Can't Hardly Wait

No news yet, but Baby Kenzie is soon on her way! We are about going crazy waiting for her arrival. The concentration level is at an all-time low for me! We are headed to San Antonio Friday the 29th, if not sooner. Our second special delivery takes us from being "Just the Three of Us" to "Soon to be Four" and a very happy family.

Six Month Catch-Up

Traditional Saturday Morning General Conference (April 2010)cinnamon rolls! Chase is great help rolling out the dough these days...only he eats it as he goes...

My little leprechaun getting ready to help plant the garden on St. Patrick's Day.

Who is that handsome little man...and what did you do with my baby boy? (Modeling his new Easter clothes.)

We finally had to admit at the beginning of the new year that our baby was too big for his toddler bed. He graduated to a full-on loft bed with a slippery slide. Pure joy...

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We decided to go to the snow in March. We started out tubing as a family, and somehow Chase ended up on skis by the end of the day! His first time! I was too caught up in it though...none of my pictures are very good.

Me and my hot Valentine's dates. The boys took me down to San Jose to the SAP Open Tennis Tournament. I love those kind of "daycations"! I couldn't ask for better dates...my best friend and "bubby". They are my life.

I know these are chronologically backwards...sorry about that...I'm still not very good at the blog thing. Christmas morning at Grandma & Grandpas' house. We were so lucky to be able to still spend Christmas with our families since I was starting a brand new job and all. I think is the first year I've ever had my hair and makeup done BEFORE we started taking pictures.

And last, but not least, what I've really been doing for the last six months is working professionally again. WOW! What a whirlwind it has been. It's just amazing how everything has fallen into place for us. Sometimes (looking back) you just know you're supposed to be somewhere although, I for one, don't always know why. For some reason, I am supposed to hang out with bridge designers and detailers all day instead of all of the other SAHMs that I have grown to love and admire. So far I've designed two bridges which will be built in Las Vegas starting in July, a couple of Advanced Planning Studies, and many, many Load Ratings. The learning curve is steep! I've also got my license reciprocated in Nevada and applied for licensure in Utah. Great benefits for me. I also truly believe that Greg and I are working as more of a team than ever before. I appreciate him so much for all of the things he is now taking care of at home...most importantly...Chase. Greg is a great stay-at-home dad and Chase is healthy and happy. We are truly blessed and grateful!

Puppies, Pumpkins, & Piano

Chase has got a lot of wear out of his Halloween costume this year. He's been wearing his "Rufus" hat around for a couple of weeks now. We had a great time carving pumpkins with the missionaries and Chelsea, too! The video speaks for itself...Chase's first piano performance. He will be brushing up on this one for my piano recital in December.

Ten Years and Still Terrific!

In photo: Jon & Becky (both CSUS buddies), Jeannette & Rick (CSUS buddy), me, Karen & Pat (CSUS buddy), Nate (CSUS buddy) & Wendy.

Last Saturday I threw a ten-year reunion party for myself and all of my CSUS college friends. I can't believe it's been ten years since we all graduated. I seriously have the most awesome group of friends from Sac State! I don't know how I managed to get in with them, but I feel very lucky to have done so. Our study group spent a LOT of quality time together for the last two years of school. Two years later most of us got together once a week...after working our full-time jobs...to study all night for the PE as well. I never would have made it without these guys. And I agree with Nate, we really haven't changed much. It's a good thing. Everyone looked great and still had a great time together! (Maybe that's why we always studied so long?) I really wish Andrea & Bradley could have been there as well, but I guess they're excused since they live 9 hours away! If anyone knows where Drew is, let me know! I hope he's still playing beach volleyball in Santa Cruz somewhere.

Here are some stats from our little 10-person group: We have 6 CE BS degrees, 3 CE MS degrees, 1 EE BS degrees, 6 Professional Civil Engineers, 1 Structural Engineer, 1 Geotechnical Engineer, 3 CSUS teachers, 1 pilot, 1 radiology therapist, 1 pediatric nurse, 1 realtor, and 8 new children since graduation. Seriously, what an overachieving group. I love 'em to death. And yes, a bunch of nerds or "squares", as Andrea would say, do know how to have fun! Hope we're still terrific after twenty!

