New Niece!

So I took off to the Great White North a few weeks ago, eh! It was good to hang with my family and see my new niece, Sophie. She is a doll. I love spending time with my family we can just chill.
Me, the proud Aunt!

Little Sophie all wrapped up!
Such a good baby all snuggled up in her blanket. Her older sister and brother will be so good to her. Proud big sister!
Good luck to my sister-in-law keeping up with Levi and a new baby! If anyone can do it, she can! Levi LOVES grandpa and always yells for him. It's cute.
This is what happens when Tami and I are babysitting. He was in the closet eating a cookie. He loved it in there...probably cause he found the stash of treats! I didn't take any pictures of Kionah and Levi running down a big dirt pile over and over again, crashing at the bottom. Let's just say there was a lot still in Levi's diaper later. Good times! It was their favorite game. That or feeding and riding the horses. Always fun to play with my nieces and nephews! Love you guys!

Remember when...

Ahhhh....remember when I had fun trips to blog about.....now I am stuck blogging about being trapped inside my house. Last time it was the wasps...this time the weather. I almost remember what it was like to see the sun.....I miss you sun!
So about a week ago we had a huge thunder and lightening rain storm. I got excited, I love thunder and lightening. We had a power surge and a few minutes after I tried to pin point the buzzing sound I could hear. I found that the surge had turned on the tub jets. That can't be good for them to be on with no water. Other than that no problems, thank goodness cause lots of people in our area had to deal with flooded basements. Remember when I got excited about thunder and lightening...I do...but after a week straight of storms, some thunder and lightening, some just rain....I am not as excited when I hear the pitter patter of rain drops or light flashing in the sky. Like most things in life, absence makes the heart grow fonder.
I forgot to bring in my patio chair and now it is stuck in the mud. I don't have rain boots (or wellies, as our Irish friend who is visiting calls them) so I can't go rescue it and the puddle hasn't gone away for over a week. I am thinking about buying some boots today and possibly a row boat. I do not want to be one of those people who has to get rescued from the roof of the house. Okay...that might be a bit dramatic...but...honestly, it's a lake in my back yard.
So while I am stuck indoors I have been studying pilates cause I am getting certified to be a pilates instructor using the reformers (pilates machines). Kind of intense and challenging but good. Thanks to all the friends that have let me practice my teaching skills on them.
The other thing I like to do is make cards. My sisters both are cute little card makers. But Tami is a card professional....her cards look amazing. Mine never look as good as hers, but I still feel proud when I finish one. It takes me forever and a lot of times I only make one or two. My sister gets a pattern and makes a bunch of the same one so she has them on hand. Not me....I make one or two and then don't want to give them away....but I still give them away, hoping the recipient will appreciate how amazing the card is. Here is the card I made for my nephew Josh (yes I am claiming him even though it's Jim's nephew). Josh graduated from High School last week. So proud of him.
I hope the weather improves soon or I get to go somewhere on a little vacation. That would be lovely!

Surrounded

What is it about our house that keeps wasps making their hives in every crack outside our house. For weeks we have been knocking down hives and spraying, hoping the wasps get the hint. I first noticed hives at both sides of my garage door.
So, as a good wife, I yelled for Jim to take care of the problem. Here he is....my hero!

At first we just knocked them down...and by the next day they had built a new hive in the same spot. I had to take more drastic measures! Step two....I tried to research on the Internet and found out that we have lots of Paperwasps surrounding our house. Step three -The solution was to buy RAID for wasps, so I did. As Jim walked around the house, he found multiple nests on all sides on the house. I can not feel relaxed outside on the porch if I am in a constant state of wasp watch. The Raid is supposed to work for a few weeks so they don't build their nests in the same spot....for the most part this has worked, except for the door to my porch. So this is what I am greeted by when I want to go out back.HELLO!And now the wasps are getting trickier.
But I am on to them....of course I have to buy another can of spray cause trying to stop them from building is a full time job! We are on the run after Jim tried to knock down a nest with 4 wasps on it and the can of Raid was empty. We are SURROUNDED! HELP!

Family

Here is the handsome birthday boy with his sisters. Go get em cowboy!

Boring for you maybe...but it's what I live for. So I've been on a few trips in a last few months to visit my family for some big events. First was to Canada for my Grandpas 90th birthday. The thing I love about my grandpa is that no matter how he feels he is always smiling. I wish I was like that. Such a great man and he loves horses, so that was the theme.
Some of my favorite people I got to see on this trip.
My sister Tami, who is amazing and always gets things done.

