her talk:

"A good woman knows that she does not have enough time, energy, or opportunity to take care of all of the people or do all of the worthy things her heart yearns to do. Life is not calm for most women, and each day seems to require the accomplishment of a millions things, most of which are important."

"The ability to qualify for, receive, and act on personal revelation is the single most important skill that can be acquired in this life."

"Promised personal revelation comes when we ask for it, prepare for it, and go forward in faith, trusting that it will be poured out upon us."

(Quoting Eliza R. Snow)"'...Women should be women and not babies that need petting and correction all the time. I know we like to be appreciated but if we do not get all the appreciation which we think is our due, what matters?

'...the greatest good we can do to ourselves and each other is to refine and cultivate ourselves in everything that is good and ennobling to qualify us for those responsibilities.'"

"When we have done our very best, we may still experience disappointments, but we will not be disappointed in ourselves."

What a great talk. It was all good, but I didn't think I should just put the whole thing up. :) I feel so blessed to be a woman and a mother. We have so much influence and responsibility! It can be a bit overwhelming to think about it sometimes, but thank goodness we have guidance from such wonderful leaders like Sister Beck. I'm trying to take time in these quiet moments (Eli is napping) to improve myself and prepare for the future. I know in 10 years I won't have very many quiet moments and life will be crazy and filled to the brim with kids, school, activities, etc. Anyway, maybe it's the rainy day or something, but I was just feeling introspective, so I thought I would put some of my thoughts up. Thank you to all you women out there who influence me for good!

Another Productive Saturday

And it's not even over!

Eli woke us up bright and early this morning (as he usually does; but hey, I'm not complaining, because he is sleeping long hours these days and I am loving getting in my bed at night and not getting up until morning. Hooray!!! He's been sleeping from around 7pm-7am - or 6:30 as was the case this morning, but he was ignored until 7, which is fine when he's happy and he always is after sleeping so long. Anyway, back to the blog...) So I got up and nursed Eli - we're down to morning and night here people. Times are a-changin'. Anyway, then we went in and woke Jeremy up and Eli gave him sweet snuggles and kisses. He has been giving so many snuggles lately and I love it! I hope this phase never ends. :)

Then Jeremy got ready and had to go in to work for a couple hours. So he left around 7:30 and then I made pancakes for Eli and I. I know, I should have made them for Jeremy too, but he wanted to get going and he ended up eating donuts at work, so don't feel too sorry for him. So Eli and I ate delicious oatmeal pancakes and drank apple juice and talked about what our plans were for the day. He really likes those conversations. :) Then I cleaned up and Eli played and babbled and helped me unload the dishwasher - one of his favorite activities ever. Then he helped me vacuum the house, another favorite (he actually really likes the vacuum and has no fear when it comes to that loud machine), and we played some more. Then it was time for a nap (he's still doing 2 a day most of the time, which is fine with me - whatever keeps him happy) and Jeremy called and said he was going straight to the Selden's house to help them move. I said alrighty, good plan, and I went outside to pull weeds.

After an hour or so of that, Eli woke up and shortly after Jeremy got home and we all continued pulling weeds and then Jeremy started mowing the lawn. Evidence:We took a short break for lunch awhile later and then headed back out to finish mowing/pulling weeds. I had to teach Eli to keep his hat on and to stop putting the crab apples in his mouth. That was fun. Then I thought I should take some pictures and then he decided he was grumpy and wouldn't smile:
What, you think because you took my hat off I'd be happy? Wrong.
Then he really got grumpy, so we came back inside. Jeremy showered because he was starting to get all "sneezy", as he said, and Eli and I snuggled up on the rocking chair and read a book before it was time for nap #2. Then I got to shower and Jeremy went into the study to study (that was profound; and if you're wondering what he's studying for, I'll tell you later) and I called my choir people (every Saturday I call to remind them about choir - great technique for choir member-retention that I learned from my mother. Thanks mom!) Then I thought, "hey, maybe I'll blog."

Wow. That was the longest day recap ever, and it's only 3 o'clock. But in case you were wondering how we've spent our day, now you know! Time to go though. I just heard the babe. Eli and I are going to get the Safety & Emissions test done on the car so we can renew our registration. Oh joy! Then it's homemade pizza for dinner and maybe a movie for tonight. It's been a good day. Ahh, I love Saturdays!!!

Garden!

The last 2 years we have planted our garden the Saturday before Mother's Day. We were a little worried the weather wouldn't cooperate this year, but it turned out to be a fairly nice day and we were able to plant our garden! I love this time of year. Two years ago, our garden was fantastic! Everything did well and we had way more produce than we could consume. Last year, we kind of neglected our little garden. We had good intentions, but it just didn't work out. We planted it 2 weeks after Eli was born, and we just weren't consistent in our watering until it was too late. We were too busy with a new baby and then putting up our fence and all that stuff. So we are determined to do better this year!