F is for Fall

Since spelling is such a huge thing in our house right now (Chase wants to know how to spell everything we talk about...quite a smarty), I thought I would go along with the theme. F is for Fall. We are ready for it...cooler weather, falling leaves, and hot apple cider! F is also for a few other things in our house the past few weeks: FINAL JET-SKIING TRIP, FIELD TRIP, FOOTBALL, & FIRST DAY OF PRESCHOOL. (I always upload the pictures backwards. They actually happened in order from bottom to top. I'm just too lazy to move them around : ) . Here they are:

Fun Lake Tahoe Trips

And, yes, I mean trips plural. Once we got started going to Kings Beach we couldn't stop! Thank you, Raimi! Just a couple fun pics from the beautiful days on the beach. We got to spend nice, sunny days with great friends on two different trips. Daddy even got to come once, too!

Chase Turns "Forty-four"

I'm catching up on a few things I didn't blog in the past couple of months. Chase turned four years old and had a Rock'n'roller Puppy Party! (Yes, he chose the theme and had a hard time choosing between two different things...) He also refuses to say he is four years old...he says he is "forty-four". Whatever. I've tried everything from "what comes after three" to counting fingers, and he still won't say four. He knows I'm trying to get him to! Little smartypants.

Anyway, the puppy cake took way too much patience, but he loved it. We also did face-painting, swimming, and crafts for fun at his party. Later that night we had cake and ice cream with some close friends and neighbors as well. We sure miss having our families close by, especially for these special days in his life. He received lots of cards and MONEY from the fam.

This picture with Daddy is a birthday tradition. It's supposed to show how much bigger Chase gets from year to year!

Girlfriends

So, I'm reading this book called "The Girls from Ames, A story of Women & a Forty-Year Friendship" and it's got me feeling so grateful for my girlfriends! It mentions a lot of studies that show women are healthier and happier because of our friendships with other women. Sounds to me like a great reason to have more girls' nights!

I have always been blessed to have fabulous girlfriends and lots of them. I am really grateful. I thought all of you "girls" might find it interesting to see pictures of each other too. The top photo is of a bunch of us at our girls' weekend getaway to Tahoe in June. A HUGE thank you to Kristin for the planning and beautiful condos we stay in! An even BIGGER thank you to the rest of you for the love and laughter! (Lisa, Jan, Lisa, Stephanie, Raimi, Kristin, me, Stephanie, Keila, & Holly-not in photo)




The bottom photos were taken in July at a girls' night out with my best friends from high school. Not all of our "clique" could make it, but some of us that did hadn't seen each other in thirteen years! That is way too long. I think we stayed at the restaurant for over two hours and we probably started more than a couple rumors in town! It was just like old times...only I think we've all gotten better.

After dinner, we ran to Kent's to pick up some munchies...(go figure, we needed more food?)...and headed to the game room at my parents' house to talk until early in the am. I love these girls! Maybe we'll actually get back to our Christmas party tradition like we always promised...
(Jamie, Rachelle, Heather, Natalie, Heidi, me)

We've almost survived another June

June. Greg's birthday (hubby), Scott's birthday (nephew), Camine's birthday (bestie), Father's Day, 13th Anniversary, LaRon's birthday (brother), Katelyn birthday (bestie's baby), Jen & Tyler's birthdays (sister-in-law & nephew), Chase's birthday (4 years!), Camie's birthday (friend), Sara's birthday (niece), placement anniversary (Chase at 4 days old!), Melina's birthday (niece), and Debbie birthday (sister-in-law). Add into all of that a girls' weekend in Tahoe (fabulous), a Family Temple Day (also a jet-skiing day for us), a friend's apartment damaged by fire and subsequent move, piano lessons, a visit with out-of-state friends, and another jet-skiing day and you're pretty much caught up with us! It's been a wild month, but we always enjoy it...looking back. I hope Chase always remembers June as a special month. We are so blessed to have him. He IS our life, our love, our miracle family. Here are some of our favorite pictures from Target at his 4th birthday sitting. (You guys were right...Target was great for photos. Thanks : ) )

Hard Work

In case you've been wondering where I've been lately....this is it: our backyard! We've been working so hard to get our landscaping done in time to enjoy it the rest of spring and summer. Thank goodness it cooled down. Those couple of 90* days I about fried!

