The Nyleen Family

When We're bored we do random things...

2011-12-20T20:11:00.000-08:00

For quite some time Will has been begging anyone who would listen to help him rebuild his lego train. The broken pieces of the train were mixed in with the millions of legos we have so it was a project that was going to take a long time so it kept getting put off. Since it is Christmas/winter time I decided at the beginning of December that I would spend a day a find the missing pieces and put it together. For the first hour Will was ecstatic helping me sort, but when we both realized that the trains weren't missing "just a few" pieces he lost interest while I was determined to finish. Two days later I'm proud to say I found every last piece of that dang thing and it is a toy that has been played with constantly Bo helped me the last hour of building because by that time I was going crazy not noticing pieces right in front of my face.

Randomly last week Will asked me if I could paint his face blue with nothing better to do I did it thinking it was a funny request. After I was done he asked if we could watch Megamind. Once the paint started itching he asked me if he could be "William again".

And last but not least Bo took a geology class this semester and I helped him out quite a bit so I had volcanoes on the brain. Sometime in November Will and I were bored and found a Volcano how to on pinterest so we tried it out. Will asked me as we were mixing up the salt dough if he could do it all by himself since usually I'm pretty controlling in the kitchen he was really happy when I said yes. So he decided the dough should be speckled with all the food coloring we own which is why it kind of looks like vomit. Enjoy the video!

Thanksgiving

2011-12-20T19:50:00.000-08:00

I found this thankful wreath on pinterest and decided to make one for Will since we always write down what we are thankful every day in November. Its funny the things that he comes up with like the first thing he was thankful for was Starfall.com and the second was Sushi, but he also said he was thankful for Primary and family so it all evens out. We went to Roseburg for thanksgiving and it was a lot of fun with lots of good things to eat Bo's Aunt made this amazing homemade mac and cheese Will was really excited about it. Another thing that Will got excited about was that during dessert another kid showed up and after the initial shyness he was running around and laughing with her. Bo's family doesn't have any kids Will's age so it was a nice change.

These are the only photos I got of Thanksgiving because I was playing with a bored 4 year old most of the time.

Halloween

2011-12-20T19:36:00.000-08:00

This year we let Will decide what to dress up as at first it was an angry bird so I searched the Internet for a pattern to make our costumes finally found the perfect one and was about to purchase the fabric when he decided that he wanted to be Blu from the movie Rio. Since he was Blu he decided that I needed to be Linda and Bo needed to be "The Doctor" so thats what we went as. I used fabric for Will's costume out of a huge box of fabrics Bo's Grandma Nyleen found in her garage so it was Free I'm pretty proud of it because I didn't use a pattern just figured it out as I went. I was very lucky to find Bo's and my t-shirts and Bo's fake glasses in the Clearance section of Target and then I did freezer paper stencils on them for the logo so we spent a grand total of $7 on Halloween this year.

This is the inspiration for the yellow shirts

Will did Trick or Treating with his preschool on Thursday and the Trunk or Treat at the Church on Saturday so when actual Halloween came up I asked him if he wanted to go trick or treating and he said "No too much!" so we stayed home. The Sunday before Halloween we craved pumpkins we ended up with 4 pumpkins because Will brought one home from preschool. It was a good thing because one of them somehow rotted from the inside out so we couldn't carve it without it completely falling apart I gave Will a butter knife and let him dig holes into it while we carved.

The Green Lantern

2011-10-20T17:10:00.000-07:00

Will has been into super heroes lately so when Bo brought home a Green Lantern mask Will was really excited. This kid makes us laugh a lot.

I found this idea on Pinterest and it is awesome! Just make a road out of masking tape for your kids. We played with this for like an hour. (The white thing in the middle is my sewing machine cover that Will constantly uses as a car garage.)

First Day of Preschool

2011-10-20T17:03:00.001-07:00

Will had his first day of school this week. We have been counting down to preschool since September so when I told him on Monday that school was the next day he was so excited. I had no problems getting him to take his bath and go to bed. On the way out the door Will said "Mom you drop me off and then leave ok?" He was so serious it was funny. Last year it upset me that he wasn't clingy and wanting me to stay, but this year I happily left while other kids had death grips on their parents. Will and I both love our time away from each other he has fun with kids his own age and I enjoy a nice long workout, a shower with no interruptions, and I get some housework in before I have to pick him up. When I pick him up he runs to me and yells out "Mom I missed you!" which more than makes up for the lack of love during drop off. I would suggest preschool to everyone, it has been good for Will to learn that he needs to take direction from people other than Mom and Dad. I think it also has given Will confidence that he can survive without Mom always by his side.

Cheesy first day of school picture.

After preschool I asked him what he wanted to do and he said "Go to the park!"

this is one of our favorite parks it has really cool toys I usually end up playing there and when Bo comes with us he and I do a really good job at embarrassing Will.

After the park we went grocery shopping when we got in the car Will started complaining about being hungry. I realized I hadn't fed him lunch and it was 3 so I gave him a bag of cereal while we drove to the other stores Will thought it was the best lunch ever! Since it was the first day of school I let Will pick what we had for dinner and he picked pizza which made me feel really guilty since it was pretty much a junk food day, but whatever it was a special day.

My Mother Cut my Hair.

2011-10-14T17:13:00.000-07:00

Recent conversation with Will after Bo took him to get his hair cut.
Will: Look Mom my mother cut my hair and now its Brown.
Me: Thats right your hair is darker because the lady cut off your sun streaks, but she isn't your mother I'm your mother.
Will: (giggles) No Mom my mother cut my hair and it turned brown!
Me: She is not your mother I am your mother.
Will: (giving me attitude) No Mom, Mothers cut hair your not my mother your my Mom.
I'm not gonna lie the conversation made me a little sad and not like a complete Mom since I don't cut his hair. That is until later on that day when he asked to watch Tangled. The lady who cuts Will's hair (a miracle worker who knows how to cut all 4 different cowlicks on his head so his hair lays down) looks a lot like this

If Will's definition of a mother is someone who locks kids in towers for her own selfish reasons I guess I should be glad that I don't fall into the mother category. I'm very happy to be just a Mom. :)

PS The lady who cuts Will's hair is very sweet and ONLY looks like the young version of Mother Gothel she has no other shared characteristics with her.

Blog Update.

2011-10-10T20:12:00.000-07:00

I did 11 posts to catch up with all the blogging I didn't do this summer. I really suck at this! Sadly I am better at this than keeping a journal or scrapbooking.......

Silver Falls

2011-10-10T20:09:00.000-07:00

We did a day trip to silver falls in the middle of August it was an awesome day. We took our bikes and biked through the bike trails and then hiked around the falls as well. They don't allow bikes near the falls for obvious safety reasons Bo was bummed I was relieved.

Wildlife Safari.

