A Good Kind of Day

A few of you may already know this but I will share this anyways.

I really love Daniel!

Today marks our 4th anniversary and I can hardly believe that it has been that long! I still feel like we are still the newly weds and quickly remember when I look down and see kiddo number three steadily grown in me.

Earlier today Daniel said that this has been the best 4 years of his life and I feel exactly the same way. He kinda just stole the words right out of my mouth.

I am always grateful for hugs from Daniel. They remind me of when we first started to notice each other after our 5 minute hug. Glad I just went along with that one!!

Daniel, thank you for being my best friend. I am glad that I will always have you with me to face the world. I can't even express how much you mean to me. I hope you have a wonderful day and I look forward to all the years we have coming our way!!

Here are a few of my favorite wedding and engagement pictures. Enjoy!

This week

We have a pretty quiet week but a hot one!! Portland doesn't seem to have a happy medium, it is either raining or really hot. I am glad to be out of the rain though! We got our AC hooked up last night so we slept really well!

Benson got the Primary song book out and started singing I Am A Child of God. (He knows exactly what page it is on!) It was pretty cute!

Kimber was really out of sorts yesterday morning. I tried holding her but I was laying down and she wasn't having that!

Kimber was doing much better after her nap! She was putting the blocks into the bin until I started filming her.


I finally got everything for my container/potted garden. We shall see how they fare! I am excited to have even a little bit of color to look at when we look out our back door.

Our break from school was good but now Daniel is back at school and starting to treat students in the Campus Health Clinic. He is looking forward to treating people but unfortunately he only one student that will be coming to see him. Hopefully something will work out for him so he will be able to get all his visits in!

Kimber's 1 Birthday!

Well after a late night at the Drive-In Theater I accidentally slept in until 10. Daniel was kind enough to take the kids to our Ward activity that was based on Pioneer's. Bens had a blast there but I loved it because I was able to work on getting the house and cake ready for Kimber's party.

Kimber's birthday was Pig theme this year. We had pink everything from streamers and balloons to plates and cake.

Kimber was a really social girl! I noticed she wasn't with the rest of us and went to find her!

Kimber has loved playing with her balloon!

Singing to our precious little girl!

She really wasn't too sure about eating the cake. After a little while she ate the Skittles off the top.

She started to get into it after awhile and loved it!

Checking out the cake in her hands.

Sucking the icing off her fingers.

I just love this picture! She looks like she is on a sugar high!

Once she started eating the cake she LOVED it!! Everytime she sees us eating a dessert now she goes crazy crying for some.

The party wasn't too big but we had some great friends there and my Aunt and Uncle came for the party. It was great to see everybody and to celebrate our precious Kimbers first year with us.

Drive-In Theater

The night before Kimber's birthday we took the kids out to Newberg to the Drive-In Theater. Anybody that lives around here... Go! It was so much fun!

We had to go a few hours early so that we could get a good parking spot but once we were there we had a blast! First we ate our dinner that we had packed. Bens had fun eating sitting by the sliding door in our van so his feet were hanging over the side. (I had just cleaned out the van two days before... I may have been particular about his crumbs!)

Here are my three kids... I mean Daniel with the kids killing some time. They had a lot of fun sitting up in the front of the van!

Now how could I pass up sharing such a cute picture of my little girl? You can see here that her bangs are trimmed. I usually pin some of it to the side so she isn't sporting a mullet! Oops!

The rest of the time we played Skip-Bo and taught Bens how to play. His first time and he schooled us! We walked around the theater grounds as well which was nice.

The kids and I are ready for the show to begin! Oh, here is also a picture of my new glasses that I posted about forever ago! Sad this is the first picture of me that has been taken since then!

We put to Kimber to bed just before the first movie started. She fell asleep pretty well given the distractions! We let Bens stay up and watch Toy Story 3 with us. Daniel made him a special seat beside Kimber so he could see the screen really well. We bought some popcorn and had some candy to munch on so he was in heaven! The movie didn't start until 9:45 so he had a late night!

