Easter in Iowa

I really am trying to catch-up on the blog. And on just about everything else too! We are still working on unpacking our house here in Colorado, but that will be another post for another day.

Over the Easter holiday weekend, Nick's dad flew us to his home in Iowa to spend a few days. This was the first time Grandpa and Nana Rochelle met Q, and I do believe that they are smitten. Some of the pictures here are from those that I took, and some are from Ed.

 Here is Q with her Grandpa. I think he enjoyed his time playing with his new granddaughter. She won him over in a big way, and why not?! She's such a cutie! Grandpa had a great time taking Q around the city building and showing her off. She is such a great baby!

Nana, Nick's step-mom, also really took to Miss Q! She really seems to enjoy this being a grandmother stuff, and we are happy to oblige! We were delayed returning to Texas by a day because of tornados in DFW, so we were able to go visit Nana Rochelle at her school. She loved showing her off to her colleagues!

Here Q is sitting with her Aunt Jess. She is Rochelle's daughter, so Nick's step-sister. Jess eased into the aunt role, and I think she is going to be a fun aunt for our little girl.

Grandpa took us to see th butterflies at the university in Ames. We spent a little time there, and let the butterflies land on us and on our cameras. Q loves butterflies. She has them in her room, and she talks to them while on her changing table.

Daddy carried her around and tried to interest her in the real butterflies.


When we returned to the Texas, we fantically packed the rest of our house and headed to Colorado! What an adventure that was! I will post about that trip soon!

Thanksgiving 2010 Prep



Source: Right From the Heart

As this is the weekend before Thanksgiving, Nick and I are gearing up for some truly fabulous people to come and spend the Thanksgiving holiday with us! We will have a house full of family because all four of my sisters, their significant others and our one niece will be here to celebrate with us. That makes for ten people sleeping at my house, and we hope to have one more person for dinner on Thanksgiving Day. I am beyond excited, and it goes to show how truly wonderful my hubby is that he is almost as excited as I am! Bless him for loving my family so much! Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays! I love to take the chance to focus on the things and the people I am most thankful for, although, the cartoon has it right, it should be a focus for the entire year!
Last weekend, the lesson I taught my Laurels at church was on Gratitude and Thankfulness. As I was preparing, I was reminded of a lesson about being thankful that I was taught by my very wise Beehive advisor, Sister Garfield. She told us that when someone paid us a compliment, to simply smile and say, "Thank you!" It boosts your confidence and makes the person who complimented you happy as well. I was thinking about that this week, and I notice that as people send compliments my way these days, it is so hard to smile and give thanks. So, that is my goal for the next few weeks/months as I grow bigger and bigger: to accept the compliments of others with style and grace.
This weekend, as Nick and I brave the grocery stores, I will be thankful for the opportunity to have all my sisters here. I will be thankful for the chance to spend the day planning and cleaning with my favorite person. I will be thankful for the people who are working so hard to make the holiday shopping as quick and as painless as possible. I will be thankful for and do my best to spread some holiday cheer to those who need it most!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Week!

A Weekend at Home

Nick and I split up for the weekend and each went to visit our own families. We would have liked to both be in the same place at the same time, but well...we weren't.

I know that Nick had a nice time visiting with family and seeing some of his friends, but since he didn't take any pictures, and he isn't here to contribute, that is really all I can tell you. Maybe I will be able to get him to post a little something later...notice the MAYBE.

The reason I went home that weekend was to be in Montrose for Mom's 50.5 Birthday Bash! Her birthday is actually in January, but who can really travel or have a truly fun party in the dead of winter? So, she had a Half-Birthday Party instead. It was really a fun treat for her and for us! So many people came, and we had a lot of fun together.

Mom's first surprise were her aunts from Michigan! They flew in special for her party. These are my grandma's sisters, and they make a special sister trip each year to see one another. This year, the MI bunch came to CO! It was so great to see them all!

From left to right: Aunt Joan Kelli, Aunt Patti, Holly, Me, Grandma, Lisa, and Aunt Linda

Another special MI treat was Mom's cousin, Judy! She came, despite the crys of her children, to come and visit for the weekend. It was so nice to her here too, and I know Mom was thrilled!                        

Again, left to right: Lisa, Kelli, Eric, Holly, Me Dad, Judy, and Mom.

The party was a great turn out, and Mom (well, all of us, really) got another surprise when Bishop and Sister Moses walked in the door! I guess that all Siser Moses wanted for her birthday was to come to Mom's party! They moved to New Mexico years ago, so this was no small trip for them! It was really great to have them show up. They were some of the last to leave, and sat talking with Mom and Laura (Mom's bestest friend who came from Broomfield) until 11:30pm.

Holly had a genius idea to make Mom a Memory Jar. She got a pretty vase, and we filled it with 50.5 memories we had of our mother. It was fun to think of them and write them, and even more fun to read. We laughed and cried, and Stef was even ther via Skype!

Here are some more crazy picture from the weekend because that is how we do!

Easter Weekend and New Furniture

We have been busy, busy! There are lots of changes that have been happening in our house, and we got to celebrate the Easter holiday with our Texas Family.

We spent Saturday morning hiking. We went to Eagle Mountain Park at Eagle Mountain Lake and hiked almost two miles. The weather was perfect! I have never really expereinced a REAL Spring. We are having Spring here, and I do love that. Things are green and hope floats on the air!

I put together some killer Easter baskets! I love Easter candy, so I might have gone a little overboard, but does it really matter? Nope! Nick and I have a sort of tradition, and we buy each other new movies for Easter gifts. He got me Disney's Alice in Wonderland and I got him Sherlock Holmes. We even dyed Easter eggs, and I made them into deviled eggs for our Easter celebration on Sunday.

Easter Sunday, Nick and I watched the morning session of General Conference and then went to spend the afternoon with our Texas Family. Cindy had lots of people join her with kids, so we hid eggs and played games. It was a lot of fun, and once again, we are so thankful to have a Texas Family!

Easter weekend we also did a little shopping, and we were able to find a new kitchen table and a new KING bed for a really great deal! The kitchen table is the pub height that I love so much, and while it still only fits four people with no leaf, it is SO much better than what we had before! There is more room, and I just like to look at it! It is pretty.

Here is the picture of our new bed and bedding. It doesn't really do it justice here, so everyone needs to come visit and see for themselves! I have gradually been sleeping better and better on it! My body took a few nights to adjust, and now I am sleeping better than I ever have here!

White Christmas

I love the snow! Even though it was snow that caused my 10 1/2 hour drive home from Montrose, I LOVE IT! It snowed here last night, and I am in such a good mood this morning! I sang "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" all the way in to work this morning. It was fantastic! The pictures I am posting are not of today, but from the Blizzard in 2006 when I was snowed into the house for a good three days! I love looking at these pictures, and I am still proud of the fact that I dug myself out of the house--all by myself! It was five hours of work and three days of soreness after that! The snow is a beautiful and terrible thing. Enjoy the memory!

This is the walkway leading to the front door of the house. I had to get out of the house through the garage! I couldn't open the front door. It was snow packed.

Here is the front of the house! Joey spent the morning running through the snow with me! She loves it! As I shoveled, she chased the flying snow through the air and slept the entire rest of the day. She is a silly puppy! I miss her.

Thanksgiving

I am very thankful for a lot of things. I am thankful for all my friends. I am thankful for the chance to be here longer and to spend more time with those I love. I am thankful for the most wonderful family ever! I am thankful for the boy who really does love me. I am thankful for the chance I have to be here everyday, to learn, to love and to live. So cheesy, I know! This is very general, but my heart is so full that I can't even focus on it all!