2011-10-10T19:59:00.000-07:00

The moment we moved to Salem Bo's Grandma Nyleen was insistent we go to the Wildlife Safari. Since we were planning a trip to the zoo this summer anyways we decided to do the Safari instead and we are so glad that we did. These animals are actually happy! I don't know if I will ever be able to go to another zoo and enjoy it. We decided to pay a little extra and get some tickets to feed the giraffes because I have always wanted to do it. Once Bo read the brochure he wanted to do everything so I allowed him to pick one thing and Will got to pick something. Bo picked camel rides and I think the only reason he picked that was because he wanted to see his Grandma on a camel and Will of course picked the train ride around the park. It was funny because the train was full of little boys all about the same age.....gotta love the train stage.

Bo really wanted to do this but I said no.

Will wanted the lama to lick his hand it was kind of gross

I find it odd that Will has ridden a camel before a horse...

"This is like riding a board over the ocean" -Hazel Nyleen

Thanks for being a good sport even though your grand son is evil!

Hazel feeding the giraffe she did not want to have any of these interactions, but Bo guilted her into it

Will was in love

Favorite picture because it looks like they are having an intense conversation.

Kaaen Family Reunion

2011-10-10T19:39:00.000-07:00

We really enjoyed being with my family again. The reunion consisted of eating, talking, running, hiking, biking, feeding wildlife, swimming, fishing, huckleberry picking, and we road the tram which Will thinks is an airplane. The only regret is I wish more of my family could of came maybe next year.

We stopped about an hour before we got there and went grass hopper hunting

"I got Gramma flowers and Grandpa a rock because he loves black"-real quote

Bo being a good sport.

Feeding Bambi

Wallowa lakes in the background

Puppet show before bed.

Hiking to a waterfall

At the waterfall

Picking Huckleberries

Will was a trooper with all the Hikes and did really good

Breakfast

Feeding the chipmunks

Snowball fight in August

I love how these kids had no fear of the tram.

Riding up the tram

Will didn't trust us that the tram was going to be fun so he went to Grandma for comfort. Once he was on the tram he thought it was so cool. He just didn't like the noises it was making while we were waiting in line.

Independence day.

2011-10-10T19:10:00.001-07:00

We had a wonderful Independence Day. I found this book at the library that was awesome at explaining to Will why we celebrate the 4th which made it it so I didn't feel guilty about not explaining things right (I feel guilty about that a lot) Anyways we went to our Ward's breakfast which was a lot of fun and decorated so cute (Good job Deckers!). I wish I had the talent to do what they did (sigh). Anyways after breakfast we loaded up and went up to Portland. We went to Bo's home stake celebration which was awesome as well (Good job Zellers!) and afterwards we went to the Happy Valley fireworks with the Zellers it was fun poor Will looked like the walking dead he was so tired and actually slept through most of the fireworks which I find impressive. I am proud to be an American and I'm very grateful for the men and women and their families who sacrifice for our country!

What we did this summer....

2011-10-10T18:58:00.000-07:00

We went to the dentist

We went to the park

We looked at the waterfalls in downtown Salem every Wednesday

(we went to the park a lot)

We made tie died butterflies or if your will pterodactyls

We painted and made glitter pictures

made ice cube paintings

Somehow climbed into Jake's cage

We all got new bikes and did tons of bike rides

We camped out in Will's bedroom

We did homework

Played with trains and legos

Went to the spray park

Will found a new spot to nap

We ate ice cream while spying on neighbors

Watched movies in our underwear.

And we went on hikes. I feel like we actually did a lot this summer, but not as much as we wanted to. Like we haven't been to the coast for a year and we only live an hour away I think that is a crime! Anyways we had a fun summer and we hope you did too. :)

Preschool Graduation

2011-10-10T18:28:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of June Will graduated from preschool kind of I guess. I don't think it really counts since we just got back from preschool open house for the new season, but whatever. During preschool they made about me posters so I just wanted to write down his answers since I threw out the actual board (not a big fan of clutter.)

Favorite animal: Dog

Favorite Food: Mac and Cheese

When I grow up I want to be a: Pilot

My best friend is: Jessie

Favorite Book: Where the Wild Things Are.

Those are all the statements I wrote down for some reason, I know there are more on the board. I'm kind of a bad mom. This year the goal for preschool is to actually talk while at school, if you know Will and how he acts around people other than family you understand how lofty this goal is.

Happy 30th Bo!

2011-10-10T18:15:00.000-07:00

Don't be jealous that he's mine

Bo turned 30 this year we went to his favorite restaurant out in Dundee and then we crossed the Willamette on the ferry because he really wanted to but the river was too flooded through the winter. It was my first time on a ferry and I got sick. We also had a birthday dinner with Bo's Mom and Carly and afterwards I made him spongecake and strawberries after we sang for him and he blew out the candles Will insisted that he got a song and candle too. I'm very grateful for Bo and how hard he works. I love you Bo!

Strange Child....

2011-10-10T16:43:00.000-07:00

On the way home from our two week stay in Vale we spent the night with Bo's Mom because by the time we got to Gresham we were so tired we weren't going to make it another hour. The next morning Will woke up super early and was extremely grumpy. Cheryl had to work so we said goodbye to her and started getting ready to go home. While I was doing my hair I assumed Will was with Bo but when I called for him Bo came up the stairs and told me he thought Will was with me. I was a little panicked until I saw a trail of clothes leading up to Cheryl's room. I tried opening the door, but it was locked so I had to have Bo use his criminal ways and pick the lock and this is what we found. The weird part is HE TOOK HIS CLOTHES OFF BEFORE CLIMBING IN BED!

Visit to Vale

2011-10-10T16:31:00.000-07:00

At the end of April I decided to go home so that I could drive up to Rigby with my family to see my niece Hailey get baptized. Will and I spent 2 weeks in Vale and Will loved it! We went out to the Romans' house so that Will could see cows, horses, and tractors in person for the first time. Of course he got all weird and pouted the whole time and then when we got home it was all he could talk about. We also went to my Uncle Bill's farm in Adrain where we got to play with piglets and lambs. One of the dogs walked up to Will while we were looking at the pigs and Will yelled out "oh no the big bad wolf!" so cute! I let Will jump into the pasture with all the sheep which he thought was amazing. While there I could definitely tell that my boy is made for the city because when he realized he was walking in a field of sheep poop he demanded to be carried the rest of the time and after about 30 minutes he told Grandpa that he was done and wanted to go home. We spent one day in Rigby for Hailey's baptism and I am so glad I don't live in eastern Idaho anymore. That icy wind is terrible I was freezing! We had such a good time in Vale and I was able to see all my sisters within two weeks which was awesome. The one thing I don't like about living in Salem is that my closest sister to me is 7 hours away I think the whole Kaaen family should move within 2 hours of me :)

Blazers Games.

