November Randomness

My brother Nick, and his wife Jessica, just had a new baby boy. So we decided to go stay with them for a weekend and meet the new addition, he is so sweet and such a chill baby, we all fell in love with him right away.

While we were there, Stella was able to ride a horse for her very first time. She was hesitant at first until she saw Colton riding him, then she had no problem sitting "so tall" as she calls it.

What's that big white package wrapped around my brother's foot for???

He broke his foot the same week the new baby was born, and well, in rugged Idaho that's just how you take care of a brake. With plastic bags and bailing twine he'll be good to go in no time!

(Sorry Nick, I had to)

We had a great weekend with the Treasure family in Twin Falls. Stella keeps praciticing for the next time we visit by riding the arms of the couch as though they were horses.

We have the most beautiful big tree right in our front yard. I've loved it all summer long because as I relax on the couch and look out, I can't see any of the neighbors, just a big beautiful green tree with lots of leaves. I loved watching all those leaves change colors and slowly fall. Soon we had TONS of leaves on the ground, so one night before David came home we decided to "help" with the yard work and rake those leaves up and jump in them. Stella had a blast burrying herself in them, running through them, crunching them between her fingers, pulling them out of clothes and hair... I think it was the most fun she had all fall. We were still out there when David came home and he joined the fun and took some pictures of his girls.

The sunset was amazing!

It's a rare moment when Stella will stop and smile for the camera, I LOVE this picture!

We lasted until it was too dark to see anything and just a little bit longer. It was one of those perfect nights that as I paused for a moment to watch Stella running and laughing as David would throw a huge pile of leaves in the air and watch them fall over my giggly girl, with the sunset and crisp air... I couln'd help a few tears of gratitude for the deep love and connection we have as a family. I feel strongly within my heart how blessed I am to be a part of our own little unity. And even stronger feelings of gratitude knowing we'll be together forever.


Lastly, I just had to post these... we painted our family room and let Stella help.
She almost looks as though she's been caught in the act!

Such a good little artist.

Lights at Temple Square

This weekend some friends from our ward invited us to go to Temple Square to see all the lights. As soon as we mentioned those two things together in the same sentence to Stella, she got so excited. Her favorite song to sing each night before we go to bed is "I love to see the Temple" and I think it's because she REALLY does love to see the Temple. And every time we drive by a house that has lights she always gasps and says "Wow look! Pwetty wights!" So she was in heaven at Temple Square

The fountains fascinated her and she was on a mission to take all the snow, and drop/throw it in to the fountains.

Here she is collecting the snow...
....and then putting it in the fountain.

It was 30 degrees outside and her hands were ice cold, but she had a blast doing it.

She also loves playing with the camera, halfway through the night she accidentally dropped it and it stopped working. So, unfortunately we didn't get any more pictures of the lights.

After the lights, we went to Denny's and had hot chocolate and snacks. It was a great night, thanks Alli and Shaun, it was fun spending the evening with you guys!

Halloween

Wow, 4 posts in 2 days!! You can really tell I'm out of school now hu?

Well, this is the last of them until the next holiday or monumental thing:)

David and Stella carving pumpkins, she's so delicate it cracks me up. She wasn't too interested in getting her fingers all mushied up in the pumpkin guts, but she did think the faces on all the pumpkins daddy carved were funny. She kept saying "Funny Punkin!"

With the stresses October brought, I really did forget about halloween until the day of. So, the day of, the three of us went shopping for costumes... or ideas mostly.

Stella had the choice between this little indian dress or a Snow White princess dress. She chose the Indian girl.... She really is my child! I thought she was adorable, and one of a kind- I didn't see one other little indian girl....but lots and lots of Snow Whites!
Riding her horse
My ZORO!

And me the cowboy er girl... see a theme presenting?

It was super cold and rainy, and in fact we ended up trick or treating at the mall. Stella was a very polite trick or treater, saying please and thank you to everyone who gave her candy. Now we're using that halloween candy as bribery for potty training... how trickery of me!

Graduation!

I did it! I actually did it! David and my whole family (especially Mom) kept saying, "we knew you could do it", but I didn't know that I could! We survived the month of October, it was rough going in to, full of a lot of break downs and not knowing how I would do with David in Canada the week of my finals and Comprehensive, but with a lot of prayers and help from my family and neighbors we got through. David was suppose to come home the day before my final comprehensive (the test determining wether I could graduate or not) but because of bad weather he was delayed until wednesday night...after my test. My dad and Mary were already in Idaho, I called just a little upset and emotional needing some support and they changed their plans and came to my rescue. I needed a hug and some confidence before taking my test, oh yeah, and a babysitter!

That was the most nerve wracking test I've ever taken, but I did a whole lot better than I thought I'd ever do. Then right after I drove to the airport and picked up my sweetheart, it was soooo good to see him after I'd been so stressed!

The next day Jenny and Tori joined the party and Friday was my dad's birthday and graduation.

Here are the pictures from the event:

My sister Jenny and I

Cousin Tori and Stella playing with Grandpa's birthday balloons

All 4 sets of our parents, Jenny, Jessy, Michelle and Travis all were able to come to the Graduation. We ate at Roosters before it started.

Yay, I'm graduating!
My graduating class... I love these guys and I'm going to miss them dearly!

