M&M's World

Our 2 1/2 Year Old

2012-01-23T18:44:00.000-08:00

I've kind of forgotten about the blog as of late and am quite behind. However, the event of Kenley turning 2 1/2 yesterday (pictured above) reminded me I was due for an update. It feels like the last 2 1/2 years have flown by and what really scares me about that is that in another 2 1/2 years. . . she will be 5!!! That just sounds so old. Anyway, we just love our little toddler like crazy. She brings so much joy to our home and keeps us on our toes and laughing all the time. For history's sake, here are some facts about our little 2 1/2 year old:

Always willing to say “please” when she is reminded to but never says it voluntarily. Actually, she says “please o.k.” Not totally sure where it came from but I think it is because whenever she says “please” I respond with “o.k.” She is better about saying “thank you” without a reminder but isn’t 100% consistent.

Says certain words like “here” and “yea” with a Boston accent.

Moves her 2 camping chairs around the house and always says “here mom” and offers me her pink chair while she sits in the blue one. I always have to stop what I’m doing to sit with her for a minute.

Is obsessed with who things belong to and will always say “this moms” or “this dads” or “this mine” etc.

Possibly thinks mom is just the word for anyone from whom she wants something done. For example, when she hands trash to Mike and wants him to throw it away she says “here mom.”

Is obsessed with my bras and always wants me to put them on her. She also likes to reach down my shirt to find mine which is really great in public.

Says “Where doe” for Where’d it go. Often says “Where Mama doe” when I’m in the same room as a joke.

Loves princesses. Not even sure where she learned what a princess is but she knows and loves them.

When asked to tell a joke, she squints her eyes, tilts her head and does a really cheesy smile. It gets as much of a laugh as a real joke would so there is no way for her to know the difference.

When she wears a skirt, she thinks it is really funny to pull it up over her belly and walk around. I have to admit, it is pretty funny.

Her favorite phrase is “see mom.” While it is really cute, it can be a little bearing too when I’m trying to get something done and she keeps wanting me to look at everything. She does the same thing shopping. . . wants me to look at everything and always says “see mom!” She has a really cute high pitched voice so overall it is really cute to hear.

Is obsessed with going to “Casey’s house.” My sister Kristy always reminds her that there are 6 other people who live there besides Casey but she still insists it is his house. She asks at least 10 times a day to go there.

In general is very clean. She asks for a baby wipe in the car after eating something to wipe her hands. . . she hates having dirty hands. However, she hates having her face wiped.

Loves to help out. Whenever I’m cooking she wants me to pull up a chair for her to stand on so she can help. Whenever it is time to take the compost bucket out to the compost pile, she insists on carrying it all the way out and back. She also insists on feeding the cats each morning. She is always thrilled to be given a task like taking something to the garbage or recycle box, etc.

Loves church. . . especially nursery. One week I had to take her out early because she was sick and you would have thought it was the worst thing I could have done to her. She has screaming like I’ve never heard her do before and was grabbing the door on our way out so that I couldn’t leave.

Continues to be a HUGE eater. People are always shocked to see how much she can eat. We pretty much just have to make her stop eating as she probably wouldn’t do it on her own. She would take eating over playing any day. Poor girl. . . looks like she inherited my unfortunate appetite!

In the past she was obsessed with being outside but now that the weather has changed, she isn’t quite as anxious. . . I think due to all the bundling that is required to go outside. Once that is all taken care of and we are actually outside, she loves it still.

Obsessed with going “bye bye.” This is good for me because I like going places too. It makes her a great shopping partner because she loves to be out and about.

Loves shoes. Awhile back she had her first trip to DSW in which she followed me around insisting I try on every other pair of shoes she saw. She also kept hiding her blankie on different shelves and then wanted me to go find it. The next morning the first thing she said when I went to get her out of bed was “I want go shoe store.” I’ve been nice enough to take her back a few times since.

Still an amazing sleeper. We typically put her down around 7:00 p.m. (although she does o.k. if he keep her up later for some reason or another) and doesn’t usually get us out of bed until after 8:00 a.m. Then she still takes a 2 hour nap. . . we are spoiled! She loves playing in her crib and just chatters and sings away while in there. It is the cutest/sweetest thing to listen to. She reads/sings to her stuffed animals, walks her animals around the perimeter of her crib while saying “walk walk walk” or practices counting.

Thinks passing gas (especially in the tub) and burping are really funny. Guess she wouldn’t be a normal kid if she didn’t.

Loves the Smurfs which is evidence that the McDonalds Happy Meal advertising is effective as that was the first exposure she had to them. She loves singing their La La song although she isn’t such a great singer and basically just shouts La La La. She always wants to watch “Murse Movie” (Smurf Movie) but like any other show, she typically only lasts about 15 minutes before losing interest.

Loves her gummy princess vitamins that she gets after breakfast and dinner. Somehow she has decided that while I’m getting her gummy out of the cupboard, she needs to lay flat on the kitchen rug. Once I get the gummy out she hops up and eats it. Such a nut!

Obsessed with soup. Whenever asked what she is cooking in her kitchen, the response is always soup. She often folds paper or her blankie up while we are driving in the car and says “I made soup mom!” She also calls her suitcase a soupcase. We don’t’ correct her because it is so cute.

Although she went through a short bully stage where she would pinch or push kids for a reaction, she has thankfully come out of it and is generally quite nice. However, she isn’t about to be pushed around by anyone. In her playgroup there is a 3 ½ year old girl who pushes all the rest around because they are younger and sweeter. One time the girl tried taking a toy from Kenley and she wasn’t about to have it and fought back with vigor. The girl was so shocked to have someone stand up to her that she didn’t know what to do and started pouting. The rest of the day she totally tip-toed around Kenley making sure she was happy. All of us moms got a huge kick out of seeing this girl finally be put in her place.

Loves riding on her rocking horse (and her real horse Buddy). When asked to ride like a jockey, she stands up and leans forward just like a jockey.

Happy New Year!!!

2012-01-06T20:53:00.000-08:00

Last week the Porters (my sister Jody's family) came in to town to continue our holiday celebrating. Sadly Jody and Brett had to leave Saturday so we did our New Year's Eve/Post Christmas party on Friday. It turned out being an all day affair. We went to the movie Dolphin Tale, then bowling, then ate dinner, then did our traditional fish pond (I got to be in charge. . . always love a chance to go to the dollar store!), then had a surprise magic show that my mom arranged (Mike joined us at this point after work), then a surprise rap performance by my nieces Brooke and Brenna, then did our annual white elephant exchange. We know how to celebrate! Every part of the celebration was so fun and Kenley enjoyed it so much that she even stayed up past 10:00 p.m.!!!

Brenna, Caden, and Cardon anxiously awaiting their turn to bowl.

The kids kept Kenley well entertained with movies on the i-pod. They are all so sweet with her.

Kenley helping me mix up some doughnut batter for the party. She is such a great helper. . . albeit quite bossy!

Brenna is just amazing with little kids and would voluntarily take Kenley upstairs to play with her whenever she had a chance. When I went up to get them for dinner, Brenna had dressed Kenley up in the hat and scarf that belonged to one of my mom's teddy bears.

Brenna helping Kenley at the fish pond.

Kylie and her boyfriend Andy showing off his fishpond prize (a set of 3 teeth).

Kenley got a little dollhouse and I thought it was so sweet when I looked over and found her surrounded by her teenage cousins all helping her put it together. She is so lucky!

Everyone loved the magician. . . including Kenley. She was watching him just like this the whole time.

Magic Man Brad Hatcher

He started with balloon animals until Mike got home. I think my favorite was Stockton's pregnant dog! Kenley is still madly in love with her balloon bulldog he made her.

The crew admiring Casey's balloon heart crown.

A couple of his tricks involved real doves which were of course a huge hit. . . especially with Kenley. You can see she was trying to get a closer look.

As he was packing up, Kenley just looked at his doves before being carried up to bed.

Brooke and Brenna did the FUNNIEST rap about each adult member of our family. I REALLY wanted to load the video but couldn't get it to work. They were pretty spot on with everyone. SO funny! I heard them laughing upstairs while they were practicing and it made me really hope Kenley can have a sister someday. They just have so much fun together.

The finale of the night was the white elephant gift exchange which is always a blast. We were proud to have brought the most coveted gift (a Snuggie). However, the funniest gift was opened by Casey. . . all the broken crayons and non-working pens the Porters found while cleaning out their house. Genius!

Christmas 2011

2012-01-02T21:14:00.000-08:00

We had a fabulous time celebrating Christmas this year with family.

Christmas Eve started with breakfast with friends. Afterwards we did several last minute preparations (wrapping, etc.) and Mike took some time to take Buddy for a holiday ride around the property.

That evening we got together with the Cobbs at my parents' for our traditional celebrations. It was so great to have my parents home again!

After a delicious dinner of my mom's chili and clam chowder, we did our annual nativity re-enactment outside. Although several people seemed to be taking pictures of the event, none can now be found which makes me really sad! Kenley was baby Jesus and was so cute laying in the hay stone still at the end. While we sang Silent Night at the end she had her eyes glued on me and was moving her lips a little as though trying to learn the song. Then as we were walking to the house, she turned to me and said very clearly "More Holy Night?" I guess she wanted to sing the song again. I thought it was so cute that she picked up on that and she has since made me sing the song for her several times.

No holiday celebration is complete without a didgeridoo serenade!

Casey did the annual reading of the Polar Express and did a wonderful job! I'm telling Kenley to "shhhh" here since she kept running around the whole time singing the "hot, hot, hot. .. hot chocolate" song from the movie.

Kenley wanted a close up view of the reading.

We also had Adam do his famous "left/right" story reading while we passed around our wrapped cereal boxes. He didn't disappoint and kept us laughing the whole time.

After we completed all our traditions, we went home to finish the night. It was pretty exciting to get to spend our first Christmas in our new home!

Kenley got to open the last box of her Playmobil advent. If you look closely at her face, you can see her excitement at finding Santa.

We opened our ornaments from Grammy and Grampa Proudfoot. Here is Kenley getting hers hung on the tree in just the right spot.

We then got the stockings all hung up for Santa. Our new house sadly doesn't have a fireplace so Mike made the cutest artificial one for us so we could still have a place to hang our stockings. I LOVE it and will use it every year!