2011-10-10T15:50:00.000-07:00

In March Bo and I were able to go to a Blazers game and sit in the At&t box. We had a blast! I'm not a big sports fanatic and rarely watch sports at home, but I love going to actually see them in person I guess I just love the atmosphere. While there I told Bo how much I wished that my Dad was there instead of me because he had never been to a professional sporting event. A bunch of people over heard me and offered tickets to my Dad so a couple of weeks later Dad, Mom, Brooke, and Aubrey all came up so Dad could go with Bo. I'm so grateful for Bo's co-workers the tickets given to us were from someone that didn't even know Bo that well just heard through the grapevine that my Dad hadn't ever seen the Blazers play.

Easter

2011-10-10T15:34:00.000-07:00

For Easter I made Will a vest, bow tie, and hat. I love dressing him up like a little man, it makes me giggle. We spent Easter at Bo's Grandma and Grandpa Scotts it was a relaxing day with good food followed by an egg hunt just for Will. I made him his little easter basket as well. I love being able to make special events more memorable by adding little homemade touches to it. I'm never going to be one of those amazing moms where 99% of the stuff in their home is homemade, but I love adding little touches here and there so that our holidays are a little unique.

Happy 93rd Birthday Grandma!

2011-06-18T07:58:00.000-07:00

I told Will it was his Great Grandma's birthday and he wanted to sing to his "grandma with the green bird" he really loves Grandma Ellsworth when we visit my parents and Grandma is there he always sneaks into her room and visits with her I love sneaking peeks of them sitting together and her patiently teaching him how to be gentle with her bird and telling him who the people are in the pictures in her room. Will has hard time getting used to people and talking to them and it amazes me how he is completely confident when he talks to her. It is probably because he can feel how kind and loving she is. I love my Grandma Ellsworth, I love her sense of humor, I love her adventurous spirit and I'm so proud that she is MY Grandma.

Will is 4

2011-04-07T11:51:00.000-07:00

In March Will turned four and for me it was a big deal. To me three still sounds like a baby/toddler age, but four means next year he'll be five which means (gulp) kindergarten! I kinda had a panic attack when I did the math. Will was so excited for his birthday this year for a whole month before his birthday he would come to me daily and say "Can we sing happy birthday to William" he was also obsessed with birthday hats and would put his little blue sand pail on his head and yell "Happy Birthday to William!" The Sunday before his birthday they sang to him in Primary and it was the funniest thing I have ever seen, my little sister Evie was visiting and we were both laughing so hard. You see Will is a little shy especially in Primary so when they asked him to come up I didn't even expect him to do that, but he went up there allowed the birthday hat to be put on his head while they sang to him. I wish I would've taken a picture he had the funniest look on his face it was like he was conflicted between smiling as big as he can and pretending like it wasn't a big deal. When we got home it was all he would talk about. The Thursday before his they had a preschool party for him which meant he got to bring M&M cookies with him to share with his class it was his favorite preschool day ever!

The Morning of his actual birthday was fun I gave him his very own noise maker which I'm sure the neighbors loved hearing at 7 in the morning. He also woke up to a giant Lightening McQueen balloon greeting him.

I had to finish Will's cake so he had M&Ms and Kit Kat bars for breakfast. then I realized that I forgot to buy ribbon and needed more M&Ms and because Bo was still asleep I took Will to the store with me and allowed him to pick out his own ribbon and a toy from the dollar section (hey we already spent way too much!) at Wal-mart.

I had to put a picture of the cake because it was the first one to turn out!

Then after opening a few presents and eating actual food we headed to the children's museum. We had tons of fun I didn't get many good pictures because I was having as much fun as Will.

After the childrens museum we headed up to Hillsboro to spend the day with Gma and Gpa Scott, Cheryl, and Carly where we played with new toys, opened more gifts, ate a Will friendly dinner of sweet potato fries, chicken strips, fruit salad, and garlic bread, and had cake.

Will had such a great day that he fell asleep before he opened his last two presents which made the next day just as exciting since we left the light saber that he has been asking for, for six months to be opened last. It all turned out how I wanted it to go so I was happy, but I'm very grateful that birthdays only come once a year!

First Day of Preschool

2011-03-22T14:14:00.000-07:00

We finally found a preschool that wasn't $300 a month or really scary looking for Will to go to. I contacted the teacher in late January and found out that the 2nd semester started in March, but they were full so she put Will on a waiting list and we got in! I was nervous because when Will went to school in Rexburg the first two weeks he would cry every time I dropped him off. So I went in with him and explained to the teachers that it would take him a couple of weeks to warm up and he may cry and he turns around and says "Bye Mama" and ran off to play. Every preschool day he has he happily runs into the class and when I pick him up he asks if his friends can come home with us. The only thing I don't like is I wish they had the spy rooms like BYU-I preschool so that I would be able to know if he is paying attention and being cooperative. He is having fun and I'm happy I have 2 1/2 hours off two days a week!

Valentines Day.

2011-03-22T13:51:00.000-07:00

We had a pretty laid back Valentines day Bo was swamped with work and school so Will and I had our own fun. I took him to the store and let him pick out his own gift because I'm a lame mom and ran out of time to get everything done Will picked out an orange stringy blob with eyes that lights up when you hit him and he named it Alfie. Then I asked him what he wanted to do go to the movie Gnomio and Juliet or go to "kids gym" (thats what Will calls it, its an indoor playground for kids 7 and under). I was hoping for the movie, but Will of course picked kids gym. After kids gym and some shopping we came home ate pizza and watched Word World, Super Why, and Elmo Valentine movies. It wasn't a big extravaganza and I actually think Will enjoyed it more than when we make a big deal about things and try to push him to be excited.

Christmas

2011-01-31T19:22:00.000-08:00

Funny Boy

Can You Believe Thats a Puppy?

We had a very laid back Christmas. I still have to get used to the fact that no one in Bo's family will ever wake up before 7 am even on Christmas. Growing up there was always tons of excited kids in my family so we would usually have all the presents unwrapped by 6 am. So now I have it imprinted in my head that I have to be up at 5 am on Christmas morning. So I had about 21/2 hours before Will even woke up. Will was excited to open presents but it kind of drove me crazy because he opened his stocking and just wanted to play with his helicopter and scooby doo plane and I wanted him to be excited about opening the rest of the presents. He also got pretty overwhelmed since he had Bo, Carly, and Cheryl just staring at him while he opened presents. The funniest part was that when he opened up his remote control car he just kind of tossed it aside because he didn't know what it was so then I put the batteries in it and started playing around with it and he went completely crazy! In the afternoon we went over to Bo's Aunt's house for dinner it was nice Bo's cousin brought her huge PUPPY with them which Will just loved so he was pretty well behaved which is always nice!