Oh yeah...I brought this guy with me....but he's still my favorite!

Levi wins the cutest cowboy award! He loved the balloons! I love his squeezy voice...he is so adorable.
Kionah is pretty cute too! Don't you just want to hug her????
Trip #2
Next I went to Iowa and got to see these trouble makers. JK! My niece turned 8 years old.....I can't believe it. I have been visiting her every chance I get since she was 2 weeks old. Now she is all grown up and got baptized. Jessica is such an amazing girl, so sweet and talented and I love seeing her.

So fun that lots of my family was able to be there for Jessica's special day! Chad's parents and Brynli were also there and we love seeing them too. They are great for many reasons but I'd be lying if I didn't say that a bonus is how well they can cook. We had the best tri tip I've ever tasted....why don't I see them more often.

Lucas is another favorite, such a little tease and a sweety.
Jacob practicing his innocent look. I love this kid but he has a lot of energy and is a smarty....he is hard to keep up with.


This kid + blankets piled on a bed = disaster! Otherwise known as big hole in the wall from a head crashing into it. So glad Jakie is tough.

Jessie riding one of her favorite animals. She is silly!
The Aunts got to meet them for lunch at their school. It was fun...except the scary office lady.
Man I love these kids!

Adorable visitors

I love when my family comes to visit. This weekend we got my parents and my brother and his cute wife and 2 girls. We just chilled and spoiled the girls. Oakley, who has her first birthday in a few weeks, knew how to work the room and got packed around all weekend. She is so light and so smiley and fun. She loved the fan and tried to imitate my tongue clicking sound.
She was not loving the doctor costume....but it was so darn cute.
Then there is Jovie....she was born with a scowl but she has tons of personality. She would break out into song...like, ABBA's Money, Money, Money, or Shake Your Booty. We'd all start singing along. She also is so cute when she wants something...she says "Should I have that? Or Should I do that?" She always wants someone to come play with her. She also loves to wear silky pjs all day.
Both the girls are so darling! They must get that from their mom.She also loves her movies. I think she had Princess Bride memorized. Here she is chillin' in my bed.

She was having fun jumping off the bottom step of the stairs. WOW, big jump! She was proud of herself.


My parents are the best. They get right in there and play on the floor with the girls. They are fun to have and we do shop out Logan, as usual.

Good friends

It was a weekend of laughter, memories, sharing, and just enjoying being with the girls. I miss my girl friends from California. I was so excited for them to pick me up on the corner of Las Vegas Blvd. From there we ate, lounged, shopped, and had a great time. To bad the weather didn't cooperate...Saturday morning we got dressed in our swimming suits for about 2 minutes till we realized the pool was not going to happen. So we went shopping and got pedicures.

This cake from Claim jumper lasted the 5 of us for days. It was a great way to start off the day. I also miss lots of restaurant choices.

I love the SUN!!!

I love being in the warm weather, just soaking it up....and that's what we did on our cruise. We went on the Eastern Caribbean on an 8 day cruise and it was fabulous. We went with a fun group of Jim's soccer buddies and their wives. There were so many pictures taken that I don't know where to start.
Here we are making sure we know the safety drill.Those reflectors would really work, they were bright in the flash.
This is Jim riding the waves on the Flow Rider. They tried it on the knees first then surfing. It was lots of fun...but Jim's neck was sore for days after from wiping out.There were many people watching that got more than they bargained for....let's just say....crack can kill. Say no to crack if you can!
Here is the gang as we sail away.
Here we are in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We toured a few old military forts. They were really cool. Jim loves history so he reads all the information.

Here we are in St. Thomas. We went to a remote beach and snorkeled and got a little too much sun.
Ginger made this sign out of rocks. I spotted a turtle like rock and Ginger made it look like a real turtle. I decided to ride it...not sure why but yeehaw! I wanted to see a real turtle but no luck when we were snorkeling. The rock turtle was a close second though.

Here we are in Labadee, Royal Caribbeans private island.

This is our formal night....it's as fancy as we get. But we look GOOD!
Every night we found a new towel animal made up from Cynthia, our room maid. They were really cool. She made a dog, rabbit, love swans, turtle, and this monkey.
We had a great time and it's always hard to come back home. It's harder of course when your flight is cancelled. We ended up driving 9 hours to a different airport just so we could fly home the next day. (Jim got a ticket in GA...the cop was not friendly!)Otherwise we could have been stuck there for a few days. But we are home now trying to recover from the late night fun.