After Toy Story 3 we put Bens to bed in his car seat and we watched Prince of Persia. He nodded off fast! We enjoyed both movies and had a great time while we waited for the movies. We ended up getting home around 2:30! All in all it was a great family night out!

Playing Catch Up!

So I went to take a picture and found the memory card was full. I had to empty the card so I could take the picture. Downloading the pictures was the only thing stopping me from doing another post so here I am!

This post is just a bunch of randoms from the past month.

I couldn't get Bens to eat lunch one day so we did lunch in a muffin tin. I think he enjoyed it!

Our cutie Kimber. This is one of the last pictures taken before we cut her bangs.

Sleepy little girl... this is becoming a bit of a habit now! She looked cute/uncomfortable with the sippy cup!

Bens got some new clothes from his Grandma so here he is sporting one new outfit... too cute!

Bens' new favorite game to play every FHE is animal charades. He usually tells us want he wants to be and then acts it out. Kimber LOVES to watch Bens be a bull!

We had some friends over for dinner and a movie one night. We did it picnic style in the living room with blankets on the floor. Bens was so excited that he started to clean up his toys and lay the blankets out without being asked!



Just a cute video of Kimber eating. I caught her blowing kisses on tape!!

Once again it is becoming a habit!

Kimber Anne

Today marks a big milestone in Kimber's life thus far. She turn the ripe old age of 1. Really has it been that long since she joined our family?

I have been feeling particularly nostalgic about her birthday. I haven't felt quite like this with any of Benson's birthdays so this is kinda odd for me. I suppose it is because she is my little girl!

She has been such a delight to have in our family. She has been a relatively good baby and we always knew if she was crying it was for a reason! Now that is starting to change as she has found that whining can get what she wants.

Kimber loves to give us hugs, especially when she gets up from naps and in the mornings. Sometimes she will go up to smaller babies (aren't most smaller than her though?) and give them hugs as well. She has developed an interest in putting things away. She sat for about 30 minutes the other day putting Bens' blocks back in his bin for him while he kept taking them out!

Kimber has been a great eater! She didn't enjoy solid foods at first but after about a week she would eat whatever she was given... even if she didn't want it! To date she will still eat an entire jar of food if you feed it to her even though she isn't that interested in it. Although sleep will trump that once in awhile and she will conk right out in her high chair!

Here are a few pictures of her over the past year. I don't even know when she grew up so much! I will post her birthday party pictures and videos soon and you can see how much she has grown up even since the last picture on here that is about a month or so old.

If you can't tell, I really love my Kimber girl!

Weighing in a year ago at 8 lbs 12 oz.

Wrapped up in the hospital. To be honest when I first saw her I didn't recognize her. Now all I can see in this picture is her... with a bit of Gramps thrown in!

Mommy time. One of my personal favorites!

Bens has been in love with his sister since day one! He always wants to play with her and help her, sometimes to a fault! He was protective of her right from the start as well and would try and stop people from looking at her at first... then he realized they were just looking and not taking!

Tummy time. Pretty well only happened if she was asleep. Kimber looks a lot like my sister in this picture!

Starting to grow up. This was the first time I actually did her hair.

About 4 or 5 months old here and looking Pretty in Pink!

Our second chunky monkey. She got to wear Bens' Halloween costume and she made it look so good!

Sitting up so well by herself around 8 months or so. I miss putting her somewhere and knowing she was still there! She started crawling around 10 months old and hasn't stopped. She is working on walking with furniture!

Her grumpy face! It is still so cute!

Kimber is so beautiful and serene here. She is content like this a lot so I could not ask for more!

On more of a side note, I was planning on giving Kimber a "present" today of nursing one last time. I have felt done nursing for a few weeks if not more than a month! We were so close to her birthday that I thought I would keep going. On Thursday night she gave me a present instead by refusing to nurse. She drank her sippy of milk and went to bed quite nicely. I have freedom at last... for a few more months at least! So Thank-You Kimber!