Christmas Eve

2010-12-28T20:10:00.000-08:00

The morning/afternoon of Christmas eve Bo had to work so it wasn't amazingly fun. I feel thats how Christmas Eve always is. Will and I frosted cookies for santa, made truffles and cleaned because we made a big mess. Will loved using his toy hammer to break apart the Oreos for the truffles. Around noon Will informed me that he was going to make me breakfast he threw a pig into a bowl of popcorn seeds and stirred it to perfection for about 30 minutes it was the most delicious breakfast I have ever had.

Once Bo got off work we drove up to Portland to spend Christmas with his Mom and sister. One of Bo's co-workers left her bag down in Salem so we decided to drive it to Southeast Portland for her. It turned into a fun detour because it was near the area that Bo grew up so we drove past his old home, his Dad's old neighborhood and stopped by the Zellers on the way to Gresham. William had fun with the girls and it was nice to see Margaret and Alex (not pictured) who were home from college.

(left-right Rachel, Martha, Margaret and Will)

Will loves being tortured by cute girls

We then headed to Gresham to spend the remainder of Christmas Eve with Bo's Mom and sister Carly. Carly made really good lentil soup which Will of course refused to eat we also tried to feed him Mac and Cheese but Cheryl had bought him Toy story shaped ones and apparently that makes it uneatable for certain picky 3 year olds so Will had a banana and a roll for dinner. We then went to tangled at the theatre We were all worried it would be packed because what else do you do on Christmas eve but it wasn't. This was our 2nd attempt at taking Will to the movie he really like it at first but then decided that it was more fun to play with the chairs. 3/4s of the way through it he actually turned to me and said "okay lets go home" I guess I shouldn't have expected anything different since he rarely sits through a full movie at home.

After the movie we went back to Cheryl's, set cookies out for Santa read Christmas stories to Will and spent 2 hours trying to get the overly excited child to go to bed. I finally took him up to the bedroom and told him he would be put in timeout if he got off the bed and he was asleep within 10 minutes.

This is Grandpa Nyleen

2010-12-28T18:15:00.000-08:00

Bo's family is a lot different than my family. In Grandpa Nyleen's defense this was the coffee cup given to him at his daughter's house. At first he didn't notice what it said and was happily sipping his coffee trying to figure out why every one was laughing. When he read it he just said "Oh geez" soon after this picture was taken I noticed that he was using a different cup.

School

2010-12-17T19:47:00.000-08:00

Isn't he the dreamiest studmuffin you've ever met?!;)

I am very proud to announce that Bo got straight A's this semester in school! College has never been the easiest for Bo he is more of a "real world" kind of thinker so he has never had a problem finding good jobs to provide for us, but school has always been a very discouraging process for him. To make it worse he always seems to get the most unsympathetic teachers and I'm not pointing my fingers at any one school since this is the 4th school he has transferred to! This semester has been hard, but I am very proud that he didn't lose steam. He took 8 credits and probably averaged 50 hour work weeks so his days off were cram packed with studying, studying, and more studying. The last week of school he was pretty much worn out and struggled really hard to finish the last little bit, but he did so thats all that matters. It was so funny because with the grades he had before the finals I knew that he would definitely pass and in his economics class he would've had to of taken a zero on the final to not get an A, but he flipped out when he found out he was getting an A in the class he kept on texting and calling me he actually was a little mad that I wasn't surprised at his grade. The best part about it is Will and I have a very happy non-stressed Daddy and Husband for the Holidays. He was so happy that he let me buy more presents for Will (which is pretty surprising since he thinks I spoil him). Anyways the only problem we've had with his new school is their academic advising. They are really hard to get a hold of and when we do reach them they are far from helpful they pretty much told Bo to figure out next semester on his own because they are too busy. Since Bo has a hard time figuring out which classes he has to take and which ones he has already done since it gets confusing when you have three other colleges that you have taken classes from. The job of figuring out the classes landed on me. I spent at least three hours figuring everything out/ helping him register. I think I am going to send them the bill for my time since it probably takes them less than an hour because it is logged all onto their computer. They should at least have a better website where you can figure everything out electronically! Anyways we finally figured out his class schedule Bo has had a huge confidence boost since his grades were so good so he is taking 12 credits this next semester! I'm a little worried that he might run out of steam quicker with more credits, but three of the classes are subjects that Bo does really well in (computer applications stuff like that) so he really is only going to have to work for his math grade. When he graduates I'm thinking they should honor me like they did on that Uncle Ben movie, you know the one made by BYU students in the 70s where the alcoholic Uncle stops drinking to take care of his orphaned niece and nephews and is honored at his niece's graduation with a standing ovation? Please tell me someone knows what I'm talking about! Thats how I fantasize Bo's graduation going!

Will's Christmas projects

2010-12-11T20:06:00.000-08:00

We are still going along with the activity advent calendar I made for Will it has been really fun doing activities I remember doing as a kid as well as some I've always wanted to do and now have reason to do them. We did miss two days of activities this last week because I had migraines, but Will didn't seem to mind vegging out and watching Christmas movies those days.

One of the Activities planned was the ward party it was a nice party I only got one picture of Will as he was running around though. Santa and Mrs. Claus came right around Will's bedtime so he had no desire to sit on a strange man's lap or stand in line to get a bag of candy so we left early. Will was asleep within 5 minutes when we got home.

I've always wanted to make shrinky dinks so I decided to try them with Will. I found a tutorial on unplugyourkids.com using recycled plastic and Sharpies. It was a really fun project, but I was more excited than Will. They shrunk perfectly, but I wrinkled the tin foil while trying to get it in the oven and so they really bent. I'm planning on doing this one again once I find more #6 recycled plastic.

There are tons of tutorials on how to make sun catchers out of crayon online and I wished I would've used on for our project. I just kinda figured it out on my own and ended up using too much crayon so they aren't really sun catchers they are just ornaments. Oh well Will had a lot of fun grating the crayons.

The cotton ball santa is a project I did probably three years in a row at school. I found the Santa to use on dltk-kids I love that site! I was surprised how well Will did with this one. I showed him how to do one and he did all the other cotton balls with no direction. It was fun for him to do a project other than coloring all by himself. When Bo got home from work he ran up to him with his project so proud it was really cute. FYI it is easier to pour the glue out on a paper plate and dip the cotton balls into it than trying to squeeze the glue onto the cotton.

PS Will does get dressed every day, but he plays in water constantly and gets his clothing wet then takes them off and refuses to put new clothing on.

Christmas Crafting

2010-12-11T19:08:00.000-08:00

I have been busy making crafts, some of the pictures didn't turn out too well and I'm too lazy to retake them so sorry if they aren't the best quality.