Spring has sprung

Spring is officially my favorite season of the year! We've been working really hard in the back yard to regain control and finish our landscaping projects that sat all winter. I love the hard work and the sunshine. I also have a really great little helper this year that loves to do everything right alongside me. We'll see if anything in my garden survives! Between Chase's digging and the fact that I plant it and water it differently each year, it's always an adventure to see what makes it to our table. Here's a couple of pictures of my favorite flowers (peonies like the ones that my mom grows and grandma always grew) and Chase getting ready for Easter. Happy Spring everyone!

Disneyland 2009: Take 1

I know what you're thinking...Disneyland again? WE LOVE IT! And by WE, I mean all of us, not just Chase. We decided to make Disneyland our vacation spot for the year because we could get "cheap" tickets through Greg's brother in Southern CA...or so we thought. We should have known this was not going to be a bargain trip when we started off our first day paying DOUBLE for our shuttle bus pass. (Greg claims technical problems at the machine...technical or operator?) Anyway, then we meet his brother at the gate and they won't let him buy the Southern CA pass for us. We didn't work it right, and by then we were just wanting to get in and play. Long story, short: we are now full-fledged annual pass holders and will be spending a few more long weekends at Disneyland to make it worth our money! It was a standing joke for the rest of the trip that we might as well pay double for everything...why change now?
We started off with Chase's favorite rides from last time: Dumbo, tea cups, it's a small world. There were absolutely NO LINES. It was awesome. It was also a Tuesday in February and a little chilly. We had gone on four rides in seriously less than an hour.
I guess a lot can change in a year, because Chase's new favorite ride is officially the race cars. You can just barely see him hanging out the side of this one. He had to ride with daddy every time (go figure) and said he was taking daddy and Pluto on a dew run in the car.
Pluto went on every ride with Chase. The poor dog was carried all over Disneyland and California Adventure. The nice part was that Pluto's blanky has handles so Chase could wear Pluto almost like a purse and not drop him all of the time. Maybe that's one favorite that will never change. I had tears in my eyes watching Chase hug Pluto on our last day. It made his whole trip, and mine too.

Wannabe Runner

I've always been impressed by all of you runners out there that can just lace up your shoes, head out the door, enjoy the weather, and get a workout at the same time. So, I finally decided that Gold's Gym stinks...I'm not nearly enough of a musclehead to work out on their weights by myself every morning...and their group-x classes are now often fee-based...and cancel my membership. I decided that I'm just going to be a runner and get my cardio that way. The first couple of days I'm sucking wind before I even hit the corner. After a few days I feel AWESOME to be able to run all the way to the bike trail/greenbelt (less than 1/2 a mile). Then, a couple of days later I feel a little discomfort in my left ankle when I walk. Luckily for me, the flu hits and I'm off of my ankle for a week. Try again this Wednesday. WOW! I must really run retarded because my ankle has been killing me ever since. I probably should have stayed off of it yesterday, but decided to stand on it for two hours at the park, run to the grocery store, and also the library! I'm not very good at sitting still.

Anyway, long story short: I've got to stay off of it until we go to Disneyland next week or I'll never survive the happiest place on earth for three days. I'm feeling like a huge, lazy, blob. Does anyone have an exercise DVD that they absolutely love? I like anything from step to cardio kick-boxing to pilates. I just don't want to buy one that looks good and have it turn out to be lame. I'm sorry, but the background music on the Total Body Workout on the BYU channel does not do it for me. OK workout, happy people that don't sweat, boring music.... Help!

Handy Helper & Gym Class

I guess it's a good thing when your three-year old wants to do EVERYTHING you do. Of course, I think it's darling when Chase pulls out his tool box to help Daddy attempt to fix the washer...at the same time I KNOW it takes ten times as long to do anything with him right at your feet (that's where he usually is...but under me, not Greg!).

Chase has always wanted to go to the gym like Mommy & Daddy too. (At least maybe that's one GOOD habit he's seen?!) So, I signed him up for his first "gym" class. It is a Tot Gymnastics class and he is one of about 3 boys and 23 girls. Great odds! It's nice to see that we named him properly (he has a tendency to run away occasionally), that he doesn't really listen to directions from anyone (not just me), and that he's adorable, curious, and energetic no matter what!

We are counting down the days until our next Disneyland trip. I don't know who is more excited out of the three of us. Greg is helping Chase put a Mickey sticker on each day of the week until we go...only one week left! Chase wakes up each morning saying "weekend", "go to Disneyland", and "pack my backpack". We probably should have waited longer to tell him we're going. We couldn't help ourselves!