Dressing up Nicole

I love getting Nicole ready for church on Sunday mornings. She loves her dresses and she always seems to look like such a little princess. And then she has her poses. I think that is what she was doing here. No matter how I tried, I could not for the life of me get her to stand normal. It was funny! Little girls are sure fun...

Missoula day 1

Went to crop insurance class today and we were let out just as the sun was going down. So I took some pictures while I could.

Got lost while I was trying to find a Mexican restaurant (which I never did find), ending up going down the wrong way on a one way street, and at dark found a good restaurant to eat at. I had chicken with bernaise sauce and asparagus, onion rings and avocado salad. It was pretty yummy.

Nicole called me tonight. She's such a sweetheart on the phone. I miss her so much.

Trip to Missoula, MT for crop insurance class

So its the first day of my new job and after lunch I drove to Missoula from Othello for a 2-day rain and hail insurance class. So as I pulled into Missoula at 7 pm, I have to say, I was pretty darned tired. But when I opened my hotel room and saw this I knew I would be ok. Is this the most comfortable looking bed that isn't your own that you've ever seen or what? I think that's a great sign of wonderful things to come!

Halloween trunk or treat

Nicole was Abby Cadabby for Halloween, her favorite character (besides Elmo, of course) from Sesame Street. She was so darn adorable! And notice the handmade Halloween bag. Yes, it's true, I actually made that with a sewing machine. No kidding!!!
So we did trunk or treat at the church where we all park our cars at the church parking lot and do trunk or treat out of the backs of our cars/trucks, etc. It was a really fun thing to do! And we've done such a great job hiding her candy, she forgets about it! We bring it out for special occasions, as she is hyper enough without any added help.

Getting ready for Halloween

We had to say good bye to another elder. Elder Ramos is moving on to Brewster. BRRRRR! Sometimes it seems that the boys move on so fast. But this was a nice picture of him and Elder Cunningham. No more playing with Tickle Me Elmo and Handy Manny!
We're getting ready for Halloween. Nicole has her costume (Abby Cadabby, in case you don't recognize her), we've bought the candy, and now we're all set. This will be her first real Halloween where she gets to go out and actually get candy, so we're looking at an exciting time for all. I'm not sure how I'm going to be able to successfully ration out the candy for her without her throwing a fit, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. Dennis and I are going to take her to the church where there will be some type of tailgate Halloween thing.

Busy times, birthday, canning, visits

Things have been so incredibly busy as of late, I haven't even taken many pictures. Last weekend I had a wonderful birthday party where friends and family got to join me for my special day. It was so nice to have my wonderful friends from church and family and friends of the family join Dennis, Nicole, and I to share the day. Mike and a couple of his friends were even able to make it. It was a wonderful day, definately!
The Rowleys were over showing us how to can and brought two boxes full of their wonderful orchard peaches. I cleaned out the hall pantry, put down new shelf liner paper, and voila, a great place to showcase our hard work. It was great fun. Dennis, Nicole and I sat out on the back porch peeling peaches. Well Dennis and I peeled while Nicole intermittently ate and stuffed peaches in the jars for us. Once in a while we'd notice that there was a partially eaten peach in the jar! I'm sure we'll come across a few lovely surprises when we go to eat peaches later on... What a great way to spend some family time together, though.

Neighbors and friends have been so wonderful sharing there wonderful fresh produce with us! There have been apples from the Beus', tomatoes from our neighbors and from Grandma Karen, and zucchini too. It's been so yummy incorporating these into our dishes. I've been babying my beans to get my little weekly harvest off them. But they've been wonderful as well.

Bits and pieces of life

Not much has been happening lately...

Here, Dennis is just bribing Nicole with something for some kisses and hugs, probably some type of food like sausage and crackers, or cantelope or something. Nicole is eating non-stop these days. She's worse than Michael playing basketball...
Judy has been great getting me back into my sewing. I finished my first project which was my apron, and have moved on to my 2nd project - pajama bottoms. She's had to come over a couple times to repair my machine, though. I don't know who looks more excited, here, though - her or Nicole.