I made this bean bag frog using the pattern found at Lil Blue Boo (click the link and it will take you directly to the pattern!) it was super easy to make (took me less than an hour) and I'm hoping Will will enjoy it as much as his square bean bags I made him last year. I won't figure that out until Christmas since its a stocking stuffer but if he doesn't like it I'm not too worried since it was made with scrap fabric and split peas that have been in my pantry for at least a year so I'm not out any money.

These gloves I'm pretty proud of since I came up with the pattern myself. I've seen little kids with character gloves all over the place so it was easy to picture what I wanted. I'm happy with the way they turned out, it got a little frustrating because I made three pairs of gloves before I got the thumb right but each pair only took about 30 minutes to make so it was a pretty easy thing to do. They are going in Will's stocking too and were made with left over fleece from his Halloween costume so it was a free project since my mom actually purchased the fleece for me. Thanks Mom!
I was looking through free patterns for purses online and found this one from Parasolco.com. (click the link and it will take you directly there!) I fell in love with it! I love the polka dots in the pattern picture, but I already had the floral fabric that I got for $1.50 from the Wal-mart clearance section. I will definitely be using this pattern again and again. I have only made one other purse using a pattern before and this pattern was way easier than the other purse pattern I have. This project probably took me 3 hours to make, but I seriously enjoyed every minute of it. Bo made fun of me because as I was nearing completion of this bag I kept on saying "Isn't this so cute!" or "I can't believe this is turning out!" what can I say I'm super proud of this bag. Bo can't complain since it only cost $1.50!!
So these pictures really didn't turn out too well sorry! Maybe if I get more motivation I will repost these pictures. I really wanted a full nativity this year, but a nice one was not in the budget this year so I at first thought about making a plush nativity for Will that could sit underneath the Christmas tree, but that seemed like a lot of work so instead I went with felt and magnets so it could be played with on the fridge or on the white board for more portable play. I tried looking for a pattern for these, but couldn't find what I was looking for so I made up my own pattern and went to work. I have plenty to improve on this project, but I'm happy enough with it and think it will be a great addition for Will when we read the Christmas story on Christmas Eve. It is more cute in person than in these pictures just to let you know.

2010-12-06T17:50:00.000-08:00

Will is growing up today he told me that the underwear I gave him to put on were "lame" then later on he told me I wasn't his best friend anymore, Elmo was. I'm tempted to tell him "why don't you ask your best friend Elmo to do it" when he asks me for more milk or to help him get on the potty we'll see how long their friendship lasts!

Christmas Time!

2010-12-06T16:45:00.000-08:00

I'm excited about Christmas this year. I organized myself a little bit more this year, last year I was only worried about making sure I got the right presents for everybody and I felt like we missed out on all the fun Christmas activities. So this year I made an advent activity Calendar so that I make sure that not only we have fun but we help Will learn the true meaning of Christmas. Some of the activities we have done so far are making glitter pictures. (sorry for the near nakedness he is wearing underwear you just can't see it) This was a hit with Will because he likes "being shiny" as he puts it.

We visited the Christmas fair at our stake center where they had a live Nativity with a real live Camel it was pretty cool the adults were more excited about the Camel than the kids. This is a community activity so in the chapel they had choirs from all over salem performing songs and in the gym they had a huge display of different Nativities it totally gave me Nativity envy since all I have is a small one with just Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus.
They also had a activity for the kids called a journey to Bethlehem where they could dress up, play in Mary's Kitchen (a tent full of rice), make ornaments, listen to the Christmas story, play with child proof nativity scenes, and work in Joseph's workshop. Will had so much fun and we were all impressed with the creativity.

We decorated the house and Christmas tree. When I pulled the Christmas Boxes out I was amazed that Will got excited about the stuff he even grabbed the snowman door hanger and yelled out "my snowman!" apparently he remembers a little of last year.

The first thing we did is actually a tradition that we have done every year which is go through our clothing and toys to give some away to people less fortunate. Last year Will willingly handed over books and toys, but this year at first he was a little upset to give away some of his stuff. Its kind of funny because the stuff we gave is stuff that I have rarely seen Will play with so if I would have gone through the stuff myself Will probably would have never noticed, but we feel that Will needs to learn how to give on his own in the end he willingly said goodbye to his old toys.

Thats what We've been up to so far hope everyone is having a great Christmas season!

Projects (This one is for you Melinda!)

2010-11-27T12:33:00.000-08:00

My sister Melinda told me I should make a post about some of the crafty projects I've done so I've decided to finally do it in honor of her birthday. Happy Birthday Mel! I try to be crafty but 9 times out of ten the projects in my head do not turn out the way I want them to. I like looking at other blogs and doing their tutorials and I have a higher success rate of projects turning out when I do that. I found a tutorial on the Samster Mommy blog about how to make felt fridge magnets and had to do it, it took less than a day and it turned out to be something that Will plays with daily. I didn't do the same stitch that she uses mostly because I'm lazy and tried it but it

took so long that I changed it up. Well after seeing Will play with these magnets day in and day out for two months I decided to get him a magnet board so he didn't have to stand in front of the fridge all day so I purchased a white board for him so that he could use dry erase markers on it and as well as use his magnets on it. Then one day I was letting Will color a black piece of paper with chalk and I thought that if he likes chalk so much we should get him a chalk board since I read so many craft blogs I have seen the chalk board paint used on everything and decided to try it on the back side of the white board and it works so good! Then I was checking out the craft activities for kids on dltk-kids.com and decided to laminate some of the rhyming game pictures for will because they are really good for speech development so I put magnets on the back of them for the white board too. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday so I decided to make Will a Thanksgiving magnet to play with. I couldn't really find anything that I wanted to make on the craft blogs so I used my own ideas and made Tom the Turkey. He has different accessories that can be changed up and his feathers can be plucked. Will loves him so much which always makes the project worth doing! So those are a few of the things I've Been up to.

Thanksgiving

2010-11-27T12:06:00.000-08:00

We went to Roseburg for Thanksgiving to be with the Nyleen side of the family. It was a nice trip the roads were clear the whole way and its a very pretty drive. I didn't know very many people from the Nyleen side so it was nice to meet Bo's Aunts and cousin. It was funny because this side of the family takes their dogs with them where ever they go so there were tons of little dogs running around for Will to torture. There were two that are not really kid friendly dogs so he got nipped a little bit which I actually think is a good thing because Will is fearless around dogs and will walk up to any dog and try to play with it so I think it was good to learn that not all dogs are going to like being played with. Bo's Grandma gave a tour to Carly, Will and me of Kim's house and on the tour Will found out that they had a cat shut in the bonus room so she wouldn't get demolished by the dogs and made it his mission to free the poor kitty. He would sneak upstairs whenever I had my back turned and try to free it I finally had to tell him that the cat couldn't come out because she was in time out which immediately ended the mission. I only took one picture while I was there because we were having so much fun. Will loved the little dog Coo she was such a good dog. Up until now he really hasn't had that much interaction with a little dog so the first time Coo hopped onto his lap he started laughing so hysterically that Coo hopped right back down and wouldn't come back up until Bo was sitting down with Will. We had to leave pretty early because Bo had to get up at 4 am for Black Friday so we left at 5 and he was in bed by 7 so I pulled Will's mattress out to the living room and he and I watched movies and ate oreos until we fell asleep.