Kenley modeling her Christmas Eve pajamas she opened. Sadly she had a leaky diaper in the night and didn't get to wear them for Christmas morning.

The stockings all full and ready for Christmas morning (the 2 extras were for my mom and dad who joined us in the morning).

The tree all ready after Santa's arrival. . . just waiting for Kenley to wake up!

Once my parents arrived, we got Kenley out and let her come find her new play kitchen from Santa. She just looked at it in dis-belief for awhile with a grin on her face while she said "mine kitchen?" You can see she wanted to check out every nook and cranny!

Kenley handing out stockings.

Checking out what surprises she can find in her stocking.

My dad modeling the sunglasses we bought him. Very cool! :)

Kenley and Mike modeling their West Virginia shirts from his parents. When Kenley models clothes she holds them with her chin. . . hence her head looking down.

Kenley working on a big one (the Little People Farm from my parents). I love how her tongue is out while she is really working hard!

The cats enjoying their Christmas feast of canned food. We had our own little Christmas miracle. Cici had been missing for a few days and she never strays far from Roxy so we were pretty worried. In the middle of opening our presents, Mike looked outside and said "Here comes Cici!" It really was her. We were so thrilled!

Grandpa and Kenley went out to give Buddy his Christmas treat. . . a bowl of grain. He actually got a bag of apple/carrot treats but they hadn't been opened yet.

Once the animals were fed, we were able to feast on Mike's traditional cheese souffle and spiced fruit. YUM!!!!

After breakfast we all got ready and went to church with the Cobbs since Kylie was playing the piano in sacrament meeting. It was such a beautiful service and I decided that I love having Christmas on a Sunday. Going to church helped us to specifically take time out of the day to remember why we were celebrating.

We then went to the Cobbs for dinner and more present opening.

A stuffed and happy crew after eating a delicious meal.

Kenley opening her present from the Cobbs. . . a new baby doll with a crib and a horse shaped stroller. She was THRILLED!

I couldn't resist including this picture of Tyler with his BSU socks and pink Easy Bake Oven he got from Santa. If you know what a cocky tough guy he is, then you know just how hilarious this gift was. . . especially since he loved it!

Kenley loved her new horse stroller so much that she insisted on carrying it on her lap the entire drive home. She wouldn't think of letting me move it onto the seat beside her. Funny girl!

We are truly blessed in so many ways but especially with loving family and the love of our Savior who makes it possible for us to overcome our weaknesses and return to live with our Heavenly Father. I'm grateful for this time of year and the chance it gives us to celebrate Him.

Chirstmas Deliveries

2011-12-27T08:08:00.001-08:00

Our first Christmas season together Mike and I went all out on our Christmas deliveries:

We made homemade peanut brittle, Norwegian twist cookies, made and decorated gingerbread men and Christmas sugar cookies. We also tossed in some old fashioned hard candy. While it was really fun and really delicious, in years following it just proved to be too much to do this time of year so we never really did an organized Christmas delivery again.

This year I think we came up with the perfect solution for us. For years our traditional Thanksgiving breakfast has been homemade orange cranberry muffins. We decided these would be the perfect thing for our deliveries this year.

Luckily I inherited some huge bowls from my grandma as we had to quadruple the recipe.

Mike brought these cute Christmas liners home from work to make a more festive muffin.

Some of the final products ready for delivery. For houses that we took 4 or less to, we did the bags. For 5 or more we did the plates. It was a fairly simple but unique holiday treat and I think this will become our holiday delivery tradition from now on (although next year I'm buying a juicer so I don't have to juice all the oranges by hand).

Happy 8th Anniversary!

2011-12-24T12:30:00.000-08:00

A couple days ago Mike and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary! Since we hadn't been back to Sun Valley since our honeymoon, we decided to celebrate there. My parents took Kenley and we spent 3 days and 2 nights in the beautiful town. Mike took the reins and did all the planning. The first surprise was the reservation he made for us to stay at the Sun Valley Lodge! For all the many, many times I have been to Sun Valley in my life, I don't believe I have ever actually stayed in the lodge so that was a very exciting surprise. We went on the dinner sleigh ride like we did on our honeymoon (although due to lack of snow, it was a dinner wagon ride). We did a lot of shopping around Sun Valley Village and Ketchum (by shopping I mean just looking, not buying. . .that town is too rich for our pockets!). Mike surprised me with an hour massage at the lodge spa. . .what a treat! We happened to be there for the 75th anniversary Silver and Gold Ice show. Mike got tickets and we were able to see Evan Lysacek, Sasha Cohen, Nathan Chen, Kim Navarro & Brent Bommentre, and Irina Grigorian skate. It was a small venue so we were able to be close enough to really see their faces and hear their skates. It was incredible! We also ate tons of yummy food and just had a great time relaxing. Thanks Mike for an amazing anniversary celebration and for 8 fabulous years!!!

Some night shots around the village:

The view of the skating rink and Bald Mountain from our hotel window:

Sasha Cohen skating and the after show fireworks:

Some daytime shots around the village:

Baby Jesus

2011-12-14T23:14:00.001-08:00

We collect nativity scenes and our collection includes a Playmobil and Little People set which Kenley is allowed to play with. Ever since we got them out, Kenley has been obsessed with Baby Jesus. So much so that she insists on sleeping with her Little People baby Jesus and has designated her pink flowered blankie as his. The whole thing is pretty cute and pretty hilarious.

A shot of Kenley settling down for a nap with her bedtime companion. She is saying "cheese" in this picture.

McCall Retreat

2011-12-10T20:41:00.000-08:00

This past week we were lucky enough for Mike to have a full week off so we decided to spend the first 3 days relaxing in McCall. It was heavenly to have that time to just be together without any stress. It also gave us a chance to get our Christmas cards sent out while watching the cheesy Christmas shows I love so much!

We had a constant fire going in the stove which was so cozy!

We ate yummy food at the Pancake House and Woodys. I didn't get any pictures of us actually eating out so I included this one of Kenley ready to go to the Pancake House.

We also did tons of playing in the snow which Kenley LOVED. She was especially fond of sledding. Here Kenley and I are heading up our original sledding hill.

A happy snow bunny!

Mike and Kenley heading up the path to the sledding hill.

For whatever reason, as soon as we got there Kenley kept talking about wanting to "roll in the snow." We have NO idea where she got that idea or what she even meant by it. This picture is the closest we got to her actually rolling in the snow. What a nut!

Mike and Kenley taking a turn down the hill.

Kenley and I heading down.

We also tried out our Black Friday donut maker.

I promise they tasted better than they looked!

We also couldn't miss out on a trip to the rec center pool. This is a pretty classy looking duo!

The first steps in are the hardest!

Like me, Kenley prefers the hot tub! She was more willing to jump to Mike in there than in the actual pool.

And we did even more playing in the snow! We made Kenley hike through the brush on her own.

We wanted to see a bit more of the golf course on this outing. Luckily twine is a guaranteed presence at any property of my dad's so we were able to tow her along on the sled.

On our hike we found an even better sled hill than the day before. Kenley screamed with joy and entire way down each time.

More shouts of joy on the way down.

Thanksgiving

2011-12-04T22:33:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving was a great week long celebration to kick off the holiday season. It started the Saturday before with my mom, Kenley and I going to the Boise Holiday parade. It was such a fun parade although it was sadly the start of Kenley's first time being sick (beyond just a runny nose). After the parade ended the sweetest little girl came up to us and informed us she had been left by her grandparents. She was so sweet and helped us get a hold of her mom who then got a hold of her grandma who came back to pick her up. I'm glad she was smart enough to come talk to us! Below are some favorites from the parade:

This tiny burro was the cutest thing ever!

Kind of a creepy clown. Poor wiped out Kenley couldn't even respond.

This car just made me laugh!

Poor Kenley watching some holiday movies while on sick leave with her buddies. This was the first time we were ever able to get her to sit through most of a movie.

The Monday before Mike decided not to do a repeat of last year's blizzard light hanging and took advantage of the nice weather to get them up before Thanksgiving.

Kenley who thought she was back to 100% couldn't be contained indoors so she came out and helped me plant bulbs and watched dad work away.

Some shots of the finished product:

Sadly our camera died the day of the actual feast so I only have this shot that my niece took. We enjoyed an amazing feast and a fabulous time together. And keeping with Thanksgiving tradition, we went to the movie Smurfs before hitting the Black Friday scene. Mike went to Toys R Us 9:00 p.m. opening. When he got back me and my sister went to the midnight opening of the mall. We got home in time for him to make it back to Cabelas 5:00 a.m. opening. We did pretty great! Shopping for Kenley is completely done and we got some things we needed for around the house.

Saturday morning we had the special opportunity of waking up early and traveling to the Twin Falls temple to do baptisms. Tyler took care of Kenley in the waiting room while we all went in. It was such a neat experience to share together!

We went to breakfast afterwards and Adam asked Kenley if she wanted to ride home with them. To everyone's shock, she actually said yes. . .walked over to him after eating and let him carry her out to the car. She didn't even change her mind as the car seat was being transferred and was just so excited about the adventure. This is a shot of her being thoroughly entertained by her favorite cousin Casey.

The following Monday we went to get our Christmas tree. We went right after Kenley's wigglers class and we couldn't convince her to put sweatpants over her wigglers clothes so this is how she helped out. Thank goodness I was at least able to get her to put a sweatshirt and vest on!

The final product. It had to be smaller than the ones we got in our Houston home but I love it!

And just a little shot of our Christmas home. The other tree is an artificial tree Mike got for 90% off at Kmart after the holidays a few years ago.

SNOW!!!

2011-12-01T21:14:00.001-08:00

I know this is really late but we got our first (and pretty much only) snow of the year on November 4th. Kenley LOVED it and didn't want to come in. The rest of the day she kept saying "more snow." If only I could have control over such things! Our fingers are crossed for a winter wonderland.

Trying to catch some flakes in her mouth.

Roxy finding safety near the trees.

Daisy braving the elements.

Kenley and Buddy bonding in the cold stuff. She just LOVES Buddy and has zero fear when around him.

Fall

2011-11-22T19:32:00.001-08:00

Once again I'm very far behind in my blogging but I just had to do a post dedicated to fall. It is one of my favorite times of the year. . . beautiful colors, fresh and crisp air, and of course the holiday kick off.

A couple weeks ago we all went for a walk along the river in Star. It was such a beautiful fall day and was just so nice to be outside.

