Cooking Class!

Courtney loves to cook and bake with me. I have to admit that for a few years there(while she was a baby), I had forgotten how much I enjoy cooking and baking. Now that she is older and able to help, it's fun again. Thanks to her aunt Betsy, she is in possession of an easy bake oven. I don't know who named the thing but "easy" should not have been included. For those of you who don't know, everything is completely miniature. I bought a cake mix, as well as a cookie mix, hoping to let my daughter bake on her own. Little did I know that the pan you use to cook is about 5 inches in diameter, and you are supposed to bake three cookies in it at a time! It was way too frustrating for me but Courtney had a great time. We've put the easy bake oven away for now and I think we'll just use the regular oven, which is much easier for me.

A Day Out With Thomas

I know what most of you are thinking. Yes, Courtney is our daughter, not son. But lately she has had a fascination with "boy" things. She loves cars, trucks, trains, basketball, golf, and many more. I think it's mostly due to the fact that the poor girl has almost all cousins and friends her age that are boys. Don't get me wrong, I think it's fine. She still loves princesses more. Plus, she'll have plenty of time for that. Truth be told, I was quite a tomboy myself for most of my childhood. I turned out relatively normal. :)

It all started with my nephew having to go ride Thomas. The weekend of the ride, my brother came into town from Las Vegas. It turned into a whole family trip and was a lot of fun. Courtney was so excited when she saw Thomas. I could tell it was confusing for her though when she said(after riding on the train for 15 minutes), "Can I ride on Thomas now?" Oh boy! She didn't even realize that we were riding him. Still, she had a good time.
She loves to be with her cousins and grandparents more than anything, so that made it all the more fun for her.
Of course the first place she wanted to go after we got off the train was into the gift shop. Luckily, she is really good about looking and not wanting to get everything. I told Dave that we should get her the train track that they have at IKEA. It's only ten dollars!

Other highlights were going to the petting zoo(that was smaller than my master bedroom). It was fun though. The kids got to pet all kinds of cute little animals. Courtney also waited in line for about 15 minutes just to get a Thomas tatoo on her arm. She loves it and will be very sad when it's finally all washed off.

Our new house

Since we finally got the front yard landscaped and per the request of several people, I am posting some pics of our house. We have been really happy with it and I hope to stay here for several years. Dave seems to think that we should be moving every 3 to 5 years but I am hoping that doesn't happen. This area is so nice and our ward and neighbors are really great. Courtney loves playing outside with all of the kids. We have loved everyone around us. An added is bonus is that we have a babysitter that lives right next door to us(if that isn't a dream come true, I don't know what is).
I was even able to convince Dave that we needed to plant some flowers to make our yard look nice. We were able to get some planted and so far, they are still alive. There have definitely been some close calls to killing them but now we are very dilligent in our watering.
I also have to mention something that has nothing to do with our house. We are so thrilled to have the Utah Jazz in the western conference finals. I do not believe they can beat San Antonio but we're still rooting for them. Anyway, it has been a fun and exciting time for us here in Salt Lake. Go Jazz!

Courtney(of course!)

We got an idea from a friend, to straighten Courtney's hair one day. I really wanted to do it so that people could see how long her hair really is. I decided that she is really lucky to have curly hair because she has more cowlicks than I could count and her hair just goes kind of crazy anyway. Also, after her nap, the bottom was all curled up in ringlets again because she had sweat in her sleep a little. It was fun to do for one day but we'll just keep it curly for now.



One of Courtney's all time favorite presents was from her Uncle Craig. It is a purple, plush piggy bank. It makes a sound every time a coin is dropped in the slot. She loves to find money and put it in her bank. She has made a lot of money for an almost 3 year old! She doesn't like to empty it and cash it in though. She would rather have her piggy full of money.

She also has a new favorite pastime that must come from her father. She loves to play video games on the computer. Her games are actually educational, unlike her Dad's, but she loves them all the same. It amazes me that children so small and young have the ability to know what they're doing on a computer. She will sit down and play for about 30 minutes and does it all by herself. She is very proud of herself when she plays. She also told me that her Dad can't play on the computer anymore because it's always going to be her turn.

Fun in the Sun

I have to apologize for being such a slacker lately. I know that most of you can't live unless you know what's going on in our lives, so I'll have a couple of posts today. Mother's Day weekend, we had the chance to go to Las Vegas for a quick trip. Dave has an aunt that received her endowment and got sealed to her husband, so we had to be there for that. It was great to see them being sealed for eternity and being in the temple. We were also blessed to see both Trent and Sean with their wives in the temple, which was nice because we were only in town for one day. We always wish our trips could be longer so that we could visit everyone on our list.