I FINALLY have a camera!!!

2010-11-27T11:33:00.000-08:00

Last July when I went to the beach with my family my camera randomly stopped working. Seriously one minute it was fine and the next minute it went blank and said "lens error". I took it home and researched the problem and found out that unless I wanted to spend more money than its worth to have an expert fix it I was pretty much screwed. I told Bo we needed a new camera and he told me we can just use our phones. Have you ever tried to take a picture of a three year old on a camera phone? Its not easy! 90% of the pictures I take turn out blurry and if you take pictures when its even a little bit dark they turn out really grainy. Well after four months of whining and complaining Bo broke down and bought me a camera! I told him it was what I want for Christmas and yesterday he worked a 13 hour shift at his Best Buy and Radio Shack locations so he had plenty of time to look at the Black Friday deals and brought me home a camera. He even wrapped it, of course his form of wrapping is covering the box with duct tape but its the thought the counts. He gave it to me and left so I'm not sure if I was supposed to save it for Christmas or open it today but I opened it because its better to ask for forgiveness than permission right? So here is a picture with my new camera he wanted me to take a picture of him with his new horse the Great Grandma Nyleen gave him. Hazel works at a shop to help raise money for the VA so she is always getting things for Will. When we went down for Thanksgiving everything Will touched she tried to give us it was pretty cute.

Halloween and Fall

2010-11-11T13:38:00.000-08:00

I love the fall and I'm so happy to be able to experience fall in western Oregon. I love the vibrant colors every where we go it just makes me so happy! The other day we went to the park in just sweatshirts and I got a text from someone in Idaho saying that it had started snowing in Rexburg. I am so happy not to be there for the winter! We came home from our visit with my family the Monday before Halloween for a couple of months we had been talking about doing a star wars theme for Halloween so I went to work and in just two days I came up with our costumes I was most happy with the fact that I just used fabric I had around the house so it was definitely not expensive to make them. When I started trying the stuff on Bo little by little he looked at me and said maybe we should wear name tags so people know who we are, but once I was finished he was happy with how it all turned out. Bo went as Obi Wan, Will went as Yoda, and I went as Queen Amidala. We had fun we went up to Portland to hang out with friends for Halloween. Saturday we went to the Mt. Scott Ward trunk or treat with the Zeller family and afterwards went to Red Robin it was fun. Will had a hard time asking for the candy but after it was dropped in his bag he would say thank you. The next day we went to Hillsboro to see Bo's grandparents and then to Beaverton to see our friends the Jacksons their two boys and went trick or treating with them on their block. Will did really good yelling trick or treat and going door to door. I was impressed with the neighborhood he got multiple full size candy bars and one house gave out playdough. We were having such a good time then half way through tick or treating Bo turned to me and said "I'm not feeling too well" by the time we got back from trick or treating he had to run to the bathroom so the night was cut a little short he was feeling so bad that he asked me to drive. That was a little scary I hate driving anyways but this was the worse because it was an area I had never driven in and it was dark and raining and Halloween so it was busy, but we made it home safely and after puking all night Bo was perfectly fine in the morning besides the fact that he says he doesn't know if he'll ever eat kit kat bars again since that was the last thing he ate.

2010-11-11T13:33:00.000-08:00

Michelle Got Married!

So I haven't posted in a while. I really wanted to but I went home for 2 1/2 weeks to see my little sister Michelle get married and while I was gone my computer broke it was a sad day and made me very grateful for my computer nerd husband who spent a couple a days looking at it ordered a part and got it back up and running.

I drove to Vale with my Mom because Bo was only able to get the reception in Vale off not the wedding in Utah. On the way we stopped off in La Grande for a potty break and to visit my Grandma Kaaen. It was so nice to see her and I was very happy to be able to show her how big Will has got. Will and I had a lot of fun on our little vacation Will was super happy to be around kids and pets every day plus he had a backyard he could run out to whenever he wanted to and a trampoline which he spent hours on. Will loved walking to the school to say "Hi" to Grandpa and to pick the girls up from school Brooke and Aubrey were so nice to him always willing to play with him and baby him. When we got home from all our travels we opened the door to our apartment and he asked us where Brooke and Aubrey were and still asks us everyday if we can go see them. Will loved to hear my Dad play his guitar every time he'd start to play Will would grab Aubrey's pink guitar and strum along with him. We also got to see all of Will's cousins he sometimes got a little overwhelmed when we were around everybody, but was super excited to be around tons of kids and just to be able to goof off and be crazy.

The whole reason we went down to Vale was so that we would be able to go to Michelle's wedding. So a week after we arrived in Vale we drove down to Logan Utah to see the big wedding. It was fun and very tiring to do all the activities crammed into such little time. I became very grateful for my husband on this trip because it was very exhausting to be the only person watching Will and trying to entertain him at the luncheon, reception, and all the pictures we had to do. I'm happy for Michelle and Jeff, I just hope that Jeff knows what he has gotten himself into. :)

Zoo and Baking

2010-10-04T20:46:00.000-07:00

We finally took Will to the Oregon Zoo two weeks ago we went with the Galloways who were up visiting from Rexburg. It was the perfect day to go we went on a Monday in the middle of the day there were no major crowds just moms and kids around Will's age and the weather was perfect. Will loves to ride the Max (Portland's train) and he begs us every time we go to Portland if we can ride it so since the day was centered around him when he asked we said okay. Bo and I had no idea the Max stop for the zoo area was underground so when it stopped we were a little disoriented and just followed the crowd of people that got off with us into this elevator that shot us up to right out side the zoo entrance it was a pretty fun experience when your not expecting it. William liked to look at the animals and stuff, but he wasn't overly excited like I thought he would be I think Bo and I were more excited. There is a dinosaur exhibit there right now with motion sensor dinosaurs that was Will's favorite part he also liked the dome you could stick your head in and get an up close look at animals and rodents. It was so funny to see Will's reaction to the elephants there was one outside and one inside when we were there we saw the one outside first and then went inside to look at the other one inside Will pressed his nose right up to the glass like he couldn't get close enough to it I wish we took a picture of it but by the time we got the camera out the moment was gone.