On another beautiful fall day we did a lot of work outside before heading to the park and taking a walk along the river.

About a month ago Kenley's friend Miles came to play so his mom could have some alone time with her new baby Oliver. The two had a blast exploring every square inch of the property and playing with the cats.

Naughty Toys

2011-11-20T18:40:00.000-08:00

Apparently Kenley was having a hard time with her toys today as we found both Elmo and Farmer Smurf sitting in her time out corner at separate times. I would love to know what their transgressions were! Such a funny girl that keeps us thoroughly entertained!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-03T22:35:00.001-07:00

Although I love all holidays, Halloween has to be one of my favorites! An opportunity to dress up in costume and people give out free candy? What could be better! The past week we had a great time celebrating over and over!

Last week Kenley and I went to the most amazing party! This family holds a huge party each year which is totally free to the public. It started out with a hay wagon ride picking people up from their cars to take them to the home. After we arrived Batman and Spiderman parachuted in!

Although Kenley doesn't really know who Spiderman and Batman are, she was super intrigued by the men coming out of the sky! Isn't she the cutest little Boise State cheerleader you have ever seen? The outfit was a birthday present from the Cobbs and has gotten good use!

Kenley with Spiderman. Sadly my camera battery died at this point so my friend took this picture with her phone. Not sure what happened to my head! After the superheros, a crop duster flew over about 10 or so times and dropped tons of candy with each flyover. It was SO fun seeing all the kids try to guess where the candy would drop and running to get a piece of the taking. 2 separate kids offered Kenley a piece of their candy since she wasn't as fast which was the sweetest thing ever! For days she was talking about "airplane! candy!"

After warming up with some chili and hot chocolate, we went on the young kids non-haunted hay wagon ride. Later they did a haunted hay wagon ride. After our wagon ride we got some popcorn and headed home. Kenley cried when she heard we had to go despite being freezing cold and tired. What an amazing experience and we can't wait to go next year!

A couple days later we went to the Andrus's house to carve pumpkins. Kenley caught on quickly and wanted to clean out the entire pumpkin herself.

She did a pretty good job!

The crew working away.

Kenley pausing to enjoy some apples and caramel. Some managed to make it in her mouth but most ended up on her shirt.

The final products. Kenley and I did the one on the far right. Mike and Kenley did the one 2nd from the left.

I took every chance I could to hold their brand new (less than a week old) baby Oliver. Have you seen a cuter newborn? I just love him. . . luckily so does Kenley.

Saturday Mike took Kenley to the tri-ward trunk-or-treat (I wasn't feeling well). She caught on right away and couldn't believe her luck at collecting more candy!

So excited about her take!

Halloween day Kenley helped me make pumpkin soup (my latest love and obsession) and pumpkin cookies to take to my parents for our celebration that night.

We figured we wouldn't get any trick-or-treaters but just in case, we left this bowl out. It was all there when we returned that night!

I decided to dress as a B.S.U superfan to go along with Kenley's costume. Here we are ready to hit the streets for some candy. Surprisingly Kenley kept the B.S.U. stickers on her cheeks the whole night.

Heading out to conquer!

We met up with Sophie and Miles Andrus to trick-or-treat their neighborhood.

Once the Cobbs arrived, Kristy brought Caden and Tyler to join up with us. They were so cute with Kenley and she just loved trick-or-treating with them. I think she would have gone all night and kept saying "next house." We ended up with WAY too much candy. . . as if there is such a thing! We then went to my parents to enjoy chili, pumpkin soup, and cheesy potato soup with my parents and the Cobbs. Another fabulous Halloween season! Now bring on the rest of the holidays!

House Update. . . Almost the Last!

2011-11-01T22:48:00.000-07:00

I know I should be doing our Halloween update now but decided that since 1 Nov was the day we found and made an offer on this house (pictured left upon returning from placing the offer), that I should do a house update. It turns out there was more to include than could be in a single post so this post I will include just some of the last big projects. Next a will do a final before and after post and then you will be done reading house update posts!!!

HARDWOOD FLOORS

With the help of our vetran hardwood floor laying friend Richard and the Cobbs, Mike tackled the hardwood floors himself. It all started with the vapor barrier shown above.

After the vapor barrier, Mike and Richard went to work actually laying the wood down.

The supply room for the project. Mike's preliminary measurements were pretty amazing as we had very little left over in the end.

The Cobbs didn't want to miss all the fun so Adam, Zac, and Casey came to move things along more quickly.

Mike and the Cobb boys finishing up the hallway.

After laying all the wood, Mike had to move on to the hardest part. . . finishing. He worked into the wee hours of a few nights getting that done.

And it was all worth it for the finished product! I chose a character hickory because I love the variation of color and all the knots. I also chose to do a mixed width (3", 4", and 5") to add more interest. I couldn't be happier with the end result!

The hallway finished product.

DOORS

All the doors in our house were in need of a new coat of paint so I carried them outside, and sprayed them. Turned out our house had way more doors than I had imagined. The white paint on the grass has just barely grown out! I also spray painted all the brass hinges black.

I learned the hard way that not all our doors are the same width after my brother Jared and I hung this smaller door on our master bedroom frame.

My little helper Kenley carrying empty paint buckets back to the garage from my painting spot.

More of my worker bee.

Although I love our wooden front door, it didn't go with our exterior paint color so I had a go at that too.

Kenley the helper couldn't wait to get a few strokes in with the primer.

The final product. I chose it to match the bistro set Mike brought me home from KMart. I love how it turned out although I would like to replace the glass at some point.

LIGHT FIXTURES

Lighting throughout the house was my job. The only new fixtures we bought were in the main living area. I was totally stuck on what fixture to do in the living room. When I found the one pictured right I couldn't believe my luck because it was exactly the kind of fixture I was looking for. I love it!

Our entry way and hallway had these lovely brass fixtures shown above. I decided they had potential.

Rather than buy new ones, I spray painted them red and LOVE them!

This fixture I found at IKEA and knew I had to use it somewhere. The only place I could figure to use it was in our master closet. It makes me feel happy every time I go in there!

KITCHEN CABINETS

Painting the cabinets proved to be a huge undertaking! Just looking at how young Kenley looks here reminds me of how long it took to get through the project. At this point I was just sanding them in preparation for priming.

The painted backbones ready for the actual cabinets to come back up.

My red island with the cabinet doors on.

A shot of the top row of brown cabinets. I painted all these brass hinges black too.

While hanging the cabinets took a long time, it was no match for how long it took to replace all the drawer fronts. And replacing the drawer fronts didn't compare to how long it took to install the knobs! I decided to do 4 different colors all of the same shape and size. I LOVE them and the personality they add to the kitchen.

Tyler sacked out in the closest thing he could find to a bed one day while I was putting on knobs and Kristy was helping do paint touch-up.

BASEBOARDS

Mike slaved away the weekend before my parents came home getting all the baseboards up. What an amazing difference that made!!! We still need to do the finish work on them but at least they are up and look great.

A better shot of what a difference the baseboards make!

TILE

Our first tiling project was to tile the countertop in the guest bathroom. This project fell to my friend Erika and I. She is a very experienced tiler so most of the credit can go to her. It went quickly and we had a fun time. Luckily the carpets weren't in yet so we could use the guest room as our work area with the wet saw.

End of day 1. We had to let everything set before we could do the grout on day 2.

The finished product!

Next Mike and Zac set to work doing the tile in the laundry room. I LOVE checkerboard floor patterns but didn't really have a kitchen for it (where I really love them). My friend suggested I do it in the laundry room which I thought was the perfect place to have some fun with my floor!

They did an amazing job! You would never guess it was their first tiling project. I LOVE it!!!!!

Mike then tiled the guest bathroom floor. Since the room is such a bold color, I wanted the tile to all be pure white. I love this tile pattern for adding some interest to a plain white tile floor.

Our final tile job was the kitchen backsplash. These tiles I found the same day as my light fixture mentioned above and felt equally amazed that I had found EXACTLY what I was looking for. Since these tiles were thicker and odd shaped and pricier than the others we had done, we decided to hire this project out. I didn't get any working shots but here they are after work day 1.

And the final product after work day 2. I couldn't be happier! It is exactly the look I was going for!!!

Just looking through these old pictures makes me even more amazed that we are actually living here in a comfortable house! It also makes me amazed at all the great help we have had along the way.

Harvest Festival

2011-10-29T17:00:00.000-07:00

One of the landscape nurseries nearby hosts an annual Harvest Festival which is free to the public. My friends told me about it so we took the kids for a morning of pre-Halloween fun.

Here is Kenley coloring her free pumpkin at the pumpkin decorating station. I couldn't believe they let the kids have these beautiful pumpkins for free.

They had game stations at which the kids received tickets they could exchange for treats at the end. Here is Kenley at the fishing pond.

At this station they used a giant golf club to putt a tiny pumpkin into the hole. The boy working this station was so sweet and encouraging. My favorite station was a pumpkin seed spitting station where they measured how far each kid could spit a pumpkin seed. You can imagine how far (or not far) Kenley's went.

Kenley with her ticket reward treats by the giant pumpkin.

We also did a free hayride, enjoyed getting to pet a darling rabbit, and sampled lots of local varieties of apples and peaches. They had a bouncy castle too but Kenley was too scared to get near it. This was such a great service to the community and my friend and I decided we would both be stopping here for our future landscaping needs!

McCall

2011-10-28T15:22:00.000-07:00

About a month ago we made a trip to McCall with my parents so Mike and my dad could install a new water heater and washer. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of our time together with them but in addition to the big projects, we did enjoy fly fishing (the boys), shopping (the girls), swimming (the girls), and a Pancake House breakfast (all). My parents left early our second day and so Mike, Kenley, and I decided to hike up to Louie Lake so Mike could do some more fishing.

Mike and Kenley on the way up.

Kenley and I enjoying a granola bar together at the lake.

A bald eagle flying over the lake.

Mike and Kenley doing some fishing off the shore.

Mike's second and biggest catch of the day.

On the trip down Kenley got the biggest kick out of Mike sticking his head back on hers.

Irresistible laugh!

All that laughing tuckered her out and by the time we made it to the bottom, she was out cold!

Mike making the final crossing with Kenley.

Me following behind.

Afterwards we went downtown to walk around. Kenley LOVED the water fountain. It wasn't particularly hot but our little water baby didn't care and had a great time getting drenched.

