Easter

This Easter we ran out of time on Sunday to look for our Easter baskets so we ended up doing it for Family Home Evening the next day. Michael didn't quite understand what he was supposed to be doing, but with a little bit of help he figured it out. They ran out of plastic eggs at the store so I bought these plastic jelly beans instead. Boy did Alan make fun of me! He kept calling them jelly slugs. Anyways we hid several of those for Michael to find that had fish crackers and baby puffs in them. He also got this cute green hippo. I probably like it more then Michael does but that is okay!

(That bag of candy is not Michael's. I don't want you to think that I give my little guy candy at 10 months old!)

My old roommate and friend NaeDene came to visit us for a week. It was a lot of fun to have another girl around! She was such a good sport about finding her Easter basket. I knew that Alan wouldn't be too thrilled if I made his too hard to find so I decided to make NaeDene's the hardest. I ended up having to tell her where I hid it. There are a lot of great places to hide things in our piano. =) This year Al hid my basket pretty good as well. I had to unscrew the panel on the wall that holds the air filter to our apartment. It was behind the air filter sitting there between the framed walls. Next year I might not be able to find mine!

NaeDene took this picture for us. We have VERY FEW pictures of all of us together! This one isn't that great but at least it has everyone. I love Holidays! Thanks to everyone who went along with my idea's of family traditions! It really means a lot to me.

Anniversary

It was our Anniversary a little over a week ago. We have been married for two years now! Boy does time fly by fast. It landed on a Monday this year so we decided to celebrate it the weekend before. We actually got a babysitter for Michael and went to the temple and then out to dinner. It was a really nice night but I have to admit that I missed having Michael around. How can you not love that kid! On our actual Anniversary date Alan brought me home these beautiful flowers! I always tease Alan about not being romantic so after I got these I told him that maybe there is hope for him. He wished that he hadn't gotten me the flowers after all. j/k

The True Michael Is Coming Out!

Michael loves to pose for pictures! Just kidding it actually took a lot on my part to even get him to look at me. He was really into checking out the tree.

He really is a HAPPY kid! All he needs is a little attention from you and your his new best friend.

Michael loves rocks just as much as his father if not MORE! He likes to look at them and feel their different textures, but most of all he loves to EAT them. Hey if you can't beat them join them! j/k

I have to laugh at this picture because this is a normal for Michael. That face he is pulling is his attack face. I shot it right before he started charging at me!

This last picture is of Michael showing you that he is fearless of heights (or oblivious)! He will go right over the edge of anything if you let him. Oh boy!

New Infatuation!

Last weekend Jessie and Erik's family came to visit us. We all loved having them here, but I think Michael enjoyed it the most! He is absolutely is in LOVE with Eli! Anywhere or anything Eli was doing Michael wanted to be there and participating in! I thought it was pretty cute and Eli was a pretty good sport about it. I am afraid that I didn't take any pictures of them but I did find these pictures from Christmas break. Even back then Michael liked Eli. Now it is just more fun because he can stand up (leaning against something) and follow him around (crawl/army scoot). When I looked at these pictures I had to laugh. Look at the size difference. There is a year between them but in these pictures Michael looks just as heavy and round as Eli if not more! I do believe that Michael has lost some weight since these pictures were taken but his cheeks are still just as big. Got to love them!

Update

Last Saturday we had someone hit us in the Baskin Robins parking lot. Their hitch hit our back bumper and put a nice hole right through it. They don't make bumpers like they use to! Anyways, she was really nice about the whole thing. She came into the store to find out who she hit instead of hitting us and running. So right now we are trying to get estimates and get the whole insurance thing figured out. Lots of fun! I will be very happy when it is all taken care of. At least we are still able to drive the car around.

At the moment we are trying to find either a house or some property to buy. It's a lot of fun to go house shopping. Some days it gets a little frustrating because you have to look at a lot of dumps before you find something decent. What we are finding a lot of are modular homes on really nice pieces of property. All of the houses are on these little lots. At least time is on our side. We are in no huge hurry so we will just keep on looking until we find that good deal. It will be really nice when we get into our own place. Our apartment is pretty nice and is just fine for our little family, but we would really like to be putting our money into something rather than keep giving it away in rent. I also can't wait for the day that I have a washer and dryer in my own house! Five loads of laundry and a 20 pound baby isn't the easiest thing to haul around the apartment complex and down a steep flight of stairs to the laundry facility. I use to say that cleaning showers was my "least" favorite thing to do on my cleaning list. Now I would have to say that laundry tops it! Hey look at the bright side, I always get my arm work out in on those days!

Funny things!

Anyone who has been around Michael knows that he LOVES his pacifier! The funny thing is that he not only likes to suck it but he loves to treat it as a chewing toy. I don't have the heart to take it away from him. I figure that there is no way that he will be able to swallow it so why not! (It is really funny when he has it shoved into his mouth and then gives you that big famous "Michael smile"!)



A girl in our ward gave this warm little outfit to us for Michael. Doesn't it make you want to just squeeze him! As nice as this is it is impossible to buckle him into his car seat with this on, not to mention that he HATES it, so we only put it on when we are going to be outside for a while.

Grandpa's Funeral

A little over a week ago my Grandpa West passed away at age 82. We will all miss him dearly. Towards the end there he had a very poor quality of life so I think I can speak for everyone when I say that we are glad that he is no longer in pain and is able to get around again. I know that he is now in a beautiful place surrounded by many loved ones!

It has been I think around eight years since all of my Dad's siblings have ALL been together at one time. The back row are the six brothers and the front row are my Dad's seven sisters. I don't know how my Grandma was able to have 13 kids. She is definitely a very strong giving lady! I sure look up to her.

That weekend was the first time My Dad was able to meet my son Michael. It was also the first time my sister Laurie (who also lives in Alaska) got to meet Michael. That was the high light of the whole trip for me. I sure love my family!

This is a picture taken of some of my first cousins. It was towards the end of the lunch-in so there are a number of them that were there that are missing from this picture. My sister Laurie is two people to the left of me trying to get Michael to stop crying (he had his feel of pictures taking!) and my oldest sister Amy is the third girl from my right. My Mom, my sister Katie, and my brothers Mike and Luke couldn't be there. I sure did miss them but was so.... glad to see the rest of my family even if it was for a funeral.