So I have been having trouble keeping up with things lately, blogging being one of them. I have mounds of laundry that needs to be folded and put away plus mounds of laundry that needs to be washed and then folded and put away. I just don't feel like doing any of it.

About a month and a half ago our Relief Society was given the challenge of earning a "Degree of Self Reliance". Yes I am about a month and a half behind on most of it but I figure this might give me the motivation to get that laundry washed and put away.

So let me explain a little bit about my degree I will be earning. We were given a booklet that had 12 "Colleges" in it with goals in each of the colleges that we would have to set and achieve by November. I am working towards getting my Bachelor's Degree in Psychology. To get this degree I will have to complete 8 goals in the College of Psychology, 5 goals in the College of Theology and 3 goals in each of the other colleges.

To some that know me really well you may be surprised I am actually doing this as I am not one that will do this type of thing usually. When in Relief Society I usually sit there and listen but not participate other than playing the piano when needed. I am going to be using the blog as a measure of how I am doing. It will be a way for me to be held accountable. Please bear with me as I list each of my goals and in later posts update on the progress I am making. So sorry there are no pictures this time...just a lot of words!

College of Psychology
1) Strive to be patient, kind and understanding to everyone in our home for 1 week
2) Take on weekend or day out of town with just Daniel.
3) Read a moral, motivating self-improvement book.
4) Change something about my appearance (dye hair)
5) Go out of my way to do something special for Daniel.
6) Accept 5 compliments without apologizing or minimizing and/or give 5 heartfelt compliments
7) Overcome a fear I have... making phone calls
8) Read and article from a church magazine that addresses some aspect of good personal, mental and emotional help.

College of Theology
1) Read 6 articles from recent Ensign magazines. Write 3 new or important ideas I gained from these articles and discuss them with someone.
2) Do 5 or more temple endowments or other temple ordinances.
3) Hold Family Home Evening weekly for 2 months.
4) Pray twice a day on my knees for one month.
5) Read the scriptures for fifteen minutes at least 3 times a week for 2 months.

College of Applied Arts
1) Create a container garden. (get some planter boxes for our back yard)
2) Repair something broken in my home.
3) Clean car inside and out.

College of Business and Economics
1) Clean out and organize at least 2 closets.
2) Have a family calendar posted and use it successfully for one month.
3) Have a family council to determine 1 way each member could help to maintain or improve home conditions. Write 1 goal for each person.

College of Fine Arts
1) Attend a live symphony, music recital or dance performance.
2) Practice the piano more frequently and consistently than before.
3) Memorize 10 new art terms.

College of Home Economics- Cooking
1) Plan a weekly menu, in advance, for 4 weeks and follow it as closely as possible.
2) lean 3 new ways to use the crock-pot
3) Make a 2 crust pie
4) Have a special candlelight dinner using our nicest dishes.

College of Home Economics- Sewing
1) Sew something for myself or someone else.
2) Make curtains for living room.
3) Sew an item for a child.

College of Language Arts
1) Update our family history for the last year.
2) Write in my journal at least once a week for 3 months.
3) Spend 15 minutes a day reading to myself or a child for one week.

College of Physical Education
1)Exercise 15 minutes a day 4 times a week for a month.
2) Floss my teeth 3 times a week for 3 months
3) Go swimming

College of Social Science
1) Travel to another town and visit a historical site.
2) Read a biography or autobiography on a famous individual.
3) Buy a globe for my home.

College of Career Development
1) Get ready for my day when I get up.
2) When a conflict arises, be the peacemaker.
3) Schedule individual time for Daniel and each child.

There we have it. There are all my goals that I have set to accomplish by November. Wish me luck. Next time I am on I will let you know what I have done and what I am working on... it may be a bit much for this post!