Joel Frazier and his girlfriend visited us during their short trip from Arizona. It was great to visit with them during their trip up. We were so happy they stopped by to see us!!! It's funny to see him outside of his suit and his tie - he reminds me of Michael!

Mike's very disturbing head shots

I took the memory card out of my camera the other day only to find some very old pictures on there, some of which were very disturbing. Especially these of Michael's head!!! EWWWWW! The monkey always used to give me nightmares! THE HORRRRRORRRR!!!!
I was never this adventurous with my hair when i was a teenager. A perm was crazy enough in my book!
Isn't this enough to turn a sane person psycho???????? Just kiddin' Mike, you know i love you!!

Visit with the Carlsons!

We went to Yaima to see Russ, Emily and Mirian. We all went to dinner at Red Robin. Nicole was running around the table trying to get our attention, I think she wasn't used to attention being payed to another little baby girl. It was rather cute!
Mirian is four months now and is getting just adorable. She was so tired at the dinner table, but very cute!
And Russ and Emily were pretty cute themselves!
However, the same can't be said for my Dennis and Nicole! (:
Ahhh, here we all are. It was very nice to spend time with the Carlsons. I will always feel so blessed that they are a part of my life, of this I am sure.

Trip to Coeur d'Alene to see the Sarles'

We went to Couer d'Alene this weekend to see the Sarles. Dan and Vivian rented a little house so that everyone could meet about halfway. Interestingly enough, it was just down the street from the Hitching Post.....
I think my Nicole is the cheesiest girl ever. You get her in front of a camera and its all teeth and smiles!!!
And does she love her grandpa or what!!!!!!

My poor little baby

Cute little Nicole. She was so sick, and after watching some Spongebob, fell asleep on the couch. She was a good little trooper, that's for sure. After she was sick, Dennis and I struggled with the same flu, Dennis a lot worse than I.

Last couple weeks

Not much has been happening the past couple weeks, thus, not a lot of new pictures. But Jolene, Dennis' best friend from high school, was able to come visit us. We went to the local tavern for dinner and there seemed to be a lot of reminiscing. And actually the other day, Nicole was asking about Jolene, which I thought was kind of cool!

Karen and Andrew came by for a visit on their way from Seattle to Idaho. It was good to see them, it's been a year or so I think since we last saw them. We got to have some pizza together and they got to meet Tank for the first time! We love you guys!

Celebrating Father's Day

Hot dog chef extroardinaire!! After many years of instruction, Dennis has finally perfected cooking the hot dogs to the perfect point of charcoal-infusion!!! In other words, they are burned just right! Yummy!

We celebrated Father's Day with a bbq outside. It was a really nice visit. Just wish Mike could have been with us!

My beautiful girl loves tacos

Nicole loves her tacos. It's not too much of a struggle to get her to eat tacos. She even makes tacos for her little babies when she's playing. Such a sillly girl....

Good-bye to Elder Frasier

Elder Frasier and Elder Ramos on Elder Frasier's last visit with us. We have such a great time getting to know our "boys" and are looking forward to many visits with Elder Ramos and his new companion.

My garden is growing

I love going outside each day and seeing how my plants are growing. It's so awesome to see them get bigger and bigger. Of course, Tank keeps a watchful eye out for the neighborhood kitties and other creatures!!

My beans. I can't wait until they're ready to be picked! You know what's funny? The row sure looked straight when I was planting the seeds. Hmmmm.....

And I can't tell you how excited I am to pick grapes!!! The grapevine gets more beautiful every day!

Trip to west side to see our boys

Ethan and Ryan look so sweet here! They're probably devising ways to be troublemaking. At least they come by this honestly!! We spent Friday evening with Mindy and the kids and Amore barbequed! It was very yummy!