Her favorite trick was stepping on the streams of water and making it spray all over.

Eventually we made our way to the lake where she wasn't satisfied unless she was actually out in the water.

Who needs dry clothes when there is so much fun to be had!

After our play time we walked around a bit (Kenley as usual insisting on pushing the stroller) before heading home. What a great, relaxing, and beautiful get-away!

Pocket Full of Posies

2011-10-27T07:36:00.000-07:00

Recently my little sister and her friend started up a business making these darling wreaths. I ordered the candy cane stripe one and LOVE it! I'm thinking I may want to get the candy corn one as well (I love holidays). You can check out their full inventory at: Pocket Full of Posies. They are $25 each and you can also specialty order if you would like a specific color. You can email them at: rwposies@gmail.com if you have any questions or would like to place an order.

Cookie Time

2011-10-25T21:30:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the post-dinner/pre-bedtime phase is a little hard for me. There isn't enough time to go somewhere or do anything major. However, it is too much time to start the bedtime routine right away. Awhile back I found the perfect solution while shopping the refrigerated section of Albertsons. Pre-made cookie dough! They have packages with small cookies that are perfect to make with a 2 year old. It's a perfect time filler and we both enjoy a warm tasty treat! We don't do it every day but it has been the perfect fill in when needed.

Kenley reading the directions. This particular day we had been out in the rain so she wanted to take her pants off. However, she then decided she wanted to put her heels on over her socks. She was prancing around with all the confidence in the world. This girl sure keeps me laughing! This picture also cracks me up because she stands like this a lot (belly and bum sticking far out in their designated direction).

Spreading out the chunks of cookie dough. Note: This was before we had unpacked our kitchen so we were using sheets of aluminum foil for our cookie sheets.

This is a MAJOR test of patience for a 2 year old!

Enjoying the final reward. It is possible that I eat a high percentage of these (as well as a couple before they are baked).

This is just included as evidence of Kenley prancing around the house in her stylish outfit.

2 Year Old Mood Swings

2011-10-17T19:02:00.001-07:00

The 2 pictures below were literally taken about 30 seconds apart. Anyone who has had a 2 year old most likely does not find this one tiny bit surprising. As Kenley is my first, the drastic mood changes still throw me for a loop sometimes!

New Additions

2011-10-16T19:30:00.000-07:00

After finding a mouse in the house awhile back, we decided it was immediately time to get some cats. We brought our old Houston cat Kitty over from my parents' house but decided that wasn't enough. So we started looking on Craigslist. We found 3 free cats that sounded perfect. With us taking Kitty, my mom was also in the market for a new cat or 2 so we went to check these out. It was a pretty wild experience having to capture and then wrangle the 3 cats into boxes but we finally did it. It was really a pretty hilarious experience. Despite their initial wild cat attitudes when we tried to catch them, they have turned out to be the cutest and sweetest cats. We just LOVE them! I should also mention that Mike finally got his true initiation into the Hendricks family when he and my dad went to the clinic and spayed all of them. We are still working on finalizing names and are committed to not end up with another "Kitty."

The gray kitten. This was originally going to be my mom's. However, she and the other kitten are so attached that my mom decided to let us keep her. YAY!!! So, now we are checking out Craigslist for more kittens for her. She is the softest kitty and is real lovey. This picture doesn't do her justice.

The black kitten. This kitty put up a major fight when we caught her and we have no doubt she will be our best mouser. She has the loudest purr though and and is really sweet. I love how she has black teardrop markings below her eyes.

This is the mama kitty. We don't know that she really is the mom but she takes on that role. She is just gorgeous with really green eyes and is the most lovable cat I've ever met. She prefers being outside to being on the screen porch we have designated for the crew. However, she comes running in from wherever she is when we call her.

The "mama" cat follows us when we go on walks which I just love!

Kenley just LOVES when they climb in the trees.

This shot just totally captures what a lovebug the "mama" cat is. Despite Kenley picking her up in not so gentle manner, she still loves her just as much as any of us. That was why I couldn't give her up to my mom. . . I know I'm selfish.

Kenley loves to try and help out. We do allow her to bring them their food (they are major pigs) but we don't allow her to clean the litter box though occasionally she gets a hold of the scoop.

Kenley's Horse Ride

2011-10-11T20:13:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago I texted my dad to see if he wanted to go on a horse ride the next day. He suggested all of us go including my mom and Kenley. Although Kenley has ridden several times out in my dad's corral, she has never actually been up in the hills on a real horse ride so I was excited to take her for her first real ride. She LOVED it! She just jabbered on the whole time and told the horses "bless you" every time they snorted. She is my favorite little cowgirl!

Here she is all decked out and ready to go. . . cutest little cowgirl I've ever seen!

On our way. You can tell she was just totally relaxed. The only thing she didn't like was riding downhill. Since we were bareback I couldn't help but slide forward when we did and it pushed her up on the horse's withers.

On our way up. I should note the strange pink stuff on some of the horses is just a fly repellant that my dad put on them ahead of time. Looks pretty crazy.

At the top.

More poses at the top.

My favorite thing was that Kenley had a bareback riding Wrangler bum like I always have after a long ride (I'll skip including the pictures of both of us as hers is much cuter).

Dad, mom, and Kenley's dusty boots afterwards (and Kenley's flower she had me pick along the way).

Peaches!

2011-10-09T20:43:00.000-07:00

Well, I haven't been very good at getting my blog caught up so here is another attempt. About a month ago I heard about our church's orchards in Caldwell. More importantly I heard that they were done harvesting peaches for the cannery and that you could collect peaches for free. So, I loaded up Kenley and we went to check things out. The trees were still loaded and we had a great time filling our laundry basket with beautiful fruit!

Kenley climbing up on my ladder to take a try. I just absolutely love my little sidekick!!! It is so nice to always have someone to go on these little adventures with me.

I showed her some of the lower branches she could pick from without having to climb up the shaky ladder.

Easiest however was just pulling peaches off the ground that had fallen on their own.

Our take!

Obviously we couldn't eat all those peaches before they went bad so my mom came over one night and helped me can a batch with the peaches that were ready. A few days later I canned the rest.

In the end I got 35 jars of peaches! In addition I did a dehydrator full and had several left over just for eating. This is a tradition I can't wait to continue and I'm looking forward to enjoying this fruit throughout the cold of winter!

Labor Day Camping

2011-10-02T21:49:00.000-07:00

In an attempt to re-create our fabulous camping trip of Labor Day 2010, we took a break from house projects and headed up to Shafer Butte just past Bogus Basin. Mike, Kenley, and I went up early afternoon to secure a spot and the Cobbs joined us after everyone got out of school. Unfortunately we didn't get many pictures from the trip and got zero with the Cobbs. We had a great time hiking, eating delicious camping food and enjoying the scenery. Luckily the campsite was less than an hour from home as Mike had to take Kenley home in the night to get some sound sleep. We are hoping that next year we can find the time to go camping more often and that Kenley will sleep more soundly.

Enjoying a hike before the Cobbs arrived. Kenley insisted on carrying the camera case while hiking. She also wanted to stop and inspect every butterfly, flower, ant, piece of moss, etc. that we passed by.

The stunning view from our campsite.

And our campsite just waiting for the rest of the crew to arrive.

Homecoming!

2011-09-30T22:12:00.001-07:00

Well, I've been living in a bubble since our move (yes we did move into the new house!) and am finally getting in communication with the outside world. I have a lot to catch up on and will probably have to do a post a day for awhile. Anyway, the big news is. . . my parents made it home from their mission to Australia! It was a very crazy time getting our house ready to move in to and their house ready to hand back over but my siblings who all came in to town were AMAZING!!! They worked tirelessly for hours. My brother Jared who I hadn't seen in 2 years gave up time with his in-laws to help with various projects around our new house.

Here he is installing our bathroom fixtures. Who knows how long it would have taken us to prioritize some of these projects he did.

Kenley immediately loved him and wanted to be by his side the whole time he was working.

The nieces and nephews all toiled to help us too. One night when we were moving our stuff over, Garrett and Kaly came and worked like crazy helping me haul boxes in and get unpacked.

I came to check on them at one point and Garret was carefully hanging all of Kenley's clothes on her hangers. SO cute and sweet!

I then went in to Kenley's room and found Kaly carefully hanging the clothes from Garrett in Kenley's closet. She had it all organized. They are the cutest and sweetest kids!

Camden passed out after helping late into the night.

Jared hauling a load over.

The older nephews all helping to assemble the furniture. They did a great job.

The Hendricks' family all laboring to get the yard in tip top shape. Unfortunately I didn't get shots of every single helper but there wasn't a member of my family that didn't do a TON. I seriously am SO blessed to have the family I do.

After a several hour delay, it was finally time to go pick up my parents late at night so we all donned our Australia apparel and headed out.

The little twins in their kangaroo shirts ready to go.

We were quite a scene all of us there. Finally the big moment arrived and you can see we didn't even let my parents get beyond the entrance to the public area before they were bombarded by family members VERY happy to see them!

The happy reunited crew (minus Brooke, Brenna, and Brett who came later in the week).

The big surprise for my parents was that we all came together in the Cobb's bus! It was so fun that we all got to be together.

Kenley had a permanent grin the whole time.

Happy crew.

The darling "Welcome Home" sign the Porters made. Sadly it was too dark to see when we got home but my parents could admire it in the morning.

It didn't take long for my dad to get back into his old self giving the grandkids crazy experiences like dragging the old toy Jeep behind the 4-wheeler. First Kenley enjoyed her ride on the 4-wheeler.

Then she moved back to the Jeep with Preston. He was so sweet to her riding with his arm around her to keep her safe the whole time.

Their first day home we let my parents sleep in. That night though we were up for fun and all went to the Natatorium to enjoy a night swimming and going down the hydrotube.

Kenley and I. She LOVED it! By the end she was convulsing with cold but when we tried to wrap her in a towel she just started crying and saying "More slide!"

My dad's graceful exit.

Kenley taking a turn with dad.

The next night the Cobbs had us out for an amazing dutch oven dinner, nighttime football, an outdoor movie, and S'mores. Kaly, Jody and I had a great time being the official cheerleaders for our football players.

Saturday we went to Tyler and Caden's football games and the farmer's market. Here are Kenley and Averi enjoying the bedding at Anthropologie.

