summer is over

We had our first snowfall of the year, so I guess this means

Goodbye summer!

Fun at the park

Splash park

This was at Rexburg Rapids. He looks so scared, but he loved it!

Menan Days for the 4th of July.

We went camping a couple of times this summer, but I never really remembered to take pictures. This was with some of our friends Labor Day weekend.

Our garden produced about 3 strawberries (we only got to eat 1..the rest were eaten by bugs or our neighbor's cat?), several tomatoes of which were also eaten by bugs, 2 green bell peppers that were scorched in the sun, and 0 cucumbers. But thankfully the squash and zucchini were resilient! We have enjoyed tons of those. We'll just say this year was a good learning experience....Better luck next year I guess.

Hello Fall!

Quick updates:

*About 3 months ago Warren finally started walking. We thought the day would never come! And honestly it's been so much nicer, because he was getting so heavy to carry around everywhere. I can't believe he's 18 months.

*Barry quit his job at Qwest at the beginning of September so he could go to school full-time again. He is back working at O'Reilly Auto Parts now. I never thought in a million years he would go back there, but it has worked out so well with his school schedule.

*We are expecting baby number 2 due on April 29th! I'm about 12 weeks now...still a long ways to go!

the many faces of warren

I love this kid!

Finally Summer

I think summer has actually arrived! It makes me so happy!

It's been so long, so here's what we've been up to in the past few months.

Mother's Day was great! Barry definitely spoiled me. I got new

running shoes which I desperately needed, Dance Central (game for the kinect), and beautiful flowers!

Warren got crazy sick in May. It was awful! It started out as a cold but just progressively got worse and worse. He was put on breathing treatments to clear out his lungs. He absolutely hated them! It was a battle every time to keep him down. We are all glad he is better and we don't have to do those anymore!

We planted our first garden! We decided to just go small this year, since we really had no idea what we we're doing and didn't want to set up all new garden

beds. We just planted a few in front in our flower

beds. I was hesitant about it, but Barry convinced me it would be a good idea. We have 2 tomato plants (from my sister-n-law), 1 strawberry

plant, 1 cucumber, 1 green b

ell pepper, 1 zuchinni, and 1 s

quash.

We already have a red strawberry!!! (this pic is a little outdated) I'm so excited to pick and eat it! I didn't anticipate how much I would love to watch

all the plants grow. It's been so much fun. And it works out so well that Warren

loves to play outside while I weed and water the plants.

Barry has been enjoying dirt-biking season. Sadly he missed a big trip with his dad and brothers in Utah, but he has been able to take a few trips here and there since then. He bought this little bike 'for' Warren a few days after he was born because it was 'such a great deal'. (I've heard that phrase a few times). It still needs fixing up, but we are all hopeful that we'll actually be able to ride this bike one day.

I got my master's degree (well not the kind you might

think)! Our relief society did a fun program this past year called Relief Society University. You could earn a bachelor's, master's, or doctorate degree depending on how many goals you completed in several areas. It was such a great thing for

me, because it kind of forced me to keep working towards certain goals.

One of my personal goals was to run a 5k. I've always wanted to run a marathon, but that goal kind of dwindled away after I had the baby. So I thought I would start out small and maybe one day in the distant future I will get that fire back in me to run one.

I absolutely loved getting back into shape to train for the race. I was pretty nervous the whole week before, but it was a lot of fun! I'm so glad I did it, and I hope to do a couple more before the end of the summer. Hopefully I can stay motivated.

This is an apron that I started back in January, and I just finished it. Sewing is just something I don't think i will ever be good at. This was my first official sewing project. I found this pattern at wal-mart that came with a little package of fabric. I'm not sure how people love to sew. It was definitely not something I would do to relax by any means. But I finished it! You will never see the back nor will I ever let you see it up close.

As I mentioned before Warren loves being outside! He doesn't like the grass, but loves playing on the driveway. He could entertain himself for hours with these rocks around our mailbox.

We took our first trip to the splash park in Rexburg today with my brother's family. I loved it, but Warren was a little unsure. He finally seemed to let his guard down once Maggie showed him the ropes.

Barry is still working at Qwest which has now become CenturyLink. Things are going fairly well. We love to have him home on the weekends now! And the insurance benefits are awesome. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he is pretty good at what he does. He's taking an online class this summer, and we hope to have him back in school full-time in the fall. I'm so glad to have a husband that works so hard to provide for his family!

