New look

My friend Jessie inspired me to try to figure out how to make my own blog background and header. This is my first try so it's not exactly perfect, but I like it well enough. I spent way too much time on it but I had fun :)

Blast from the past

Mike's working this week in northern Spain and Italy and he has the camera so I decided since I can't take any pictures I'd post a few fun ones from my past.

This one's not too old but I thought it brings back great memories. This is me with my two beautiful sister-in-laws at Tempanaki. I think it was taken pretty soon after Mike and I were engaged. Megan has grown up SO much since then. I can't believe it! It really puts into perspective how long Mike and I have been together. Megan was in 6th grade when we started dating and now she's a Senior in High School. Wow!

Ahhh... such wonderful times happened in A Richards 105. These girls are some of my closest friends and I love all of them so much. It's crazy to think that we all met 8 years ago our Freshman year at BYU. Remember when we used to prank call people pretending to be the Honor Code office? L-R: Lindsay Glazier Grassick, Heather Davidson Kunz, Mary Shaffer Clark, Annamarie Johnson Connelly and Zinaida Alexevna Kouznetsova.

This picture just makes me laugh! It's also from freshman year at BYU. It features some really hot girls as Charlie's Angels on Halloween. Our friend David was playing Charlie. Lucky guy, huh? I think it's so funny that we all dressed up as Charlie's Angels. You know we were just trying to attract attention from guys. As far as I can tell this is L-R: Zina, me, Heather, Mary, Lindsay and Tisha. I love Tisha's shoes the best. Where were you find those beauties?

Here I am with Breanne Klein Smith. I don't think we were even in high school when this picture was taken. We were doing a service project for church and I remember this time sort of being the defining moment in our friendship. We were pretty much bff's after this. It brings back so many good memories to see us together. I love this girl so much. She has always been such a light in my life.

This picture is truly old school. doesn't it just epitomize the awkward days of adolescence? I love my big brother so much. At least he's looking cool in the picture. This reminds me of how we used to watch GI Joes every morning before school while we ate breakfast. Good times. My fluffy hair tells me this picture was probably taken when I was in 6th grade and Cory was a freshman. I can't believe I actually wore that hat to school! And I'm definitely glad the days of tucking shirts into tight belted pants is over :)

You know your child grew up in Spain when... (an American perspective)

1. All his friends have 3 a.m. bedtimes and a "morning" playdate starts at 1 p.m.

2. He learns to avoid dog poop while walking down the street.

3. He prefers cured ham and fine cheese to chicken nuggets.

4. His nickname is "rubio" (blondie).

5. Your the only ones out taking a walk at 3 p.m. and the only ones not taking a walk at 1 a.m.

6. He teethes on the ends of freshly baked bread.

7. He can go to the park and feed peacocks but playing on the playground may require a tetanus shot.

8. His best friend's brash advice is, "Hombre! Quita el chupe!"

9. He resents driving to the store instead of walking.

10. He's been to more countries than you've been to States in the Union.

11. He often feels left out because he doesn't have a "couch" to stroll down the street in.

12. He's the only one not wearing a heavy winter coat in sunny 65° weather.

13. He expects to see tractors and horse drawn carriages driving down the road (and occasionally on freeways).

14. He knows his way from his house to the center of town without any direction.

15. All his friends dress like girls - even the boys.

Party Time!

We celebrated Jay's birthday over the weekend at the club on base. It's newly remodeled and it was a prefect place to party! Jay had 3 friends come: Alex, Christopher and Sarah. Johnny was sick so he couldn't be there :( We had lots of good food and plenty of fun. My favorite dish were the mini hot dogs wrapped in bacon. Mike had heard about it from a friend and we decided to try it out. They were delicious! Jay liked the cheesy artichoke dip best. We had plenty of adult and child friendly food so everyone was happy. We also had cupcakes and mini ice cream cones. The ice cream cones were a big hit but the kids mostly just licked the frosting off the cupcakes. The adults loved the cupcakes - how can you go wrong with chocolate cake and vanilla frosting, right dad? The kids pretty much just ran around the whole time and played with each other. There were some balloons, bubbles and an air hockey game, which was a big favorite because everyone wanted to crawl around on the table, but we didn't do any party games. 2 year olds don't really know how to play in an organized fashion yet. They sure love to run though. Jay received some cool presents. He got a Thomas the Train set, a race car track, a talking vacuum cleaner (he likes helping with chores) and a few cars with a gift card. Woo hoo! He scored big time. He's been having a great time playing with all of his new toys. The best part about the whole party was that we didn't really have to clean up. The club staff pretty much takes care of the mess. It was so nice not having it at our house. We sure love our little 2 year old man. Happy Birthday Jay!

Finishing up in Utah

The final part of our trip to the States ended in Utah. We had such a wonderful time with the Connelly's. Seriously, How did I get so blessed? I have the best in-laws ever. I am so grateful for their hospitality, their kindness and their love. I love them all so much.