Luckily Randi and Averi were able to stay another week after everyone left so we could do lots of shopping and go to the fair. Unfortunately, I didn't get many pictures from that time but I did at least get this twin shot.

Our forever family friends the Fuhrimans had us out for dinner before Randi left. I had to include this shot of Randi on their push car fire engine.

A good-bye kiss for these 2 sweet cousins.

Swim Lessons!

2011-08-05T22:15:00.000-07:00

Kenley just recently finished 2 weeks of swim lessons and LOVED every minute of it! It was the same class she took last year and I was shocked to see how much more she could do this year. It was totally the highlight of every day for her. We are even thinking we may have to get a gym membership once pools close so she can keep doing her favorite thing.

Working on the back float. Typically her legs are straight in the air so this is a rare shot. You can see the shear joy on her face.

Doing the wall crawl to the steps. It was pretty crazy how good she was at hanging on the wall and how far she could pull herself along on it. She would hold on with just one hand and grab toys, turn around, and would even sometimes let go completely to try to swim to me. I have to really watch her now that her confidence is beyond her ability!

"Swimming" to the wall. She knows to use her arms and legs and to keep her head up.

Her all time favorite thing however is jumping in. She would just want to do it over and over. If I ever took her to the stairs, she would climb out and go running to her jumping point of choice. Again, I had to really keep a sharp eye on her this year. In fact, at a neighborhood pool last week she just jumped in to the kiddie area by herself. Luckily it was shallow!

More jumping!

As with last year, the teacher took underwater shots of each of the kids. The teacher couldn't believe how happy Kenley was and that she keeps her eyes and mouth open but doesn't get any water in her mouth.

Since the first photo was off center, the teacher took a second and proved that the look of joy wasn't a fluke.

At the end of each class, the teacher would have us just do something fun with the kids like the horsey ride shown above.

Just as much as the swimming, Kenley loved playing on the slides and play equipment in the yard. We would always stay another 15-20 minutes after her lesson so she could play. Such a fun 2 week experience for my little fish!

Hammer Time!

2011-08-03T22:57:00.001-07:00

A couple weeks ago, a dream came true for me. . . M.C. Hammer was one of the musical guests at the Boise Music Festival!!! He was my very first concert I ever attended back in 7th grade and quite frankly, I didn't think I would get the chance again. Luckily my friends Shannon and Renee were just as excited for the opportunity to see him. Despite all the work that needed to be done at the house, Mike knew I couldn't miss the hammer. Before he performed we saw Sugar Ray. It was a very packed, sweaty crowd (what do you expect at an outdoor, free concert). I was thinking maybe it wasn't worth it. However, from the time Hammer came on stage until he left, I had a permanent grin on my face. It was great!!! Joan Jett was after but we decided we would rather go get something to eat. It was a fabulous girls night out!

Here we are waiting for Sugar Ray to start. We were standing by some crazy lady who thought that because she got there early to reserve a spot, people shouldn't stand within 5 feet of her.

M.C. Hammer!!!!!!! There was a row through the middle of the crowd and he and his dancers would come down now and then to dance. I loved it because he actually put on a show. Sugar Ray just came out and sang but M.C. Hammer had several back-up dancers and was of course dancing himself. The whole crowd was VERY disappointed however that he wasn't wearing Hammer Pants!

One of his dancers. This shot just makes me laugh so I had to include it.

Our 2 Year Old

2011-07-31T20:37:00.000-07:00

I've got several posts I need to do but couldn't move on until I gave a little synopsis of what our little toddler is up to now that she is two:

· Walks! I know she has been walking for awhile now but this is the first milestone update that I have been able to say that on since she still wasn’t walking at 18 months.

· Weighs 23 pounds. . . 25^th percentile!!! She is also 34 inches. . . 50^th percentile!!! She isn’t so tiny anymore.

· Still loves to sleep and goes to bed generally at 7:00 p.m. and doesn’t get us out of bed until after 8:00 a.m. We are very spoiled! The shot above shows her new bed at the new house. She takes naps in our closet while I'm working which has made a world of difference in the progress I can make while there!

· Is generally pretty good about holding my hand and likes to do it which is great for safety. Many times while driving I will reach my hand back to her car seat and she will hold my hand while we drive. I LOVE it!

· Likes to clean and is very agreeable when I ask her to put things away. In fact, she is often asking me to put things away around the house (plenty of opportunities to tell me that). In the morning if Mike and I have left our water glasses from the night before on the coffee table, she will bring them to me to put up. She doesn’t like drawers to be sticking part way open or doors to be almost shut. She also likes to put stuff in the garbage. That can be really gross when you are out and about and she brings you a cigarette butt to put in the garbage.

· At 18 months had never gotten sick but now seems to go from one runny nose strain to the next. That is at least the worst she has had. She is really good at letting me know when she needs her nose wiped.

· Talks like crazy though for the most part it isn’t super clear. Many times I have to ask her to show me what she is asking for and once I see it, it makes sense.

· Is a very good eater. In fact, whenever someone watches her, the first comment I usually get is that they can’t believe how much she can eat. I guess she unfortunately got my appetite!

· Has a hilarious sense of humor and loves to make us laugh. Many time she does something she doesn't know is funny but when we start to laugh, she starts laughing hysterically as though she were trying to be funny the whole time.

· Loves to have showers. I can’t have one without her walking in and joining me. Every day when we got home from swim lessons she would start begging for a shower which she usually got. We both wish she would have had that obsession when we were on our New Zealand trip and had to shower with her in the R.V. parks. It was a nightmare back then.

· LOVES swimming!!!! She just finished swim lessons which will be its own blog post so I will leave it at that.

· Has recently gotten really into her doll. She didn’t care that much about dolls until then but now loves to take care of her and give her kisses. It is the sweetest thing!

· Thinks it is funny to get into trouble. Makes it a little hard to discipline. Sadly, I know exactly who she gets that trait from. . . me!

· Used to sound so sweet when she said “no.” It was really high pitched and sounded like “new.” Now she has picked up the typical 2 year old way of saying “NO!” She has also become a fan of screaming lately. She also likes to scratch and pinch and has drawn blood on my face multiple times. Overall though, I think she is a pretty nice 2 year old and is always willing to say “sorry” afterwards.

· Loves trying to put pants/shorts/swimsuits on herself and inevitably gets both legs through one hole each time. It is pretty hilarious to see her trying to walk around that way.

· Doing much better in her wigglers gymnastics class. She can even hold her weight up by her arms on the bars now and swing on the rings. She is also no longer scared of the foam pit and is getting pretty good at the balance beam.

· Loves to ride anything as though it is a horse. She makes her horsie sound while rocking her body as though having a wild ride.

· Gets nervous when she hears an airplane overhead and runs for one of us. Once she is in our arms, she loves watching them.

· She loves to model for me on the hearth or next to it when I take pictures of how cute she is.

· Loves to help. Whenever I’m working she likes to get right in and help me however she can. For example, when I was cleaning the shop at our new house I put the 4-wheeler in neutral to push it in and out or the shop. Each time I did she would get right next to me and push with me the whole way. So cute!

· Loves trying on my shoes and walking around in them. . . mainly my heels.

· Has been very tolerant of all of our work at the house. She is getting very little kid time lately as we spend our days there and she is just a little trooper.

· Watches everything we do which sometimes catches me by surprise. (saw Mike opening a bag with his teeth and now tries to bite any bag to get it open, unscrewed my mascara and put it all over her eyes, etc.)

· Is really good about wearing hats which is great for summer so that I don’t have to fix her hair or stress about sunscreen every day.

· Possibly has Mike’s curly hair. It is long and curly in the back but the top and front are short and straight so I’m not quite sure how it will grow out. I can’t bring myself to cut her curls off so for the time being she has a mullet that I take care of with pigtails or a hat. Due to her curls, her pigtails can have a life of their own sometimes.

· Loves playing in her pool but mainly for filling up buckets and dumping them elsewhere.

· Loves slides, swings, and anything a little wild. At a park she will just climb up and slide down the slides over and over.

· Whenever she gets hurt or sad she says “night night” over and over. I guess her bed is where she finds comfort.

· Still can’t survive with out her blankie (or bishee as she calls it). She has now figured out how to hold it with the same hand as the two middle fingers she sucks. She puts the two middle fingers in her mouth, extends her pointer finger, and shoves the blankie behind it so it gets right up by her face like she loves.

· Is my absolute favorite little buddy! I just LOVE getting to spend each day with her and having her as my little companion on all my errands.

We love you Kenley and are SO grateful for the immense joy you bring into our home!!!

Happy 2nd Birthday Kenley!!!!

2011-07-24T12:44:00.001-07:00

Well, it's hard to believe but our little tiny baby turned 2 on Friday!!!! 2 sounds old. . . not baby but a little kid. Luckily she continues to just get more and more fun so I don't have to be too saddened by the whole growing up process. Her doctor's appointment isn't until Monday so I will wait to give my milestone list and for now just wanted to capture the celebration. Sadly, her big day didn't start out so great for her with portraits at Target (turned out super cute) and then another project day at the house.

Kenley being a good girl and sitting on the canvas while she ate trail mix at the house.

Mike working on the countertop installation in the kitchen.

And. . . he finished!!! It was so nice to actually have a project that was completed in a few hours instead of days (or weeks or months). They turned out great. We read instructions online that made it sound like it could be pretty complicated but it ended up going very smoothly and I love the finished product.

Luckily that night things did get better for the birthday girl. My aunt Bonnie had her cousin Tammy in town visiting so the two of them came over to help us celebrate with presents and cake. Last year Kenley was much more interested in the wrapping paper than the gifts but things totally changed this year. She was very excited with each present and paid no attention to wrapping once she got it off.

Our present to her was this spring bouncy horse! She loves sitting on things and pretending they are a horse (suitcases, stools, sticks, whatever) so we decided we wanted to get her a rocking horse. As we starting looking though, most were ones she would grow out of in a year. Then we found that they still make these spring bouncy horses. I had one and LOVED it and rode it for years and years. They were too expensive to buy new but luckily I found this one on Craigslist in great shape for less than half the new price! I love the look on her face in the above picture! She went right to work riding it, giving her baby rides on it, feeding it, and grooming its tail. So cute!

The horse was going to be her only present from us but Mike found this rope at D&B and couldn't resist.