We spent about 4-5 hours outside working on the garden on Saturday. We don't have any fancy raised beds or anything, but we have four sections cut out. Everything was really overgrown with weeds and grass, so we set to work clearing it all out. That took the most time. I'm not sure why we decided to do that all by hand, but we did. So several hours later, we got every last weed and blade of grass pulled up and then we mixed in some manure and some of our very own compost! Oh my, was this beautiful. We've been building our compost pile for the last couple years, and we finally used it. It is dark and rich and lush and gorgeous. Then we planted our seeds and plants, watered, and observed our hard work. :)

When we first went out, it was a little chilly, but then it warmed up. (Eli loves to "walk" like this. I don't think it will be too long until he's really walking).
Taking off...already ditched one shoe....
So if we zoom in on the above picture, you can see this overgrown mess here. There are onions and garlic in there from last year that we just kept in the ground. They've been growing really well, along with lots of weeds and grass.
But here you can see that same spot (from a different angle). You can actually see the plants! Amazing.
And here's another shot:

We planted basil, parley, chives, cilantro, green & red bell peppers, serrano peppers, jalapeno peppers, roma tomatoes, celebrity tomatoes, big beef tomatoes, beans, cucumbers, crookneck squash, and zucchini. Woohoo! I can't wait! Every time I cook something now I always think, "Oh I can't wait until I can make this again with fresh [fill in the blank]..." So we're pretty excited.

Eli was an angel all day too. He loves to be outside! He just plops himself down on the grass and entertains himself for days by pulling up grass, squishing dirt clods, etc. I only had to pull a rock out of his mouth once! It also helped that he took a 2 hour nap that afternoon, right during the time we were working on the garden. Thank you child!What a helper. And yes, that's a bag of manure behind him. So what? It's mostly empty.
Tuckered out after a long day:
That night we all showered/bathed and then went out to dinner. I certainly didn't feel like cooking and we decided it was a garden-is-in celebration and an early Mother's Day celebration. That's justified, right? That's what I tell myself anyway.

So that was our Saturday! Yesterday was nice too. Jeremy didn't have meetings in the morning so he made me breakfast in bed, which was very delicious. It was nice to have him around. He did have to stay after church for a few hours, so that was a bummer (especially since I made a nice dinner and he got home way late without letting me know and dinner was on the table for 40 minutes getting cold. Come on babe. That's why we have cell phones - so things like this don't happen. Oops). But that's okay. He's forgiven and I still love him. :)

I hope everyone had a nice Mother's Day! I'm so glad I have such a wonderful mother who taught me so many wonderful things. I love you mom! Jeremy has an amazing mother too and I'm so glad I get to learn from her now too!

Behind...again

Alrighty. Time to catch up.

Eli had a great birthday last week. It just so happened that my mom and sister Heidi were flying through that day, so they got to spend the day with us! They had both been in New Jersey visiting my sister Wendy and her family. My mom had flown out from Sacramento and Heidi flew out from here, but they both had the same flight coming back so they could then drive Heidi's car home (packed to the brim with all her stuff from living in Provo for a year). So it worked out that the day they were flying through happened to be Eli's birthday!

So I picked them up at around 10 am and actually I also got to see my dad at the airport for about 10 minutes too. He was continuing on to Sacramento about an hour later, so we just had a brief visit, but that was fun for him to see Eli too. Anyway, so we had a fun day visiting with them. That night we had this for dinner (Orzo - I figured Eli loves pasta and rice, so pasta that kind of looks like rice was bound to be a hit, and it was) and then he opened his presents. He had a little more fun ripping the wrapping paper off than he did at Christmas, but he still wasn't too into it.He mostly got clothes (very needed), and if the weather ever decides to turn warm, he'll get to wear them!
Then it was cake time! To my utter and complete joy, Eli hated the cake. I know, I'm a weirdo. I didn't want to give him cake in the first place, but I succumbed to societal pressure and tradition. In the end I don't think he swallowed even a crumb of it, so it all worked out. :)

Big number ONE! (I hate making cakes by the way, so this was a stretch for me. I love to cook and I love to make bread, but I just really don't like making cakes. I think I just lack patience - precise measurements, frosting, ugh. Anyway, moving on...)
This picture pretty much sums up his feelings on the cake:
And then he smashed it to bits and wanted to be rescued.
With Grandma:
And Heidi and Brianna (Heidi's old roommate; she's in Provo for the Spring/Summer so she wanted to come visit too)Anyway, so it was a fun birthday. Heidi and my mom left early the next morning, but it was fun to see them for a day. Since then it seems like we've been busy, but I'm not really sure why. Oh, Eli had his 12-mo. checkup on Friday and that went well. He is 30 in. long and weighs 20 lbs. 11 oz. He continues to be long and skinny (weird, I wonder where he got that from) with a large head - although it wasn't quite as high on the percentiles this time around.

So that's the news! We've been having some crazy spring weather here lately too. They said on the news that the mountains got 84 inches of snow last week. Whoa! We saw some too, and we're hoping it's done now so we can plant our garden on Saturday!