One of my magnificent teachers, Suzanne.

Dad & Mary

Jessy

Mom & Tom

I thought it was pritty cool. The keynote speaker called me and another lady, Pam, up to give us special certificates for a perfect GPA. I can't deny, it felt pritty good to recieve that award, and it was awesome my whole family could be there to see it too.

When we came home my sweet neighbor had hung up a Huge banner across our garage and balloons on the banister, what a suprise! Thanks Jill & Chris!

And thanks to my sweetheart, I couldn't have done any of it without you. I was very fearful of starting school, afraid I wouldn't do well or be teachable, basically not be smart enough. But you having had full confidence in me from the beginning gave me confidence, and through the whole experience I think I'm finally able to see what you've been trying to tell me all along.

David's Birthday

David is sure to tease me for being so much older in the three weeks after my birthday and the three weeks before his, but as always, he caught up to me... 28.

I was stumped as to what to get the man, he's so low maintenance, if he ever needs anything, we'll get it, and he never seems to 'want' anything. So I was only left with one option... shower him with RSL stuff!

I went online to look for Real Salt Lake Soccer tickets and found this awesome package. A tour of the stadium, 4 souvenirs and a pair of tickets to the upcoming game for 80% off it's orginal value, so I jumped on that one in a hurry.

This is David standing in the tunnel our favorite players run out of...

They wouldn't let us stand on their "multi-million dollar" grass for fear we may ruin it, taking into account the athletes and their cleats, we didn't take the tour guide too serious, however, we listened and didn't touch his precious grass either. :)
On top of those tickets, I got a pair of tickets for the game the following weekend as well. We love taking Stella to the games with us, she always marches and claps along to the band and makes sure we're clapping as well. She loves watching the game and there are so many distractions of just being at the game, she generally does really well. David made her a jersey of her own to wear out of all the free stuff we've collected from the games. Normally we have to hide it, otherwise, she'd wear it every day!

I won't go into detail as to how it all happened, and unfortunately I didn't take a picture after the fact, but it's too cool to leave out. I came in contact with RSL's goal keeper, Nick Rimando, who is also my favorite player on the team. I went online to order from his line of clothing "Nick is my Homeboy" for something for David's birthday. I waited what seemed like forever and it never came, so I emailed the company to ask when it would ship and Nick was actually the one that responded! He apologized because of a mix up and to make it up he was going to sign a pair of his goal keeper gloves and have them delivered to our seats with a t-shirt for David. I had a hard time keeping it a secret from David, but somehow I did it. David, always wanting a better view, kept searching for better seats while we were there and that made me nervous, so to get him to calm down I told him "these seats are worth more than you think". Finally right before the first half ended, a guy from the office came and found us and delivered the gloves and an awesome red t-shirt with Nick's logo.... David was astounded! He couldn't believe it and I couldn't wait to tell him I'd be e-mailing Nick Rimando all week!!! I don't know who was more excited, me or him... either way, it was a good game:)

It was a super fun birthday, it was awesome we got to extend it on and on with the games and the tour and the RSL goods. My only worry is how on earth am I going to top that one next year?

Happy Birthday David, you are the love of my life!

New Pictures!

I've been wanting to get pictures now for a while, especially to hang up in our new living room. If you can recall, last years pic's David has long hair... which I finally made him cut, and Stella changed so much in year, I was just anxious to look at something new and updated. I'm sick of the in-studio, white or black sheet back drop and wanted something outside with bright and cheery colors. Thankfully we have an awesome neighbor who loves to do pictures and doesn't mind doing them outside.

Let me know if you are interested and I can get you in touch with her.

This is our absolute FAVORITE

I may be a little biased, but I'm pritty sure I've got the cutest little girl in the world.

Thank you Jill for such great pictures, I LOVE them!

I love Birthdays!

Sorry for the delay in posts, we've been so busy with school, moving and life in general that I've failed to post pictures of the whole summer. Oh, and I've come to blog a couple of times and it hasn't uploaded my pictures, so I'm crossing my fingers this will post!

August 29th was Stella's birthday and my birthday. I love sharing my birthday with her, it was so much fun throwing an Owl Themed birthday party.

My first go at fondant...

Party Favors...

I didn't make this one unfortunately!

Cupcakes made of oreo's, runts and jr mints...

It was really hard cutting into that cake! It took a little too long to decorate...

Our Birthday Girl

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to!!
The next day was Sunday and was our actual birthdays. David did so many special things for me that day, he really made my birthday special, thanks Love!

I didn't want cake, he got me rhubarb pie instead

We also celebrated our 5 year Anniversary on the 18th of August, Stella was super sick so we took her to dinner with us. It turned out to be a disaster and I think we're still waiting for a date re-due, but it was definately a memorable one!

He got me flowers and a vase, I was most impressed with the vase!

We also celebrated David's birthday in September, but that will have to be a different blog post. And we got our pictures taken by our sweet neighbor, I can't wait to show you all those soon too when I get more time. But for now it's back to the books, I have 2 1/2 weeks left and national exams to study for. David is also taking a trip to Canada for work, it's kind of bad timing since he'll be gone for my week of finals, we're praying everything will go smoothly and he'll be able to make it back in time for my graduation!