5 Year Anniversary

5 Years later, three apartments, one house, two bachelor degrees, on masters certificate, living in two states, multiple jobs, a beautiful baby girl, lots of laughs, lots of tears and lots of fun.

Not the best picture but beautiful scenery.

Thanks to my wonderful mom and sister Melissa, Craig was able to plan and take me to McCall for our anniversary. We met my mom and sister with Kailin on Friday morning and went to McCall for the night. We at great food, took naps, went sledding, slept without interruptions and it was wonderful. I did miss Kailin quite a bit but I would be lying if I didn't say it was nice.

We went tubing at the activity barn. They tow you back to the top on tube which was nice because I was sick and didn't have much energy.

This was a delicious Murtle Turtle dessert

Welcome to McCall Lake :)

I would be lost without Craig in my life. I love him more than words can express and he really is the best dad ever. Kailin absolutely adores him. I love you Craig and am excited for more years to come.

Turkey Trot

The Saturday before Thanksgiving we ran a 4 person relay turkey trot with our good friends the Southwicks. The race was set up really cool where you guess your individual times and then the team who finishes closest to their estimated time gets 1 turkey per person. We really weren't running for the turkey but thought it would be cool to be close to our time. We estimated as a team we would finish in 1 hour 9 minutes and 30 seconds and we finished in .......

1 hour 9 minutes 8 seconds
We thought for sure we would win the turkey...we were only off by 22 seconds from our guess which was amazing, but instead we got 11th. The team who won was off by .033 seconds. It was a really fun morning full of snow, geese droppings on the trail and a beautiful run through the park. Oh yeah I almost forgot that we brought Kailin too and she did awesome. She hung out in her stroller most of the time and was really happy and really tired.

Craig giving a thumbs up after running

Ashlee running the final leg of the relay



Thumbs up since I am done running :)

Nate with a Thumbs up

Family picture under the umbrella

Kailin and I keeping warm in the car

Cute Kailin with her beanie. Thanks Grandma

Kailin loves to have her face covered while she sleeps, she pulled her hat over her face and fell asleep almost immediately. She is such a funny little girl.

Thanksgiving with Friends

Hello everyone. It has been a while since I updated. I feel like December has been such a busy month that I haven't taken time to update. For Thanksgiving we had some of our bestest friends in town. Ethan and Bianca. They are expecting and it was so much fun to talk prego with Bianca. Kailin just loved them, well after the first night. Here are some pictures of our fun.

Kailin was really excited for her Thanksgiving Dinner

Working Hard in the kitchen, I think Craig just wanted to get a picture of Bianca without her noticing :)


Kailin loves her exersaucer :)


Ethan Chillin on the couch

Kailin being happy and wanting hugs

Splish Splash

Kailin is getting more and more fun as she gets older. She has figured out she can sit up in her bath and reach the water coming out of the faucet. When she realized this she had no interest in Craig or I. We couldn't stop lauging as she was mesmorized by the water.

September in Colorado

We were really lucky to be able to spend a weekend in Estes Park, Colorado in September. Our good friends Brett and Robin moved to Colorado about 4 months ago and they had access to a condo in Estes so we went with our little girls and had a great time. We ate homemade ice cream multiple times, went to the candy store, saw a herd of elk multiple times, went swimming, took naps, had donuts for breakfast and grilled steak and corn for dinner, etc. It was wonderful. A really cool part about it too was Craigs parents were there finishing a week long vacation also so we were able to spend the day with them. It was so fun seeing Dan and Sharon with Kailin. She was so sweet and did such a great job. Here is a slide of pictures from our trip. We love Estes Park. About 5 years ago it is where we went on our Honeymoon and it will always be one of my favorite places.

So.................

So I don't know if anyone reads our blog anymore and to be honest I really haven't seen it lately either. I feel like I have been so busy with vacations, working and Kailin oh yeah and couponing(my new favorite hobby) that the blog has been on the back burner. I have had some interesting feelings lately regarding where I am in my life and I really feel like I should add them in here as a journal. This is not meant to be a downer just some thoughts. One is How good is inspiration if it does not lead to action? I was thinking of how many times I have heard of amazing people doing amazing things and I think..wow I want to do something like that..yet I haven't. Also another thought I have had is regarding Facebook. I love facebook, because I love seeing peoples pictures and how their life is going however sometimes I am disappointed by links that people put on facebook. Another thing I have been sad about lately is seeing old friends that use to be really strong in the gospel who are no longer close. For example one friend who I always thought of as a strong person now has a religious status of undecided. It makes me sad to wonder what has happened since I saw this person to change them. So I guess along with everything there is good and bad. A good note is my sweet Kailin. She is such a beautiful little girl and so happy. Her facial expressions crack me up and she is so full of life and so pure. It brightens my day to see her every day, I don't mind waking up when she does in the night so we can have some sweet quiet time together, I don't mind cleaning her up after she makes a mess with rice cereal or after she makes a mess in her diaper :) I just love my little bug so much. I guess I now know what moms have always told me that you just can't explain how much you love your child until you have one.

Because she is such a sweet little one it makes it really hard for me to go to work. I don't mind working and to be honest I feel really blessed to have a job during these tough economic times but lately as Kailin is getting older each day worked is getting harder and harder to leave her. One of my challenges lately I guess.

On a positive note we have had a lot of fun since september including vacations to Colorado and Georgia, so enjoy the pictures.