After the temple ceremony, us girls were blessed to be able to go out and get pedicures as our Mother's Day presents. We loved it, of course, and enjoyed a little relaxation. It was so hot in Vegas that we decided it was a perfect day for swimming. Courtney has decided that she loves to swim, so it made the whole trip worth it for her.

We have been having some pretty nice weather in Utah since our trip and Courtney loves to play outside. She has finally learned how to pedal her small bike and loves to ride it around. The only problem is that she has the smallest bike in the neighborhood and doesn't like it. She's always asking for a new bike. The only problem now is that she wants a power wheel instead of a bike. A lot of the kids on our street own one and she doesn't want to be left out. Unfortunately for her, it's just the small bike for her for now. But it seems to be better than being inside.

How we hang!

I just thought I'd give everyone a sneak peek into our lives. They are definitely not as exciting as some others(Jamie) but we still enjoy our days. Courtney's new favorite thing is to shower with me in the morning. She used to be terrified of the shower but now she loves it. I think it has something to do with being able to squeegee the glass because if I forget and do it myself she comes apart. After she gets out and gets wrapped up in a towel, she runs downstairs to get her blanket and to finish watching whatever show was on.

She has gotten really good about wanting to get dressed but it's a little frustrating at times because she has a definite opinion of what she thinks she should wear.

She loves to help me clean. Let me make my quick plug for one of the best inventions ever(Audra has also attested to this). If you do not own a Swiffer Vac, you have to get one. It is the greatest for hard surface flooring. I can't believe how great it works. It's so much better than sweeping, where you inevitably miss dirt and lint. The great added bonus is that Dave likes to use it and so does Courtney. She will vacum until the charge wears out and it really does get clean with just my two year old working it. Dave and Courtney love to be silly! If anyone has seen the movie, The Holiday, you will get what they are doing in these pictures. If not, you have to see it. Not just to get our wackiness but also because it's honestly one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. I loved it. Anyway, in the movie a father turns himself into "Mr. Napkinhead". Dave and Courtney think it's great. And I love it too and finally got it on camera.

When Courtney is finally in bed at night, and I'm not watching Alias(our favorite show that we rent), I find time to quilt. This is my latest quilt that I made for my new nephew, Kash. Strange name I know, but not a misprint. Anyway, I had to share it with everyone.

Family and Easter

We were blessed to have my whole family in town for the Easter weekend. It's been quite a long time since all of the family was together and it was a lot of fun to catch up. It almost felt just like old times(except for the nine kids running around. Where did they come from?) Courtney loves her cousins and never wants to go home when they are here. She was also really excited for Easter. To our amazement, she wasn't the least bit scared of the Easter Bunny. It is a huge relief to us because we are planning on taking her to Disneyland this summer. Now we know it probably is a good idea.


I don't think any kid was more excited to hunt for eggs than her. She could not wait for Easter day to get here. We had a great Easter and hope you all did too.

Moving and Quilting

We have finally moved into our new house. Yeah!! Since we signed papers last June, we are happy to finally be in. Getting settled is a whole other story. I had to take a picture of Dave putting Courtney's bed together because he asked me why I only put pictures of Courtney up on the blog. I think it's pretty obvious why I don't want pics of me but he can have all the ones he wants. We were lucky enough to sell both of our other houses before we had to close on the new house. The bad news was that we had a week in between when we had to move out the old one and into the new one. Lucky for us, we were able to live at my parent's house for that week. We had to load up a truck and upload it into two garages(thanks Mindy and Lee, and also mom and dad). Then we had to load up the truck another time and park the truck for a week(again, thanks mom and dad). We are so thrilled to be in our new home and hope not to move for a long time. I told Dave that the next move we make will have to be done by professionals. It's too much work, and when did we accumulate all this stuff.
I like to blame it on Courtney. Does one child need so much stuff to go with her? Half of our attic was filled with her baby stuff. Honestly, for a year, we needed that much stuff? Crazy. We are getting more settled everyday and it really does feel like home. Courtney had a very hard time living at the grandparents house. That is putting it mildly. I actually thought a demon had possessed my sweet little girl, but she is back to normal now. She tells us how much she loves her new house and how she wants everyone to come see it.
During our week without a home, I was able to finally finish Courtney's quilt. That was the one good thing about it. I had a lot of time on my hands, which is extremely unusual. I was able to bind the edges so she could put in on her bed when we moved in. Don't look too closely at it because it is not perfect. I had a great time doing it though and can't wait to start my next one.