First off, here are some pictures of Jay playing at the park near the cabin. He loved the duckies! Isn't it beautiful?

Mamah (Jay's word for Grandma) and Jay had so much fun playing with bubbles. Mamah would blow them and then they would pop them and say, "Pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop!" Jay thought it was so funny!

Here's Jay helping Mamah shuck corn. He loved helping.

Mmmm... Corn!

While we were in Utah we got to visit with my cousins Jeff and Sarah and their adorable kids James and Mei. I can't believe how big they are now. James is such a mature little man and Mei is so beautiful and full of life. James showed us some of his cool Martial Arts tricks. He has been taking classes for a long time now and he's very good. We had such a nice time visiting with them. Their new dream home is incredible. We loved touring it and hope that someday we can live in a place half as cool! We can't wait until our next visit when we can have our game night. We love you guys and miss you!

Every day when Gampa came home he'd bring Jay a treat from his Office. Of course Jay looked forward to these homecomings :) Gampa Lynn's the best! These two also had many fun times watching cool animal shows and movies. Jay is definitely in his animal obsession right now.

We went to visit Uncle Rob's new house one night and Jay had such a good time playing with his Uncle Woggie (his word for Robbie - a mix between Wobbie and Froggie). Jay's favorite part was playing outside and saying bye bye to all the cars that drove by. It was sure nice to have a man around to rough house with Jay while daddy was gone. Frequently when Rob would leave us Jay would ask after him. Rob definitely knows his way into a toddlers heart!

Jill, Jay and I went up to the cabin on one of our last days in Utah. Here's a picture of the cabin from the front. It is such a beautiful place to hang out.
We keep trying to figure out why Jay now constantly asks for ice cream.

Any ideas?

Jay thought this totum pole was pretty amazing!

Jill put this little fake bird and a nest in a whole in the log and Jay loved looking for it and playing with it. We spent quite a while throwing it off the balcany and then back up to Jay.

I love you so much mamah and I can't wait to see you again soon!

Finishing up California

I still have a few pictures and events to record about our trip to California. So here we go...

Jay loved this lawn mower! He played with it for hours at my parent's house. It made lots of noise, which made even more fun.

Clark the kitty was a big hit in Nevada City. Jay loved to rub his head against Clark's fur. He's such a good, huge, fluffy cat. Anyone who met our cat Jig will be interested to know that Clark is her son. Luckily Clark is much better with kids than Jig was :)

Jay liked taking drinks out of the constructor's water tub. He thought the little paper cups were so cool. He's a little builder in training.

One of the coolest parts about going home was being able to see my friend Lindsay's new baby boy. Isn't Sevren adorable? He's about 6 weeks in this picture and he's just so cute! Jay liked giving the baby kisses, but he didn't like it when mom held him (still very jealous). It was so much fun to see Linds and Sev. We love you guys and can't wait to see you again soon!

The night before leaving Cali the family went out to dinner at our favorite family restaurant, Asian Gardens. I love my family so much! They are the best. Isn't Lizzie beautiful? I can't believe how old she is! I sure wish the rest of my family could have been there too. Maybe we'll all be able to be together at Christmas this year.

I love you guys and can't wait to see you again soon!

Just a few things

There are certain things about your kids that just make you laugh. I have to post a few that I've noticed Jay doing lately:

We try to read a story from Book of Mormon Stories before bedtime every night and usually Jay isn't too into it. Lately though he has taken a keen interest in the pictures. Every time we open the book he starts pointing to all the pictures of people with shirts off and says, "Owie! Owie! Owie!" He tends to freak if his own shirt is off so perhaps this corolates?
Jay loves eating yogurt in the morning. Of course he has to eat it all by himself and he's old enough now that he's actually good at it. Lately though he has become very particular about how you give him the yogurt. You can't just stick the spoon in the yogurt and plop it down on the highchair tray. Being that daddy has been away at his class for the past 6 weeks he didn't know about Jay's new peculiarity. Yesterday morning daddy gave Jay his yogurt with the spoon in and immediately Jay started screaming in protest. I quickly grabbed the spoon, cleaned it off and explained that Jay prefers that the spoon is set next to the yogurt rather than inside of it. If that spoon even comes near to touching the yogurt without his permission it's all over. Ahhh, the things you know as a mother...

This morning Jay and I were taking our usual walk, he with his mini shopping cart and me with the stroller. We crossed a street and I tried to get up on the side walk with him but he pushed me away, forcing me to walk on the street instead. I thought this was strange until I figured out what he was up to. Whenever a parked car would come between us Jay would say, "Wheeere's Jay?" Then he would knock on the car's door and say, "Hewow?" Then he would peak around the corner of the car and say, "Peet da doo!" This happened with every car on the street and it made me laugh out loud. It's so fun to see him growing, changing and playing in new ways every day.