Hi Everyone

Hi,

This is Kailin. I am now six months old or so I am told. I just got back from a really long plane flight with mommy and daddy, they said I did good. I had such a fun time playing dress up in Georgia with my cousin Ellie. She was so sweet and even let me borrow her tutu for some pictures. Here is a preview of one. My mom takes a lot of pictures and since she is pretty busy who knows when she will get more pictures up. I love you all.

Hugs and Kisses,

Kailin

Laughs

We have been so busy lately and will post about that later, but for now I wanted to share a cute video of our bug laughing.

Kailin playing

Here is Kailin squealing a bit :)

5 Months!!

Kailin is getting more and more fun every day. She is constantly learning so much. I was going to post when she turned four months but her appt was so close to her 5th month that I thought I would just add the highlights here. She is still really petite. Here are her stats:

Weight: 12lbs 14 oz 18th percentile
Height: 24 1/2 in 34th percentile
Head circumference: 41.75 58th percentile

As of now this is what she likes:

ESPN with daddy-especially Boise State Bronco highlights
She loves Daddy and will stop anything to watch what he is up to.
She loves a horse toy she has
The exersaucer
The bumbo and play mat
Books
Music
She loves, loves to splash in the bath water and then looks confused when she splashes water on her face.
She loves her mommy and smiles every morning
She loves to chat and really likes to squeal(sp). In fact she will squeal over any other communication.
She loves to sleep in her crib
Rice cereal

What she doesn't Like
Loud noises that catch her off guard
Being too cold or too hot
She goes back and forth between liking her binkie and not liking her binkie, as of now she likes it.
Does not like the booger sucker
doesn't like to be in one place for too long, she gets bored. On the 5th of September we took some pictures of her.
Funny things we love about her:
She is very selective on who she smiles at, poor Ashley who watches her has only gotten a few smiles.
She is starting to jump in her exersaucer and thinks it is the best thing ever
She has rolled over a few times and we are working with her to roll over more.
Sometimes she just likes to complain.
We absolutely love this

I am a little biased but I think she might be one of the cutest girls I have ever seen, people all over tell me she looks like a porcelin doll with her pale skin and blue eyes. I think I would agree.

Kailin eating Rice Cereal

Kailin really was happy about this rice cereal. Probably because it was so thin that it taste just like milk, but regardless here is a video of the first time she ate it. As you can tell in the picture it was pretty messy and we quickly had a bath after. It is so exciting having her grow up a little more each day although I wish she would stay young forever I am enjoying every step.

She's a Swimmer :)

I went to my parents home to help get a few projects done and I was able to get Kailin in the pool. She was so funny, she had just woken up from a long nap and was still pretty tired. I don't think her facial expression changed at all but she was moving her legs back and forth in the water. Please excuse my no makeup and crazy hair look. I had been working outside for quite a few hours before this and well to be honest..there is no lying in this picture :)

Couponing does a wallet good

I just wanted to share the great deal I got today at Albertsons because I have really been trying to coupon and for once I can see how it has paid off. Albertsons is having a General Mills special right now along with Box tops for education and so I was able to get a lot of really good stuff. Below is a picture and list of what I got.

4 Boxes of Cereal
1 Box Dish Detergent
6 Cake Mixes
6 Boxes Scalloped potatoes
5 Chicken Helpers
4 Nature Valley Granola Clusters(a favorite of ours)
4 El Paso Refried Beans
1 Evaporated Milk
1 Sweet and condensed milk
2 Vanilla extract
1 Bottle Salsa Verde
1 Worchestershire sauce
4 Apples
1 Container Icing

I spent 44.96 and saved 62.30

THANK YOU BIG SISTER!!!

I have been wanting to post a picture of this for quite some time. My sister Melissa made me the most adorable sock monkey quilt. It couldn't have turned out prettier. I am pretty sure she wished she never told me about it so she could have kept it for her little girl she is expecting but I am so glad she gave it to me. here is a picture of it .

Kailin telling stories. sorry it is sideways :)

Apple of my eye :)

The Prophet said to Plant a Garden

I came across this primary song and I couldn't agree with it more. "The prophet said to plant a garden, so that’s what we’ll do.For God has given rich brown soil, the rain and sunshine too.And if we plant the seeds just right and tend them carefully,Before we know, good things will grow to feed our family"

Craig and I have been so blessed to have a bountiful garden. I have posted some pictures of what the area looked like when we first saw the house and how it has transformed through the past three years. I want to thank our parents for helping us start and transform the garden. A lot of hard work has gone into this garden and we are very blessed.

Fall of 2007 when we move into the house:Our first garden boxes in Summer 2008:

Spring of 2009:

Then we added two more boxes for Summer of 2009 but I can't seem to find any pictures of that.

NOW FOR THE NEW AND VERY IMPROVED GARDEN AREA!!!!!!!!!!! I really have to thank Craig and His dad for working so hard on getting this area to what it is now. As well as I mentioned previously to my parents and siblings for helping us get the garden started:

This was the beginning of the summer. I planted a little late due to having Kailin and cold weather. This is looking from the fence toward our back yard.

We have corn....
Grapes....

Peppers and zucchini....
I love this flower on the zucchini...
Cucumbers and beans....
Strawberries and Carrots...

View of the Garden looking back towards the fence

Tomatoes....I'm not exactly sure some type of gourd..same here I think it is butternut squash...and Craigs favorite pumpkins.....

So far we have had quite a bit of produce off of the plants. I ripe tomato and a lot of cucumbers and beans. I have canned pickles and will be doing more today. Here are some pics of those:

It started with these:

Added in some dill, garlic and grape leafGetting the jars ready to add some brine:End product:

2nd picking I have done, I guess I will be doing some more pickling and beans today :)