2 Years!

My baby is 2 years old! I just can't believe it. She got several days of celebrations as well. The Saturday before her birthday our friends Katie and Gabe came to visit so we decided it was a good day to go swimming. Katie and Gabe are some of Catherine's favorite people. So we all went to the YMCA here in Ketchum and had a fun afternoon playing in the pool. It is a pretty cool facility. Then on her birthday she got her presents from Mommy and Daddy.

Her smile didn't really work

She got lots of bath toys

She loves these fish!

Her pretty pink dump truck.

She uses her dump truck to hold her fish.

 Pretty much right after opening her presents we all left to go to Nana and Papa's house. We had planned a dinner in Pocatello to celebrate Aunt Crystals birthday along with Catherine's birthday on Friday. So, I decided I needed time to get the cake done before the dinner so went to Nana and Papa's house early so I could get it done. On Friday I spent pretty much the whole day making the cake then we went down to Pocatello for dinner at Pizza Pie Cafe. I am pretty proud of my cake. I do have to mention that I definitely didn't do it all on my own. My sister Elisa, who was down from Moscow, helped a lot. I don't think I would have been able to get it all done if she hadn't been there. 

Love this cake! It turned out really good.

We had a great time at Pizza Pie Cafe, everybody who could come was there. We did miss my brother Matt and his family but they have a good reason to not be there. 

After finishing at Pizza Pie Cafe we continued our journey on to Grace to be with Grandma and Grandpa. When we got to Grace we were met by Scott's brother Curtis and 3 of his children. Curtis' little girl Marcey is 3 days younger than Catherine so, Grandma had a cake waiting for them.

One of the things she got from Grandma and Grandpa.

It was very hard to get them both smiling at the same time.

Catherine trying to blow out the candles. She kept blowing down.

Love my little girl!! 

The end of Summer

Catherine with her cousin Shayne and the puppy Presley in the pool!

She has grown up so fast!!

Time for catch up again I guess. I'm really bad at updating this. Last time I wrote on here was right after we moved to Ketchum. This summer has been fairly eventful, mostly just hanging out with family. We were able to see both of Scott's brothers that live out of state (and the rest of the family of course). Also our little girl has turned 18 months old. She is growing so fast! She weighs 24 lbs and is 33 inches tall. Which puts her in the 50th percentile in weight and the 90th percentile in height. She is so smart and talks all the time. She can say so much. She is already stringing words together and can already catch a ball. We love her so much!

       We are trying to get used to living in a new place. We are enjoying it here. It is already getting cold here. Our heat has been on for about 2 weeks now. Its alrigth though, besides putting me in a Christmas mood way too early.

        I don't have much else to report. Scott is working hard and liking what he is doing. He is a little short handed but, we are working on getting that fixed. He isn't home much but, we are getting by. I am ready for the holidays to come. Scott isn't ready but, he didn't get much of the summer. We do love it here are are trying to get settled in. Thanks to everyone who has supported us. We love you all!

Campfire!

I know I look like a dork here but, I was singing to Catherine!

Scott decided he wanted to have some tinfoil dinner. So, we got everything ready and headed out to where Scott "thought" a camp ground was. W drove for forever on a winding road through a bunch of mountains until I finally told Scott that we had to find something soon or we were turning around. I was so car sick by the time he finally stopped. We never did find the camp ground. We finally just pulled off the road onto a dirt path and found somewhere to set up a fire. It went well and Catherine loved it. The dinner was really good. We sang songs, and played around the campfire. It was a lot of fun!

Moved in.

This is the view out the back door.

This is out the front door.

Slightly different view out the front door.

Well, we are all moved in and finally able to relax at home. We are renting a house in West Ketchum. It has 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. It is a nice home and we are happy. Scott loves it here! He loves living in the mountains and the beautiful scenery. Scott always wants to go out fishing or to build a campfire. I think we are really going to like it here. I took some pictures of our views. I would have taken some pictures of the house except that we aren't done unpacking. So when we are, I will post them.

Alone at last!