The other day Will and I made rolls together, Will always wants to "help" me make things but really all he does is get out his own cup and play in the flour and sugar. This time I made an extra big batch and decided to see what he would do with the dough. He loved it! I gave him some cookie cutters and helped him make a "W" for his name, but he was more excited to use the rolling pin and fold them like mommy was doing. The only problem I had was once he was done making his creations I tried to let them rise like your supposed to but he kept on begging me to let him eat them. I finally told him he could try it thinking that he wouldn't like it but of course he did it was pretty gross so I threw them into the oven before he could try to take another bite of the dough so his were a little flat of course it didn't stop him from devouring them.

Extreme Makeover Home Edition

2010-09-15T09:11:00.000-07:00

When Bo got his new job this summer he was really excited that it was a job that is flexible so that he could join the Red Cross and Rotary Club. About a month ago he came home really excited from a Red Cross meeting and told me that he gets to do something really cool, but he is not allowed to tell me about it because it was "Top Secret"(he really likes to torture me). After trying to trick him into telling me what it was for a while I kind of forgot about the whole thing until last week he came to me and said that the local news is covering it so he can tell me. Extreme Makeover Home Edition was in town re-doing the School of the Deaf and Bo got to be a a part of it through the Red Cross. Apparently the whole process is way different than what it looks like on t.v. (surprise, surprise) so Bo didn't get to meet any of the hosts of the show. One of them was on the roof doing a tour with the cameras and during that time none of the average workers were allowed close to it, Bo and a couple of others were actually yelled at for not being in their designated areas, but still I still think that it is really cool that he got to participate in something like that. If you want to watch the show it is supposed to be part of the Halloween episode this upcoming Halloween, I think.

We are still pretty busy every weekend we are pretty much doing something which is really nice it always makes the week go faster when you have something to look forward to. We took Will to a developmental screening so that we could get him started on preschool through the school district because of his speech delay we thought that we would be able to score free preschool this year but through the testing we found out that Will has pretty much caught up with his age group! I was happy when the lady said I shouldn't be stressing over his speech any more, but sad when she said that he didn't qualify because Will LOVES preschool and I was hoping it would be a good way to meet some friends in the area for him. So now we are on the search for a good preschool that isn't too expensive.

A while ago At&t had an employee appreciation day at a family fun center in Wilsonville we went and had a lot of fun. We kind of got there a little late and left early because we were tired but we had a lot of fun while we were there. We played miniature golf as a family which was what Will would've done all night if we let him. It was so cute how happy he was golfing alongside his Dad. We also went into the kid zone with Will and because no one else was using the area Bo I jumped in with him and climbed through the tubes and went down slides I was laughing the whole time because it was so funny seeing Bo trying to maneuver through the tubes he actually got stuck inside one of the slides because of his long legs he came out with rug burns all over his arms. The best part of the night was when we got home Will didn't even make to his bed before he was asleep, I love nights that end with no bedtime battles!

Enchanted Forest

2010-08-14T10:30:00.000-07:00

Last weekend my sister Cami and her Family visited they stayed with us for two nights. Saturday morning we got up and decided to go to the Enchanted Forest. At first we weren't sure if we wanted to because it kind of seemed expensive because you have to buy tickets for the rides as well as a admission price. I'm so glad we went! Will had so much fun and he only rode one ride (although he did ride it twice). The Enchanted forest has three different areas Story Book Lane, Wild West, and European Village the kids loved Story Book lane so much we went through it twice. Will was in heaven just being able to explore, run around, crawling through tunnels, and the slides that were attached to some of the buildings. I am so glad my sister came and visited it was fun for me to be able to have someone to talk to and Will had a blast being around kids his age. When they got up to go Sunday morning Paul told the kids that they were going to Grandma's house at that point Will goes "Come Mama lets go to Grammas" It was very hard for him to understand that he couldn't go with them and after they left he was pretty sad.

Busy Weekend

2010-08-05T10:08:00.000-07:00

This weekend we were constantly going. My friend Erin got married on Saturday in Washington so Bo and I went to the wedding and on our way dropped Will off to play with Grandma Colley. It was a great wedding, but we were having so much fun that we didn't take pictures. The next day the Nyleen family had a reunion about 40 minutes from us so we went to that. We almost didn't make it because everyone we asked had different directions for us and they gave us the wrong name of the park so the GPS didn't help us at all. When we were about to give up Bo's sister Carly called and told us that her boyfriend Adam would drive out and meet us and then we could just follow him in. We are so glad we went it was fun! Will had so much fun playing in the river and the sand box he keeps on begging us to "go see grandpa" because he thinks its his grandpa's house. While we were playing in the river I slipped and fell flat on my back completely soaking myself. It was really embarrassing and hurt really bad! I still am having back pain. We are so happy we made the decision to move here. We love going to the farmers markets on saturday and Will loves visiting Grandma and being able to ride the max he asks me if we can ride the train every day.

We're Back!

2010-07-27T16:40:00.001-07:00

I gave up blogging more than a year ago, but now that we've moved back to Oregon and the people who actually read this blog live far away I've decided to start it back up! We are doing great in Salem just getting to know people and reacquainting Will to Bo's family. I think our favorite part is just driving and seeing all the green around! We also love the berry prices the other day I went berry picking for a church activity and got raspberries for 68 cents a pound! This last week my parents came to visit and took Will and I to the coast with them. It was so much fun and a great little break from real life. Will wasn't too happy the first day that we were there it was pretty windy plus the noise of ocean kind of scared him but he enjoyed the sea lions at Newport and the aquarium too. My camera died right after we saw the sea lions so no pictures of the aquarium :(, but he loved the part where you get touch the starfish and other little sea creatures and every orange fish he saw was Nemo. The second day on our way out of town we stopped at the Lincoln City beaches Will just went crazy digging in the sand, chasing seagulls, rolling down hills, and even chasing the waves! I really wish I had my camera for that because he was so happy tagging along with my sisters Brooke and Aubrey. My Dad convinced my Mom to let him bury her once he was done she fell asleep so we left her in the sand and played in the ocean pretty far away. I once looked up to make sure my Mom was okay and I'm pretty sure there were people taking pictures of her. It was pretty funny. We are so happy that they decided to come up and had a great time with them. It really helped Will because he misses his cousins and friends so he absolutely ecstatic to have Brooke and Aubrey here for a while.

I'm really bad at this!