1st birthday!

Warren's official birthday was on the 30th, but we decided to hold off on any celebrations until that Sunday. We didn't want to overwhelm him with a lot of people, so we only invited family. Then it turned out that half of the family was sick and couldn't make it. Oh well... Barry's parents came and my brother and his family came. It ended up being just the perfect amount.

There is a Korean tradition on first birthdays that we wanted to do. You lay out a bunch of different objects in front of the baby, and let him decided which one to grab. Each of the objects symbolizes a different kind of future (career path) for the baby. I'm sure the actual Korean tradition is a little different than what we did, but it was still fun. We had a block (builder), ball (athlete), cell phone (technological career), a pig (farmer), book (teacher), and a pencil (artist). He grabbed the block on his way to the cell phone...so i guess he will be well rounded.

After we opened presents we let him dig into his cake. I really wanted to make a bear shaped cake, since we always call him "Ware Bear". Then i saw a panda bear cake pattern online. I was super excited to try it out. It took two different cake mixes. I ruined the 2nd cake trying to get it out of the pan...it split in half. But I was so determined to make this cake, so i ran to the store to get another one. Anyways to make a long story short I doubt I will ever make another extravagant cake again. It was around midnight when i realized this panda bear cake was not the best idea.

My mom is up this week, so we were lucky enough to squeeze in a little photo shoot. The pictures turned out so cute!!!


Don't you just love those chunky thighs!!!


I can't believe my baby is already 1. It definitely went by fast!!
Some things about Warren:

• He still loves sucking his thumb! You can tell when he gets nervous or out of his element because that thumb will go straight into his mouth.
  
• He has 4 teeth (2 more on the way)
• He loves the bath
• Hates having his diaper changed...it's almost impossible these days to get him to stay still while you change him!
• He loves being naked
  
• He has the cutest laugh and smile
  
• Loves to eat...he won't let you eat anything without sharing a bite with him (weighs in at 23 lbs). Sometimes it's scary how much he will shove in his mouth at once, so we have to carefully monitor how much we give him at one time.
  
• Loves music and will do a cute little bum dance when he's really feelin' the music!
  
• He will crawl and cruise around, but will NOT walk. He has even learned how to squat down without grabbing onto anything to avoid walking/falling.
  
• He's very stubborn
• He will just sit and jibber jabber, and I love it. Although the only words we can semi-comprehend is mama and dada.
• He loves soft blankets. Whenever he finds a blanket on the floor he will cuddle up to it, and his thumb will go in his mouth.
• He claps, will do high fives, and on a good day he will wave.
• He can use a spoon but would much rather put it on the table and scoop off the food with his fingers.
• He's not a fan of cold milk which is a total bummer. Hopefully he will learn fast to get use to it.
  
• He is now learning to master the cup!
  

I could go on and on, but I'm sure that is plenty!
We have been so blessed to have him in our lives.

26

Barry's birthday was last Thursday. We went to Red Robin after he got off of work: We signed up online so he could get his free burger on his birthday. It was fun to have his family there to celebrate too. Warren enjoyed eating Grandpa's fries and has found a new love for balloons! I really wish I had brought our camera, because they sang to Barry and made him wear a pair of balloons under his neck: Priceless.

I found a red velvet cake recipe that I wanted to try out. Oh my goodness...it was delicious!!!

I didn't realize the recipe called for 5 tablespoons of red food dye. I was barely able to squeeze out 1 1/2 tablespoons, so it's not nearly as red as it's suppose to be. I think the best part of the cake was the frosting! It is the best frosting I've ever had. Here's the recipe if anyone is interested.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup shortening (I used 1 cup of oil instead)
  
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tablespoons cocoa (I used 4)
  
• 4 tablespoons red food coloring
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
• 5 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 cup butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions

1. Grease two 9 inch round pans. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Cream shortening and 1 1/2 cups sugar WELL. Add eggs and beat well.
3. Make a paste of cocoa and red food coloring. Add to creamed mixtur e. Mix salt, 1 teaspoon vanilla and buttermilk together. Add alternately the flour with the milk mixture to the creamed mixture. Mix soda and vinegar and FOLD INTO CAKE BATTER. DON'T BEAT OR STIR NOW.
4. Bake for 30 minutes.
5. To Make Icing: Cook 5 Tablespoons flour and milk over low hea t till thic k, stirring constantly. LET COOL THOROUGHLY! While cooling, cream 1 cups sugar, butter and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat this well till light and fluffy. Add to flour mixture and beat until of a good spreading consistency. DON'T ICE CAKE TILL COOL.

