Seattle

Our trip to Seattle was pretty fun considering it was rainy, we got up there late Friday night, Our room was tiny and the sleeping situation was not exactly good for anyone. Despite all of those things we had a good time. Jeff did amazing on his stair climb. I could not go up 69 flights of stairs without any gear in about 15 mins if my life depended on it. I have great respect for fireman and how hard their jobs can be. Jeff raised a good chunk of change for the leukemia lymphoma society. He raised over $1,000 personally (Thanks to all of you that supported him and his team) and his team combined brought in $16,000 total. It was wonderful to be part of such a great fundraiser to help try and find a cure for these debilitation illnesses.

Nampa Firefighter Stairclimb participants

Joey Sanchez, Jeff's captain Wayne Kinslen, and Jeff post race.

Jeff and Joey headed up the stairs to start the climb.

The Columbia tower the tallest tower in Seattle, and home to the Scott Firefighter Stairclimb.

BBQ with the Calhouns

The first friend that I made when I moved to Idaho after Jeff and I got married was my friend Paige. She used to live in the next town over called Star until last spring when she married George. Right before the wedding she sold her house and moved her things out to George's place in Kuna. I was sad that she was moving out there but happy that she had found a great guy that makes her happy and treats her well. The other day Bay asked me about Paige out of the blue and asked why we hadn't gone to her house and seen her and her cat. I explained that she had moved and was living with George in Kuna. He proceeded to ask me to call her and leave her a message and see if we could come and visit her. I text her Bays request and we decided it had been too long and we needed to get together. It just so happened that we were both free over the weekend so we loaded up the kids into the car and took a little drive to the farm in Kuna. Bay was so excited to see the horses, the new baby calf Jenz, and Alan the duck. I was just excited to catch up and visit Paige and see her and George's place.

I am glad Jeff snapped this picture of Paige and I with the kids before we left. It turned out nice.

George showing Bay that Winston is a nice gentle horse.

Bay finally decided he would be brave and touch Winston.

Bay was hesitant to sit on Winston at first until George picked him up and sat him down on his bareback and George told him to hold onto his mane.

Alan the duck would be more appropriately be named Aylana seeing as how Alan is actually a female that was sitting on 15 unfertilized eggs. She was mighty protective of those eggs. George let Bay feed Alan some corn. As you can see Bay loved feeding the duck.

hard to believe that calf is about 2 months old huh? Angus cows are thick cows. We had a nice visit and Paige and George. We had amazing hamburgers which we found out were made from Elk. Had they not told us I would have never known. They had great flavor and tasted really lean. I would eat them again for sure,in fact they were so good it made me want Jeff to go hunting and get us our own meat.

Easter Sunday Dessert

I love to shop Target's clearance section right after the holidays for great deals on decorations and holiday entertaining things. Last year I snagged this awesome bunny pan for $2 bucks and had completely forgotten about it until I opened my Easter decorations this year. I decided when I came across the pan that I had to make a cake and try out the pan. After talking to Sheri we decided to do an Easter dessert together, this gave me the perfect excise to use my cute bunny pan. I had Bay help me make the cake and decorate it after it was frosted. It turned out pretty cute. Maybe I will have to do an easter tradition of making a bunny cake every year...

The finished product...Bay decided it needed sprinkles all over it...

Bay adding the finishing touches.

Enjoying chewing on Cadens farm animals.

Kisses from Caden.

Easter is exhausting for kids...too much sugar and not enough sleep.

Sunday Easter Egg Hunt

When you are married to a fireman you never know what the holidays will be like and if they will have a late call in the morning or if they will be home early. For some people that may be really hard but for me its the way it is and it doesn't really bother me much.Jeff worked in Parma all day Saturday and had to hold over for a girl for a few hours so he wasn't going to get home early this year. Since he wasn't going to be home early I decided to get the kids up early and attend church,and let him play Easter bunny . The kids looked adorable and it was nice to be able to hear my friend Sheri speak. She did an amazing job and they had a lot of musical numbers. It was a nice meeting. After church we got home so Bay could find the eggs the Easter bunny had hidden in the yard. Shortly after Bay finished his hunt Jeff's grandma Shirley and Joe called and dropped by to see the kids and visit with us. While they were visiting Candace Chad and Emma came over and we all just talked and soaked up some sunshine. It was a simple nice and pleasant Easter.Here are some photos...

Makena is loving the spring weather and the chance to crawl around on the grass and enjoy the sunshine.

Emma surveying the yard for more Easter Eggs.

Bay and Emma discovering the eggs hidden in the fence

She looks so posed in this picture...She likes to hang out in this position frequently mid-crawl.

Dinner with the Westwood Family

I probably have posted about my friend named Naomi and her family before but for those who haven't heard me talk about her shes one of my really close friends that has a son named Adam that is the same age as Bay and her daughter Ayla is a month older than Makena. She moved to Idaho from Portland about a year ago so we have common ties to Oregon as well. We decided to try and do a family dinner every month together. Last month we decided to do a dinner and add an egg hunt in lieu of Easter. We had a great dinner, a great egg hunt,and Naomi's heavenly homemade lime cheesecake. It is really nice to have friends that we have so much in common with. I look forward to more dinners with the Westwoods this summer and some hikes and camping trips.

Cheese...He had just gotten his hair cut at monkey doos this afternoon so it was all styled...I love the short haircut.

Adam and Bay. Shortly after Easter Naomi cut Adams hair short too. Now they look alike again.

Racing around the yard to find eggs.

Little miss Ayla taking it all in...Such beautiful eyes.

Makena...the grass taste tester.

The boys inspecting their treasure.

Pulling up

I put Makena in her crib for a few minutes the other night in order to get Bay's toothbrush ready.When I left the room she was just sitting and chattering to herself. When I came back into the room she was standing....Oh dear. She's already pulling up and shes only 8 1/2months in fact shes starting to walk along the furniture or "cruise" as some people call it. I am so not ready for her to be doing this already..

You can tell from this picture she thinks she's pretty smart.

Easter pictures

I had visions of being this amazingly organized mother of two, the reality is what I envision never includes the daily grind of changing diapers, preparing meals, doing laundry, and keeping my house clean. I took these pictures with the intent to turn them into cards for our family and friends but as you can see it is now the first of May and I am just posting them on my blog instead. As it is Makena and Bay are both really sick today so I am just sitting here typing with one hand as I hold Makena. Oh well. I am doing my best at the hardest but greatest job in the world being a mom. Please forgive me if my posts have grammatical or spelling errors, one handed typing is quite challenging.

I love how her hair is blowing in the wind, and the look on her face is so funny.You can really see her two bottom teeth too.

His hair is now short but I still think he looks really handsome in this picture.

I was shocked she left the hat on.In fact she didn't seem to mind wearing it.

This is a common sighting in our house...Bay smothering Makena, and for some unknown reason she loves it.