2009-05-29T15:41:00.000-07:00

I don't know why this is so hard for me, but for some reason I can't keep this thing up to date! Maybe its because nothing really interesting happens....Bo did get a new job and he is loving it! William turned two in March and is on his way to becoming potty trained. At first it was hard to even get him to sit on the seat, but I finally got a potty seat that fits on top of ours and he is loving it! When we first got it and he opened the package he thought it was a steering wheel and played with it all night it was so funny, but the next day when he found it on the toilet he wanted to take it off and play with it. William and I have been able to go home to Vale a couple of times minus Bo and although we missed him we really have enjoyed being with my family. William always comes home missing Brooke and Aubrey which is really sad. Today there was a little girl yelling and screaming while we were outside I asked Will what he thought the noise was and he goes "Aubrey!" and started running towards the noise. I always know when I'm being boring because he will start saying "Car Aubrey?" when I hear that I know he must be extremely bored to want to drive 6 hours just to play with someone! He is talking a lot more which has its positives and negatives it is so cute hearing him speak and try to form sentences, but if he wants something he will say it over and over again like a broken record until he gets what he wants! I've lost my temper more than a few times because of it. My sister Michelle graduated High School as the Valedictorian this last weekend and Will and I went down to see her it was great to see her we were all so proud! I also got to see a lot of cousins and friends I hadn't seen in quite some time so it was a great time!

Christmas and updates

2009-01-30T20:08:00.000-08:00

For Christmas we were supposed to go to Portland, but when we got to the Boise Airport everything was closed down so we stayed with my parents in Vale instead. Even though it wasn't what we planned Christmas was great! We were able to see one of my little sister Michelle's basketball games which was fun and while we were at the game William crawled up into my Grandma Ellsworth's lap and cuddled it was so cute! William had never Officially met Santa and my Dad hadn't shaved for a while so I joked that he should dress up as Santa he said ok and a while later he came out with a santa beard on. It was so funny and I'm happy I have a Dad that was willing to do that for William. Especially since William just screamed when he saw him. After waking up at 5:00 in the morning on Christmas later that day we all went down to the church gym to play basketball Bo and I decided to pull William down there on a sled the moment we put him in there he fell asleep it was kinda funny because it looked a little strange! It was fun to see everyone my sister Mary and her family came up to visit it was great to see them and Melinda and her family as well.

My little artist

2008-12-07T21:59:00.000-08:00

Lately William has been really into coloring he will color a paper until it hardly has any white left on it. Every time he brings me a paper I let him know how proud I am of him. The other day William was in our hall for a long time after a while I went to see what he was doing. He had a colored pencil in his hand and he looked up at me and said "Mommy look!" The hallway was dark so at first I didn't see anything, then I saw the "masterpiece" it was hard to get angry at him when he looked so pleased with himself. All I can say is that I'm thankful for magic erasers. A couple days later William colored one of our couch cushions with pen, he got punished for that one. Thank goodness for microfiber couches and hairspray! Or else William would still be in timeout!

Catching up

2008-11-15T16:55:00.000-08:00

So I haven't done this in a long time, but it isn't all my fault Bo used the camera cord for something at work and forgot to bring it home. Meanwhile I was pulling my hair out looking for it! Not much has changed around here except for William he keeps on getting bigger and is beginning to speak sentences its fun to see how much he learns every day! He also is learning to count, he says "1-2-5-5-5-0 yeah!!!" then claps his hands because he is just so excited.

He also is obsessed with Sesame Street whenever anyone is on the computer he begs for Sesame Street. When Sesame street is on he gets out Elmo and is completely absorbed for the next 45 minutes. I usually spend the time working out, showering, or doing the laundry. William was a monkey for Halloween and I got it in my head to make the costume for him because the one we wanted to buy sold out before we could get it. All the supplies I used ended up being less than the store bought costumes, but then it took me 4 days to make the costume in the end I'm just proud that it actually looks like a monkey costume.

William is also getting really good at climbing which is pretty nerve racking for me. I'll find him on the computer desk all the time which scares me. I'm afraid to leave him alone for very long because I know if I do he will be somewhere crazy!

Happy Anniversary

2008-07-19T07:46:00.000-07:00

So I was meaning to do this last month, but at the time I was really busy with school. So here is a slide show of Bo and I because we celebrated our 3 year anniversary on June 25th. Now that I'm done with school I can actually get things done!

Check out my Slide Show!

2008-07-19T07:44:00.001-07:00

Will's cover

2008-07-11T10:41:00.001-07:00

Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com

Fourth of July

2008-07-09T08:17:00.000-07:00

We had a great Fourth of July weekend! We of course went to the Rexburg parade thinking that William would absolutely love it....he fell asleep half way through it, but when he was awake I think that he enjoyed. It was really hot so I was ready to go after William fell asleep, but Bo had to see the Army tanks which was of course at the end of the parade! In the end I was glad we went. Then after naps for the whole family and lunch we went down to the Idaho Falls firework show. We went down with our friends Mike and Malyn and actually had a really good time. We found really good seats even though most people had been there all day claiming all the good ones. Before the fireworks started we got dinner there and ate by a band that was playing which William loved....he started dancing and rocking out to the music. For dessert Bo and I helped william eat a slushie, which most ended up on Will's face and shirt. When the fireworks started we were afraid of what William's reaction was going to be, but he was amazed he kept on looking at them and then he would point and start laughing it was so cute! William was so tired after the show, when we were walking to the car he fell asleep. We were really worried we were going to be stuck in traffic all night, but Mike showed us the best place to walk and really good exit to use, so it only took us an hour to get home and most of that was due to the construction in Rigby!

Palisades

2008-07-09T08:04:00.001-07:00

A girl that works with Bo told him about this great place to go camping near Palisades, so we decided to check it out for a day. We loved the campgrounds with the river right there it made the hot day seem cooler. While Bo cooked the hamburgers I went on a little hike on the trail right next to our camp and found the prettiest place to hang out near a pretty cascade, so after dinner I took Bo, William and our friends that came with us back to it so that they could enjoy it. Everybody liked it except for Will he needed to be held the whole time we were there, I think the roaring sound the water made scared him. Over-all it was a pretty good day and we are planning another trip to actually camp there soon!

Happy Birthday Grandma!

2008-06-22T11:34:00.000-07:00

My Grandma's 90th Birthday party was last week and Will and I went down for it. The moment we got to my parents house my camera ran out of batteries so I didn't take any pictures, but here is one that I love that my cousin Tarek found and sent me! I love their swimsuits!

Our little Helper

2008-06-09T13:02:00.000-07:00

William loves helping us with our chores around the house. Folding laundry and cleaning the fish tank are two of his favorite activities to help with, although when he "helps" clean the fish tank it usually ends with him in time out because he tries to put the hoses in his mouth. He also has to be right there whenever Bo gets his tools out. I hope that he keeps his enthusiasm of helping as he gets older!

Spring Has Sprung!(finally)

2008-05-11T21:44:00.000-07:00

About two weeks ago I realized it was officially spring when William and I found a patch of dandelions! William was really excited about them that he had to take one home. We also found flowers growing in the back lawn! Will loves being outside now, so every time we open the door he tries to make a break for it. We finally decided just to leave the door open and put up a baby gate. It has really helped! Especially when I'm doing homework.

First time blogger!

2008-04-20T16:04:00.000-07:00

Okay so you need to be patient with us on this because we are just starting and haven't quite figured everything out yet!