After presents it was time for cake. I got this little cake from Albertsons. You can't see it very well but it has 3 grazing horses and says "Happy Birthday Kenley" on it. Maybe one day I will be up to making one for her but for now it is really nice to have a professional take care of it!

We never practiced with her but she new just what to do and blew both candles out right away.

And before we could stop her, she took a big bite of the frosting.

Enjoying her cake.

The next day we had her friends party. We took some of her close friends and their families to the Snake River Stampede. On a few in our group had been to a rodeo before so it was really fun to experience that with them. Before going we had to get a true cowgirl shot on her new horse.

Kenley blowing out the candles on her cupcake. They wouldn't let us take cupcakes into the rodeo so we had a little party out on the grass before going in. I just did cupcakes with little toy horses on them for the kids. Kenley got spoiled again with some fun presents.

Kenley watching the action. The standing girl in the orange dress was her friend Sadie. She really got into the rodeo and was so cute to watch.

The party crew! The row that includes Kenley and the row that includes Mike are all the party guests. What a fun celebration. We LOVE our 2 year old!!!!!

Uncle Jeff's Visit

2011-07-18T18:58:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago we had a fun visit from Mike's brother Jeff. Unfortunately, most of the pictures from his visit were taken on his camera but I finally decided to just go ahead and post with what pictures I do have. We decided we had to take him to our favorite place (McCall) while he was here so we went up for 2 nights. We had a fabulous time and even had a visit from our fox friend. This time he actually let me hand feed him while Jeff got a picture. We ate at our usual places and managed to gain several pounds in a 2 night trip.

The day we got there Mike and Jeff decided to go golfing so Kenley and I spent our time at the beach as well as both the outdoor and indoor pool at the condo.

We stopped at the grocery store on the way there to get Kenley a bucket to play with while there.

Such a beautiful lake and Kenley had a blast digging around.

The next day Jeff and Mike went to hike up to Louie Lake and ultimately to the top of Jughandle Mountain. While they did that, Kenley and I did our own hike up the trail to Boulder Lake.

All the pictures of Jeff and Mike's hike are on Jeff's camera. This however is us at Louie Lake (we rode the horses there) several years ago. Jughandle is the peak in the background. There was still some snow up there when Mike and Jeff reached the summit.

Kenley and I at the base of our trail. It was a beautiful nice hike. I especially loved hearing Kenley sing and chatter in my ear the whole time. She really enjoyed it.

We had a few obstacles on our way like this tree I had to figure a way to scramble over with Kenley on my back.

I ultimately came to this stream crossing. I thought the lake was just about 100 yards from here so after much debate, I decided to go ahead and make the crossing over the logs you see just at the base of the main waterfall. It was a pretty shady crossing but we made it. . . only to find out the lake was in fact not 100 yards away. I was so mad I decided to turn around and go back (plus I couldn't really see the trail anymore).

By the end of the our hike Kenley was fast asleep in the backpack.

We waited awhile at the base of the Louie Lake trail. You can see the stream crossing they had to do to start the hike. This was why we all decided it was best not to try to make the hike with Kenley.

Upon our return to Boise, we took Jeff over to the new house and gave him the tour which isn't complete without a tractor ride.

First Kenley and Mike rode. She would ride that thing all day long if she could!

Mike giving Jeff a quick tutorial. I love the smile on Jeff's face. . . a country boy at heart.

Jeff taking her for a spin.

I even got to take my first spin on the beast. . . LOVED it!

That night we did a bonfire in my parent's pit and roasted S'mores and admired all the constellations. Mike and Jeff were determined to start the fire using a magnifying glass. The only one we had available was the one for Kenley's finger nail clippers shown above. In the end, they used matches.

It was a short but fun packed trip and we can't wait until we get to meet up with Jeff again!!!

Amazing Friends!

2011-07-10T21:30:00.000-07:00

As mentioned in my previous post, I have some amazing friends! I am seriously always wondering how I managed to get such great friends who are so willing to do so much for me. In working on the house, there have been several people who have been total life savers along the way so I decided I had better thank them publicly!

Shannon

Soon after our return from our trip down under, Mike and I had planned an all day painting extravaganza. My friend Shannon volunteered to come help. I had no idea just how much she planned on helping. She was there ALL DAY!!! She even did a lot of the brush work which isn't exactly the most fun task. I should also mention that she recently bought a house and has plenty of paint jobs of her own to work on. I should also thank her husband Ryan for watching their 3 kids while she was there. (This was a shot of her pretending to be scared about being on the cabinets).

Renee

Twice Renee has asked me if she could take Kenley for the day so we could work on the house. I didn't have to ask her, she just called and said she wanted to take Kenley for the day. That is a HUGE help!!!! It was also nice to know that Kenley was having fun while we were working. Renee would even text me pictures of Kenley having fun with her 4 kids throughout the day. Fun! (I don't have pictures of Renee babysitting so I decided to use this one instead. The baby she was pregnant with at the time is now almost a year and a half.)

Kristine

Several months ago my friend Kristine loaned me their paint sprayer. They are very pricey and it has been a HUGE life saver with all the work we have been doing. In the end, I think we will end up having it for over 6 months so that is super generous of her! On top of that, when she heard we were doing the exterior paint, she told me she was coming the next morning to help. I didn't even ask, she just let me know she was helping. She showed up before I even made it there and stayed all day long. She operated the sprayer the entire time and saved us SOOOOOO much time! Her expertise were very needed and there is no way we could have completed the job (excluding trim) in 1 day without her!

Erika

I'm not sure where to start with Erika. She watched Kenley all day long while we painted the exterior. She came over several times to help me prep the house for the exterior paint (NOT a fun job). She has helped me several times on the interior paint as well as exterior trim, sometimes spending an entire day with us. And through all this, she has been several months pregnant!!! Besides the physical labor she has done to help, she has also been my listening ear while I bounce ideas around and debate different ideas. She has also given tons of great advice since she and her husband totally renovated their house. I'm not sure where we would be without them!

Richard

Erika's husband Richard has been the "foreman" in laying the hardwood floors. His excitement to get the project started and willingness to help out made all the difference for Mike who was otherwise at a point of feeling ready to hire the rest of the work out. Not to mention the company has made the work fun. He even contacted Mike to let him know that his family was going to be out of town on the 4th of July and he wanted to come help on the floors. He worked the whole holiday on the floors. We couldn't have gotten where we are without his expertise, help, and upbeat attitude about the whole project.

Sophie and Miles

It would be right for me to talk about Erika and Richard and leave out their kids Sophie and Miles. I think they have spent about as much time at the house as Kenley has and they have been so great at keeping her company, playing with her, and just staying at the house for long periods of time without complaint. The above picture shows the kid post where we keep movies going for them. Unfortunately Kenley only watches for a maximum of about 3 minutes at any given time so it doesn't really buy me that much un-interrupted work time.

They got a little reward when they got to sit on the tractor. They also rode in the scoop of it but I don't think that felt like much of a reward since Sophie was pretty terrified the entire time. . . understandably so!

The Cobbs
The Cobbs as a family got the whole thing started when they (without us knowing) came over during their Christmas holiday and tore out all the carpets! We didn't even know they were doing it. Then during their Spring Break they again came over as a family and helped us out for an entire day. They have pretty much taken this project on as their own and have been so great! So much so that I need to highlight the individual contributions as well.

Adam

Adam who works full time and is heavily involved in the activities of their 4 boys has still managed to find time to come over and do most of the drywall work we needed to do on the house. . . in the process teaching Mike how to do it. He has also come over to help on the floors and perhaps his greatest contribution was figuring out how to get the tractor started!!! A major highlight!

Kristy

Somehow it turns out that every time Kristy has helped out, I haven't had our camera. So, I'm using a picture of her playing with Kenley while camping instead. In addition to encouraging her boys to come out and help whenever they can and helping to make it happen, she has also spent a day out here helping me work on the exterior trim, another day helping me paint the cabinets, and also took Kenley on the 4th of July so that Kenley could still do the fun holiday traditions while we worked (Kenley spent the night there the night before so they literally had her all day). I should also mention that while they all worked with us over their Spring Break, she and I managed to get most of the carpet into the trailer to haul to the dump. We were pretty proud of ourselves!

Zac

When we dropped Kenley off at the Cobb's the night before the 4th, Zac informed us that he would be coming home with us that night so he could help on the floors the next day. He even got an offer to go water skiing on the 4th but still wanted to come help us. He loves physical labor (has since he was a tiny boy) and said it was so fun to get to lay floors all day and that he would love to do that kind of stuff every day. Plus his humor made the day much more fun for Mike and Richard.

Casey

On the 6th of July, both Zac and Casey showed up to help out on the floors all day. They both took Mike's constant harassment and dished it out themselves. They both have busy schedules with their actual jobs and wrestling tournaments and camps but managed to find a day to dedicate to helping us. They stayed until the floors were completely installed.

Caden

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of Caden at the house either but this one shows him taking care of Kenley which is one thing he helps with a ton when he comes out. In addition he mowed the lawn once (which even with a driving lawn mower takes a couple hours). Since then he is always asking us if the lawn needs to be mowed and always wants to make sure he doesn't miss out on any work trips out to the house. He is a very eager worker!

Tyler

Tyler is my number 1 caretaker of Kenley when the whole family comes out. In fact, she reaches a point where she gives up on me and just comes to him when she needs something. It isn't uncommon to see him carrying her around the place (which is a pretty funny sight since he isn't that big himself) and just being her fill in mom. The whole thing is made so much cuter by the fact that he is the most boyish boy you will ever meet and is a jock to the core. But Kenley manages to bring out his softer side. He also spent a whole day at the house with Mike one day helping rip up the subfloor. . . not an easy task! He even volunteered to stay when Adam showed up and offered to take him home. We were totally shocked!

Again, I'm blessed with great friends/family in my life and sometimes wonder why in the world they are friends with me. I'll take it though. In addition to those mentioned, there have been several others who have taken Kenley for a few hours so we could get different things done and have been so willing to help however they could. Hopefully when this craziness clears, I can offer some kind of help to others!