On Friday we went up to a cabin in Island Park with another couple Barry knew from high-school. It was crazy to see how much snow is still up there...especially since all the snow has melted from our yard. (I never thought I would see our grass again!) We stayed up all night talking and playing games and eating way too much junk food. Then on Saturday we went snowmobiling: It was my first time! 2 seconds after we got on Barry tipped it over. He got it started and then all of a sudden we were tipped over in the snow. But after we got back up thankfully there weren't any other accidents to report. It was really pretty funny more than anything else.

It was the perfect little weekend trip!

A marble set Taylor found for Warren to play with...somehow I don't think he had quite as much fun as everyone else did with it.

Twins

Layering up to go out into the snow

Barry showing off

Me thinking I hope I don't kill myself on this thing!

"The Best Two Years!"

Today is our 2 year anniversary. It's gone by so fast....I guess 2 years really isn't that long, but hey it's longer than I've ever been married before.

We decided to celebrate this past weekend by going out to Blue Hashi for some absolutely delicious sushi! We didn't feel too bad about splurging, because we finally cashed in all the change I've been collecting around the house. Barry always comes home and dumps all his change everywhere, so I have a little 'penny bank' that I put it in to save for a rainy day. Surprisingly we had about $65! Then we went out and did a little shopping. It was so fun just to go out and not worry about getting home to put Warren to bed.

Marriage isn't always the easiest thing, but I would definitely say it's well worth it. I love Barry so much: He really is my best friend!
Next up... Barry's b-day on the 17th, and then Warren's 1st birthday on the 30th!

Just had to add-in some photos of Warren...He's just too cute not to! He finally has his 2 upper front teeth in. You can kind of see them in this photo.

He's learned how to pull himself up in the crib. It's so fun to come in and see him up and waiting for me.



I had to make a centerpiece for one of the tables at our relief society birthday celebration. I found this idea online, and this is what i was able to put together. I think it turned out pretty good. It's grapes on the bottom, then limes, and daisies on top.

Hello 2011...goodbye 2010!

Just a little tribute to 2010...

In January Barry attempted a gluten-free diet and I found out I had gestational diabetes. On the flip-side my sister-in-laws hosted a baby shower for me, and my mom totally surprised me by showing up!
In February we relished in our tax refund, and Barry surprised me with a wonderful Valentine's dinner from the Thai House.
In March I quit my job at D&L's, we welcomed our first baby, Warren, into the world, celebrated our 1 year anniversary and Barry's birthday.
In April we spent a lot of time at home with the baby, many sleepless nights, and celebrated my birthday.
In May we traveled to Utah for a baby blessing, spent time with family, and Warren was also blessed this month.
In June we made another quick trip to Utah to see a friend in the hospital who was recovering from a bone marrow transplant.
In July Warren started sleeping thru the night, saw his first fireworks show, we went to Menan Days, started looking at houses again, and found our perfect home on craigslist of all places. We were also able to pay off all our hospital/doctor bills for the baby this month!!
In August my mom came to visit, we went to the park tons to play frisbee, continued to enjoy walks outside, Barry hired his first employee, we packed, closed on our house, moved, and unpacked.
In September we attended the Christensen family reunion in Island Park, Barry started back to school and bought his first motorcycle, we purchased our first lawn mower, learned how to adjust sprinklers to water the lawn, and we welcomed a new nephew.
In October we went to a fun pumpkin patch, carved pumpkins, Warren dressed up as a sumo, we went trick-or-treating, loved watching the leaves change colors, but didn't love raking them up so much.
In November we welcomed a new niece, Barry quit his job at Checker, we celebrated Thanksgiving with the Christensen's, and started shoveling snow for the season.
In December we survived the snow, survived the 8 hour trip to and back from St. George, celebrated Christmas with the Stephenson's, and welcomed another new nephew!

2010..you've been good to us!!! Can't wait to see what 2011 has in store for us.