My Funny Little Girl

Courtney is getting so old and seems so grown up. I had to finally get some shots of her with her underwear tucked into her shirt. She is so proud of herself when she gets dressed in the morning but she usually needs a little help. She is very independent and likes to do everything herself. I was so bummed out this weekend because we finally went and did something fun, and I forgot the camera. Courtney was so upset about the whole thing. We went to a place called Kangaroo Zoo. It's this great indoor play yard. It had all of those inflatable slides and stuff. She had such a good time and didn't want to leave, even after bumping heads with another little one while going down.
Courtney has been going to bed better lately but she doesn't fall asleep until she plays for awhile. I couldn't resist taking a picture of her dolls and animals after she fell asleep last week. I also had to take some video of her reading a book. Every sentence starts off with "One day" and it's so cute. Dave and I can't figure out how to get video on the blog, so if anyone knows how to do it, let us know.
We got Courtney some new shoes this weekend and she loves them. We're glad because she was pretty upset about getting rid of the old ones but she is so funny. As soon as she got out of the shower this morning, she wanted to put her shoes on. I convinced her to put undies on first but that was as far as she was willing to go. Dave will be so upset to see more naked pics of his daughter up here but it was too funny to me.

Painting, Baths, and Hair

Courtney is definitely ready to start preschool. Her favorite thing to do these days is water paint. She will usually make about 15 pictures each time she sits down to paint. She likes to make them, "for all the people." I'm not sure who all the people are but they are sure lucky. She uses each and every color and never mixes them together.
Bathtime has become a favorite part of the day for us all. I get a break while Dave watches her in the bath. She puts in all her toys and plays for nearly an hour. Lately she has been trying new things in the bath. We have been talking to her about swimming lessons this summer, so she now blows bubbles in the water and just recently started laying in the water with her ears under water. This is a big accomplishment for her. It used to scare her to death to have her ears under the water. Now she tells us she is ready for swimming lessons because, "I am big girl." Now we just have to work on her grammar.

I took this picture just so people would believe me when I say that Courtney has long hair. Although it springs up into tight curls and it looks as if it never gets longer, it does. It just gets curlier the longer it gets. In truth, her hair is pretty long.

I feel like I'm drowning

We had the very unfortunate experience of our basement flooding a week ago. Before I go on, I'll say that we are all fine and it could have been much worse. I am calling Courtney my miracle because she was sick last week and so we didn't go to church. Dave found the water seeping into our basement right after church started. Things would have gotten really ugly had we been at church for the next three hours.

As it was, we were able to get everything out of the basement before too much damage had taken place. Our window wells filled up with water and we had about two inches or so of water covering the entire basement. We had a specialist come out and suck up all the water. They also pulled up all the pad and then we had to have industrial fans on for four days. Now everything is nice and dry and waiting to be put back together. This is just one of those things that happen and cause plenty of inconvienence. At least it didn't happen when we had all those people staying here a few weeks ago. Soon it will be as good as new down there, maybe even better.

Idiosyncrasies

Ok, I finally get around to doing mine. I figure that if everyone else can let people know these strange things about themselves, I can too.

I have to get ready for the day and ready for bed in the exact same way every day. I cannot, say, brush my teeth before washing my face before bed.

I will not go anywhere without doing Courtney's hair.

I will not eat shredded meats at mexican restaurants.

I have to have a clean house. Like Jamie, everything may not be organized exactly right, but it has to have the appearance of being clean.

I love Costco. I could go everyday and never get tired of it.

I secretly love to bite my nails because Dave hates it.

I think I like playdates better than Courtney does.

Also like Jamie, I have to examine every piece of chicken I am preparing. Most of the time I end up throwing out more than I use. And along those same lines, I only buy the best beef. I can't stand having to drain meat.

I have to buy things if I think they are a good deal. I figure at some time in my life I will be able to use them.

I'm sure there are so much more, but I don't want to loose all my friends. Now I am officially tagging Darron(and Kristen) and Audra. Let's hear about what makes you guys tick.

Boys

I did a little better than Jamie, but not much. Dave took two pics actually snowboarding and two at dinner. For those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, I'll explain. Every year Dave and some of his friends from high school take a snowboarding trip. It is a very good time for all of them(they get to come alone). No wives or children for this guys trip.


Of course they are always kind enough to invite Courtney and I out with them, but sometimes I think they're better left alone. I don't know who had a better time this trip, Courtney or the boys. Dave and I are thinking of locking her up until she's twenty. She thought Sean, Jason, and Gordon were the best things that have happened to her in quite awhile. She cried huge tears when they left the first day because she thought she could go snowboarding with them. She asked about them every hour and even drew pictures for them. She was sad to see them go.

We also had Dave's mom and brother and wife and baby staying with us this weekend. I didn't get any pics of them because Dave had the camera. After everyone had left on Sunday, we got this great pic of Courtney with all her things that Grandma got for her. Talk about spoiled. We had such a great weekend with everyone but I am definitely ready for a girls weekend!