House Update: Painting

2011-07-08T12:06:00.001-07:00

It has been a long time since I have given a house update. I've been waiting for any of our projects to be completely done and since we are working on so many things at once, that opportunity has been a long time in coming. Anyway, we are now pretty much completely done with painting (master bathroom being the only room left) so I thought it was time for an update. I should warn you. . . when we set out to renovate this house, the last thing I wanted was for it to look like a model home or a Pottery Barn catalog. I wanted it to look like OUR house. That means I didn't want any beige and white only where I thought it helped make an impact (That being said, there are no pictures of the future nursery since that was just painted white for the time being). Some of the choices I know not everyone would like but I have to say, I love everything we have done. We have had absolutely AMAZING friends helping out. So much so that I decided that needed to be a dedicated blog post so look out for that one. Anyway, I hope you enjoy your little tour.

EXTERIOR

Before: Really not too bad. I actually really like white houses but I wasn't a fan of the green trim in places. Plus, I like more trim painted than what they had.

After: I had a HORRIBLE time figuring out a color to go with our brown roof. In the end I gave up and decided just to choose a color I liked regardless of the roof. I found a house this color that I loved and decided to go for it. Our house isn't nearly as cute as that house and I'm still not in love with the brown roof but at least everything looks clean and fresh. It is a dark gray though people have thought it was dark brown or dark green. Oh well. We also had all the windows replaced but you can't really tell from a picture. The new ones are triple paned so we are hoping they will pay us back in energy savings!

Another shot. I love the roof angles on the house.

LIVING ROOM/DINING ROOM/KITCHEN

Before

After: This also gives you a sneak peak at the floors Mike and many helpers have been laying. I didn't have any shots from before the floor started getting laid. The cabinet doors are all at the house we are living in just waiting until the floors are done before I re-install them.

FAMILY ROOM

Before

After: since this is where we will spend a lot of time, I wanted something very bright and fun. I LOVE this room! I actually saw a picture of my friend Jenn's living room on her blog which was similar to this color and fell in love with it (She lives in CT so I figured I could copy her). Thanks for the inspiration!

HALLWAY

Before

After: the skylights have been replaced and the drywall completed. I want to cover these walls with photos/heirlooms from our ancestors. So, it was painted as a sort of timeline. I just have to say, HGTV makes painting stripes look WAY easier than it is! This took FOREVER!!! I love it though!

I have fallen in love with painting closets as you will see. All the hall closets are this red color. The pantry in the kitchen is the same color.

A sneak peak at the guest room. All the colors seen from this one location just makes me happy. Too bad this scene won't exist when we get the doors back on!

GUEST ROOM

Before: includes shot into the guest bathroom

After: it turns out I don't have a shot of the bathroom but it is pure fluorescent green. A little overwhelming but I think with the mirror and other accessories in place, it will be tamed down to just the right degree. I'm actually super in love with this room! My inspiration was a pack of Trident gum. They had bright greens and blues together that I just LOVED. I already had the fluorescent bathroom so I decided the blues could be used to bring it all in to the main room itself.

Before

After: As I said, I'm obsessed with painting closets bright colors. This room just makes me happy. Sorry to any of my guests who may disagree and actually have to stay in it!!! :)

HALL BATHROOM

Before.

After: We had the tile professionally painted. They actually did a pretty awful job but you can't really tell unless you really get looking at it. That is a matter I still have to take up with them. Because the tile was to make such a statment, we just did the walls white. Again, I still need to re-install the cabinet doors.

Before.

After

KENLEY'S ROOM

Before

After: I wanted the light blue so we could change her color theme easily since the blue will go with pinks or reds or pretty much whatever we decide. The closet had to be bright and make a statement though!

MASTER BEDROOM

Before.

After: These are both grays that are in the hallway. You can see the accent wall from the hall so I wanted it to go with it.

Before.

After: Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of the drywall added to close off the bathroom. However, this is our bright orange closet. I LOVE it!!!! I was going to do it as the accent wall in the room but after painting this, decided it was maybe too bright. Our sheets are orange so I'm way excited.

LAUNDRY ROOM

Before.

After: this room was super dark so I wanted a color that would just brighten it up so I didn't feel like I was in prison when I was doing laundry. This color was called "Joyous." What a perfect color for an area where you are doing a task that maybe doesn't feel that way.

Birthday Bash

2011-07-06T21:52:00.001-07:00

I'm super behind on posting so I'm going to TRY and get caught up this week. We will see how it goes. Anyway, last Sunday we went out to Cobbs for a birthday celebration. Kristy, Casey, and Kylie all have birthdays within 8 days of each other so it was a chance to celebrate them all. As with all Cobb parties, it was a blast with the usual amount of excitement. We ended up spending the night and Mike experienced sleeping on a trampoline for the first time in his life.

Casey and Zac were using food bribery to win Kenley over.

And it worked! This is a very rare shot of Kenley with Zac. Normally she is terrified of him. It has become a bit of a joke how she often screams when she sees him. This is post eating so her face is a mess!

Kenley is always buddies with Caden and loved playing on the swingset with him. She also jumped on the tramp a lot with Tyler but those photos were all blurry.

The highlight of the night was the BUS! Kenley is totally in love with buses and gets so excited whenever she sees them. This bus was purchased for Casey and Zac's wrestling team and is staying at the Cobbs for now. When Kenley saw it coming she brought her hands to her face and squealed with excitement. It was seriously her dream come true.

Sheer joy looking through the window.

More thrill.

Taking a shot at driving.

Nothing better in the beautiful summer evenings than S'mores around the campfire!

We finished the night by watching the movie Tangled projected on the side of the wall. Such a fun night!!! Happy birthday to 3 of our favorite people!!!

Summer Days

2011-06-24T20:16:00.000-07:00

I've decided that Boise follows a strict adherence to the calendar and refuses to allow summer to come in full force until it truly is summer. So, you can imagine how thrilled we were for summer to arrive this week!!! We have had several nice days the last month but also a lot of chilly days thrown in. Now we are officially in the summer season. Mike and I have moved our bedroom out on the screen porch where we sleep on an inflatable mattress. As I'm writing this at 10:00 p.m. it is still quite light out. I LOVE it! Between working on the house, we have had some fun enjoying this great season this week.

Monday my friends Shannon and Renee and I took our kids to the zoo.

I think the kids liked this giraffe slide more than the actual giraffes. I for one was pretty nuts about the real giraffes. . . there was a darling baby giraffe that I was dying over.

Kenley and I taking a turn down.

They also all used this old Jeep as a jungle gym.

Kenley taking the lead to the next exhibit.

She also loved riding this baby tiger. Turns out the fake animals were a bigger success than the real ones.

Kenley's actual all time favorite was the prairie dog exhibit because you could crawl through these tunnels and pop up in these windows in the middle of their cage. She would have crawled around there all day.

After the zoo we went and admired the first cut of hay at the new house.

Tuesday evening I decided to set up the sprinkler for Kenley in the yard. She was a little hesitant about it at first. She eventually loved riding this Tonka truck through the "car wash."

Taking a trip to the sprinkler to fill her watering can.

Doing some modeling for me.

Mowing the lawn with her bubble mower.

That same day I got a box from my friend of hand-me-down clothes. . . FUN! Kenley was obsessed with these boots the moment she saw them and was wearing them all over the house with just her swimsuit. I was dying. Funny girl!

One of my summer favorites is eating outside. We did it all summer growing up. Here Kenley is trying on my sunhat and trying to see. Goofball!

The best thing about nice weather is that when I work at the house, Kenley can play in the yard. That buys me much more time over there and makes me excited about the great yard.

It wouldn't be a Boise summer without wildfires in the foothills. Wednesday night I was working at the house when a HUGE thunder storm came through (bigger than I've ever seen in Boise and even bigger than most we experienced in Houston). Mike called me to tell me about this fire pictured above. This was taken from our upstairs window so that tells you how close it was. On my drive home from the house I saw another wildfire burning too. Yikes!

Finally, today Kenley and I went with a couple friends to Sandy Point to play on the beach for a few hours. Kenley LOVED it!!!! She fell madly in love with the ocean beach while on our trip down under. We don't have an ocean but she loved this beach anyway and would've stayed all day if she could.

Kenley surveying the scene after our arrival.

"The girls" playing on the beach. Sophie and Kate were so sweet to Kenley even though she was the younger girl tagging along.

Kenley and Miles loved playing together with all the beach toys. . . at least when they weren't fighting over them.

This picture just sums up exactly what she felt about the day at the beach. We all decided this was going to be a recurring summer activity.

The Best Dad in the World!!!!

2011-06-21T19:25:00.000-07:00

I know I'm a couple days late but I couldn't let Father's Day pass without expressing how incredibly lucky Kenley and I are to have the best father and husband in the world! So, I wanted to let everyone know some of the things that make Mike such a wonderful husband and father.

1. Start with the obvious. . . super good-looking (not that that makes a good father or husband but it makes me really happy and amazed that he married me!)
2. Totally selfless. Mike will always place others needs above his own without complaint. Not something I'm especially proficient with.
3. VERY hard worker. Every day he has off he is working all day long at our new house or here at my parents' house. Sometimes he even goes over after a 12 hour shift to work. He is willing to try to do pretty much everything himself and has learned so much. On top of the renovation work, he does irrigation at both properties (something he didn't grow up with) and spent all day today stacking hay at our property (again something totally foreign to how he grew up). He's totally game to learn how to do everything and never complains that this isn't the life he grew up with.
4. He never complains about anything I do in my role as a mom. Even if he comes home and the house is a wreck and dinner is just some frozen meal (he is used to both those things by now).
5. He values my role as a mom. Even though I'm not able to spend as much time at the new house as he is, he never complains. When I tell him of fun things I have done with Kenley during the day while he was working he is just happy that she was able to have fun experiences. He never put any pressure on me to continue working after Kenley was born because he knew my time with Kenley would be more valuable than the money I would have earned.
6. He is super patient and I've never seen him lose his temper. Sadly he can't say the same for me.
7. He LOVES Kenley SOOOOO much! He just loves getting to spend time with her and loves talking about how cute she is and wants to spend as much time with her as possible. He truly enjoys spending time with her and taking care of her. She is absolutely crazy about him too.
8. He is dedicated to his job, not just putting in the time. He does due diligence on any patients who come in that he suspects may be playing the system and takes time out of his work to get to the bottom of any of his suspicions. Some pharmacists may just fill all prescriptions that come thinking it isn't their responsibility to do more but he really cares about helping improve the system and keep people honest. He also takes time out to really counsel and help all patients that come.
9. He is a devoted member of the church. Even though he has to work every other Sunday, he made the effort to find a ward that meets near his work early enough that he can at least attend sacrament meeting on those Sundays he works. It would be much easier to just use work as an excuse but he makes the effort to take the sacrament every Sunday despite his schedule.
10. He is FUN! Any of you who know him know that he has an amazing sense of humor and just keeps people laughing all the time. He is game for anything fun (I have a lot of "out there" ideas and he is willing to listen to them and even give in to several of them) and we have such a great time together.