Grandpa Dennis (wow, he must be getting old!! LOL) and Faith. They look pretty innocent themselves, don't they? Faith and Nicole played together and I thought they were extremely cute playing - Nicole was happy to copy Faith - I think she had a lot of fun on the roller skates and I'm waiting to hear that Nicole wants roller skates now.


Talk about looking innocent. We had breakfast at Denny's on Friday morning before we went to get Mike at school. By the end of the trip and into the next week, she was so tired that she was a complete hellion!! I know it's hard to believe that my little angel could cause any trouble at all, but alas, it is true.

Thursday night, we decided to go to Bremerton through Seattle and take the ferry across the sound. The wind started to pick up as we boarded the ferry and then it started raining. But this is looking back at Seattle. Very pretty as the sun was setting.

Nicole and Dennis looking out the window on the ferry. She didn't like it outside. It was kind of scary for her I think, with all the wind and the close proximity to the water. There was a sea gull following the ferry just outside the window, so we had fun pretending we were racing the bird. Nicole thought that was great!!

I just realized as I was putting these pictures on the blog that I didn't get any pictures of Mike during the trip. That is bad! I'll have to make up for it next time!!

Dennis' 48th birthday

Dennis turned 48 on June 3rd!! Wow, i didn't think anyone got that old and lived to tell about it! LOL - just joking!!! Anyway - it was a good day, Dan and Joy came up and we went to Time Out for pizza. That was probably the best part of the day for Dennis, I'm sure.

Carlos and Alec visit!

Carlos and Alec arrived Friday, May 30th from LA and stayed through Sunday night. This was the first time they met Nicole. Nicole had a blast with them and has made two new, very good friends. We look forward to their next visit!

Nicole is modeling the new necklace, bracelet, and hair pins that Carlos and Alec brought for her! They were so cute with little dolphins on them - Nicole loves them.

'Colee and Carlos looking at pretty hats at the Farmer's Market on Satuday. Nicole couldn't find a hat she liked or one that fit, so she settled on a pretty ballerina bag.

It was so hot outside - around 100 degrees or so - but it was really nice under the shade of the tree, so we took some pictures there! The Rowleys (from church) gave us some wonderful apple cider from their orchard (that's what Nicole is holding) and she was really enjoying it! Dennis tried the cherry apple cider as well!

It was such a nice weekend and we hope they have a safe trip home.

My little princess

I thought Nicole looked so cute today in her little outfit, that I just had to take pictures of her.

My beans are coming up!

Yesterday when I went outside, I saw that my beans are starting to come up! I am so excited!!

I can't wait to have fresh green beans!

Woooohooooo!

Memorial Day Weekend

Mike came over for the holiday weekend. We were so happy to see him and be able to spend some time with him.

He got to come to Lowe's with us to shop for irrigation supplies.

Good times!!!

He made sure to get some tickle time in with his little sister! She loved being the center of attention, as always....

Did I already mention that she loves to be the center of attention?!! And look, I actually got a picture of Dennis without him covering his face!!!

Mike and Eddie getting ready for Spring Fest 2009.

Mike got lucky, he left his phone in the car (ooooh, big shocker) and Nicole found it so we rushed back to give it to him.

Nicole building sand castles with Dennis' dirt. She seems to like it a lot better when she doesn't have to actually dig it up herself.

Notice the Sponge Bob pail and gloves. Is that cool or what?

Dennis trying to put in his irrigation before it got too hot. Unfortunately, it turned into an all day job for him!

Even with Nicole's help, if you can believe that!

It was a great weekend - Grandpa Dan and Grandma Joy came over and Uncle Danny and Aunt Vivian as well, and we had a meat barbeque - ribs, steak, chicken, hot dogs. Joy and I made salads but it was basically a meat fest!

The men uncovered the pool to quite a mess. Lots of dirt and debris at the bottom of the pool. It's going to take quite some work to get it ready for the summer. But it will be worth it!!

Dennis and I both are working the rest of the weekend, but we got a lot done and got to visit with family, so it was a good time.