As many of you may know we have been waiting, not so patiently ;-), for Scott’s school to end so we could move. Well, it has finally happened!!! We are finally moved into our new house. We were able to find a house in Ketchum on a quiet residential street. I picked out the house by myself! Scott didn’t even see the house until we moved in. Scott now has a 4 minute drive to work (he is pretty excited). The house is a stone’s throw away from the bike path in Ketchum; I honestly think everything is a stone’s throw away from the bike path.

The move went smoothly, we asked our friends to come over Friday night to help us load the fragile stuff into our cars. Then at 10 am on Saturday our friends Katie and Gabe Lawrence, my sister Heather and her family, and the Elders Quorum showed up and we loaded the truck up. It took us 2 hours to get everything loaded. We stopped for lunch then hit the road for a 2 ½ hour drive to Ketchum. I was driving my pilot, my sister Jennifer was driving Scott’s car, and Scott was driving the U-Haul truck. We made good time and made it to the house at about 10 after 3 p.m. Once we were at the house we didn’t have to wait long for the Elders Quorum, Scott’s parents (Wynn and Neta), Scott’s brother Curtis, and my sister Crystal to show up to help unload. We got the whole truck and our 2 cars unloaded in about 2 hours. Thanks to my brother-in-law Danny for unloading the cars, basically by himself. Everyone was a huge help and we were really grateful to the people who showed up to help. My sister Jennifer even came up to Boise on Thursday and helped us finish packing, she was great.

Also while we were finishing unloading the Bishop from our new ward here in Ketchum and his wife showed up and lent a hand. They helped me in the kitchen unpacking boxes and then taking down the boxes. They were great. Not only did they help unpack Sis. Evans (the bishop’s wife) even took some of my dirty laundry and cleaned it for us (we found out on our way to Ketchum with our stuff that there was no dryer…). I don’t know what I would have done! Then a little later the Relief Society presidency showed up with dinner. We had bought sandwich fixings for everyone who helped to eat but, it was great to have on Sunday. We got to the house and realized the gas had been turned off… So, we can’t heat our house and we have no hot water. The stove doesn’t work either. So, we were extremely grateful to the Relief Society presidency for dinner. It really helped out a lot. So far we are very happy with our new house and our new ward. I think we are really lucky to have moved into this ward. I am excited for the coming year! Even though I will miss our friends back in Boise! I am happy to be moving on to the next stage of our lives.

I want to thank everyone who helped out! We are so thankful you were able to take time to come and help us. We couldn’t have done it without you! Now all that is left to do for me is head back to Boise and clean the apartment, then head on to Blackfoot on Wednesday to spend the rest of the week with Scott, my sister Crystal, and her family. What is left for Scott to do is drive the U-Haul to Blackfoot then head to class in Pocatello on Monday and Tuesday, after that he gets to play the rest of the week until graduation on Saturday. Graduation is at ISU in Pocatello at 10 am on Saturday the 5^th (if anyone wants to go). I am so excited, and relieved, that Scott is graduating on Saturday. He has worked so hard for this day. Now he just needs to pass his tests and he will be a pharmacist, at last!

Easter!

Our Easter baskets

Catherine in her new Easter dress

Dyeing eggs

Can you guess what is going on here? Apparently it is a guy throwing a rugby ball

We didn't do much for Easter but, we still had a good day. The day before Easter we were in Ketchum looking for a house to rent. So, we didn't get to dye eggs before Easter so, we dyed them on Sunday. Catherine had a blast! She kept plunging her hand into the dye. He hand was dyed a greenish blue by the end and her body was speckled with several colors. She also ate way too much chocolate! She is so much fun!

Happy 1st Birthday!

It seems like I am always playing catch-up. My baby turned 1 year old on March 7th. I know I'm a little late blogging about this but, better late than never right? Anyway, we had a nice quiet day on the 7th then, she had a party on the 10th. It was nice and warm so we went to the park with her cousins. Most of her cousins on my side were able to come. Crystal, Danny, and their kids came up Friday night and spent that night with us. For Catherine's party we met at Julia Davis park and the kids played with the big boys (Scott, my brother-in-law Danny, and our friend Gabe) while they tried to play rugby and Frisbee. They had a blast. Then played pin the candle on the cupcake. Last the kids got to go play on the toys. Around 5 we all met at Sizzler for Catherine's birthday dinner. She loved it and she really loved her ladybug cake. We had soooo much fun.