I love you Mike and consider you one of my greatest blessings and am so grateful to have you as a husband!!!!

2 Cute Cowgirls

2011-06-16T20:25:00.000-07:00

Tuesday Kenley's friend Polly came over and we let the little girls ride the horse. They were the 2 cutest little cowgirls I've ever seen and had a great time!

They held hands going out to the tack room. SO cute! At this point Polly was trying to break free but Kenley wasn't having it.

We decided it would be challenging to wrangle the two girls and catch the horse so Amy stayed with them while I caught the horse. They loved playing in my parents' playhouse. Here Kenley is peeking out the door.

The girls brushing the horse getting him ready for the saddle. They were both very brave and willing to help out. Amy and I couldn't get enough of how cute they were!

Polly rode first and just loved it. The funny thing is she is terrified of Holly the 6 pound dog but doesn't have an ounce of fear towards the horses.

Kenley's turn.

Giving the horse his reward afterwards. Kenley LOVES giving the horses a "nack" (snack) every time we are outside.

The little cowgirl heading back to the house after a ride. I just LOVE the way her little Wranglers fit her along with her boots and spurs.

Eagle Fun Days

2011-06-12T21:43:00.000-07:00

Last summer I mentioned loving all the of the festivals that each town in the area holds each summer and Saturday we got to kick off the festival season with Eagle Fun Days! Eagle is actually the town we will be living in when we move. We went with the Andrus family to watch the "Wet and Wild Parade." The first half was just a regular parade but midway through they started the wet portion of the parade. Everyone in the parade sprayed all the spectators with water while many spectators sprayed them back. It was a totally wild event so it was right up my alley.

Erika and I with the kids watching the tame portion of the parade. Erika and I did not plan our twinner outfits just so you know. Once people started handing out candy, we each pushed our kids out to the road to collect goods. They weren't as aggressive as we thought they should be.

Here is a sample of the wet portion of the parade. Many people cleared out before the water started flying. In our group, Kenley, Sophie, and I were the only ones to stay within firing range. Kenley didn't last the whole time in the wet zone though.

Kenley after getting caught in the line of fire.

After the parade Kenley zonked out in her stroller. Too much excitement for one afternoon!

Let's be honest, the main reason I love these festivals so much is because of the food! We thoroughly enjoyed our fresh mini donuts and Indian fry bread taco. Sadly we didn't have enough cash to also get a funnel cake.

After getting home Mike gave Kenley rides on the 4-wheeler. Her face looked just like this the entire time. She was in heaven. After she went to bed, Mike and I went and rode the horses for awhile in the pasture together which was the perfect way to end a fun day!!!

Phoenix

2011-06-05T23:03:00.001-07:00

Last week Kenley and I had the opportunity to go visit my sister Randi, her husband Doug, and their little girl Averi in Phoenix. We had such a great time getting the girls together again. It was so nice to be in the hot weather while Boise was being drenched with rain. In fact, I slept outside under the stars most nights with Randi joining me a couple times. We had a blast getting to know more of Phoenix, eating great food (consisting mostly of sweets), shopping, and just laughing like crazy together. We miss them so much already!

Unfortunately our trip started with a 4 hour delay in the Boise Airport (we got dropped off by a friend so we actually had to stay there). Luckily we met a couple with a little girl Kenley's age so that kept us well entertained. They were so nice and even got my seat changed for me so Kenley and I could sit near them on the plane.

Our cute little twins ready for bed that first night.

Our first full day there we went on a hike to the White Tank Mountains. It was beautiful and fun to see some of the dry desert landscape.

Our hike ended at this pool. Kenley wanted to go in SO badly and at one point did sneak in a bit.

Randi's house is directly across the street from the neighborhood pool so we had a great time taking the girls there. They loved jumping into the pool to us, swimming, and just being poolside divas. Could you just die over Averi's darling swimsuit and cap?

We made a day trip to the Phoenix Children's Museum where we met my old roommate Heather and her 2 kids. Averi had a hard time for the first while but ultimately had a great time. I just love this picture though.

They had a play castle that the kids were able to paint. Kenley thought this was the greatest.

The girls especially loved the little play grocery store. They had very realistic produce, shopping carts and a lifelike checkout (which you can see Kenley loved to run).

The girls were so cute playing house in this playhouse. Brielle was so cute setting the table and making sure everyone was well taken care of.

Kenley and I with my old roommate Heather and her darling kids. It was SO fun to get to meet up with her again! What a fun time we had as roommates.

On our way home we made a stop by my high school friend and old roommate Natalie's house. We were especially lucky to get to meet her brand new baby girl Eva. I've been blessed with some really great friends in my life!

We saved water by bathing the girls together. They had a great time.

Hendricks girls can't get together without enjoying a lot of shopping! We went to the Outlets at Anthem (which we did on our visit last year and I've been looking forward to ever since) and spent 8 hours shopping! Luckily they had a water playground that Kenley had a blast running through. That bought us a few more hours than we otherwise would've had.

Our tuckered out girls after a great shopping day.

Being the Scandinavian lover that I am, I couldn't miss a chance to visit IKEA. The girls each had their own traveling playground in the shopping carts.

After work, Doug met us for dinner there. After re-fueling, Kenley went totally crazy running all over the cafeteria yelling and laughing. Crazy girl.

More pool time for the bathing beauties.

Along with the pool, there is also a fabulous park across from their house that the girls enjoyed as well.

No visit with Randi (the esthetician) is complete without some kind of treatment. She informed me when I got there that she would be waxing my armpits at the end of the week. I had never had it done and have to say the worst part was growing them out long enough to wax. Sophie (their dog) decided to provide me some moral support midway through.

The girls loved playing in the newly landscaped backyard too. . . sometimes not wearing very much. Here Kenley is helping Averi blow bubbles. Such cute girls!!!

On our last day Kenley was really trying to make friends with Sophie before we left for church. Sophie wasn't totally convinced.

Thanks DeGraw family for a fabulous week with fabulous people! I'm SOOOO lucky to have such amazing family members that I have such a blast with!

Nashville

2011-05-31T21:53:00.001-07:00

This is a rare blog post by Mike. A couple of weekends ago I flew down to Nashville for my cousin Kelly's wedding. I met my parents and sister Liz there for a fun weekend. We ate some good southern food including one of my favorites, biscuits and gravy. We toured a plantation home and enjoyed seeing the heart of country music. They had a beautiful outdoor wedding followed by a reception. The life of the party was Super T...the best wedding band ever!
The next day we saw more of Nashville including a tour of the Ryman Auditorium. It is the original home of the Grand Ole Opry. That evening we went to a broadcast of the Grand Ole Opry in the new venue. It was a fun weekend to see family and enjoy such a special day.

The wedding party

My Mom and I (my Dad is behind the camera)

The second half of Super T's act...red cowboy boots were great dancing shoes!

Me in front of the Grand Ole Opry

Vince Gill on stage during the show

Braids, Boots, and Best Friends

2011-05-22T13:11:00.000-07:00

Since I did a post when Kenley wore her first pigtails, I figured it was only appropriate that I also do a post for her first braids. Her hair is quite long in the back though she still has hardly anything on top so pigtails have been all I could do. The other day I thought I would give braids a try since the back is so long. I was actually able to get pretty decent braids out of it! It was super cute though I think I still prefer her pigtails that show off her little curls.

For Kenley's first Christmas, my parents gave her her first pair of cowboy boots. Well, to my utter delight, her feet have finally grown in to them! I love putting them on her any chance I get. They have a bit of a heel so I joke that they are her first heels. She had a hard time walking in them at first but now does quite well. The only problem is that they are one of her only pairs of shoes that she can pull off herself.

The weather here has been getting so beautiful which is so great because Kenley would spend every second outside if she could. To celebrate the nice days, she and some of her best friends went and played in the park one day. They were just so cute playing together that I had to include some shots.

Kenley and Polly playing with this race car game at the park.

Kenley, Sadie, and Polly throwing bark onto the sidewalk. They were SO cute even while getting into mischief together. This picture of Polly makes me laugh because it just totally displays her personality.

Green Thumb. . . Hopefully

2011-05-10T22:22:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Kenley and I went to the Boise Farmers' Market and purchased several plants for our garden. This morning we went with Mike to buy a couple more plants and seeds and today we all went to work getting our 2011 garden planted. We had a beautiful day for it! Kenley would love to be outdoors 24-7 so it was a dream day for her.

Mike preparing the soil with the rototiller.

Bonnie helping out with the corn planting.

Kenley also helping out by dropping in a corn seed.

Holly finding a spot of shade just the right size so she could relax while we were working.

The finished product. . . not much to see now but hopefully it will be soon. We planted kale, spinach, 2 types of peppers, 4 types of tomatoes, watermelon, squash, beans, cucumbers, corn, and zucchini. We also did a planter with oregano, Italian parsley, and basil. In our garden at our new house we are going to do a pumpkin patch since they will be ready for harvest after we move there.

After our busy day, Kenley and I made a trip to D.I. looking for bar stools. Instead we found this $4 bike. Kenley went crazy as soon as she saw it and I just couldn't resist. Her feet don't yet reach the pedals but she loves being pushed around on it. It is super cute and in great shape. I can't believe it was $4!!! I finished off the day with a ride on one of our horses. What a perfect day!

It Happened Again. . .

2011-05-05T21:24:00.000-07:00

Last time I wrote about Kenley asking me to put her Easter Bunny ears on and me going to return a movie with them on. Well, today she gave me a dandelion so I put it behind my ear and forgot about it. I proceeded to go to Sherwin Williams where I spoke with the salesman for a very long time ordering the rest of the paint for our house. I asked him about a million questions and had about a million requests. After returning home and taking Kenley upstairs for her nap I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and realized the weed was still behind my hair. Might I add that both this time and the time before I looked super scroungy with a hat on. Rabbit ears or even a dandelion weed behind your ear might be kind of cute if you are all fixed up. But layered on top of scrounginess, it is just confusing and strange.