Baby Shower

A couple of weekends ago we had a baby shower back in San Diego--  It was wonderful!!

I wish I had thought ahead and taken more pictures of myself with people, but pictures of people will have to do.  :) 

 We of course had to play the "how big is the baby belly?" game...

...which Brooke won!  And, in case you are wondering, NO she did not cheat using her own baby belly.  She won fair and square, and was seriously within about 1/4 inch!  Way to go Brooke! 

Later I got to enjoy opening all the cute pink girly things, and visiting with friends and family that we don't get to see often enough. 

Thanks to everyone who came and made the day so special! 

Chiropractic Love(rs) and Other Matters

So, I feel like I could go about another 300 years without having the energy to write a blog post...  But here I am, writing for you.  Partly out of guilt, and partly out of fear that my followers would soon rise up in revolt and storm the castle.  It's a pretty well-founded fear.  In any case, here we are. 

About a million years ago (okay, May) around the time of my last blog post, we went to Washington!  While we were there, we got to visit these cool people:

We checked out Spokane which was really, really pretty, though kind of rainy.  I'm not sure what else I expected from the great state of Washington.

While we were there (praise the Lord!) Brett was able to get adjusted!  Here's the story:  Brett's absolute favorite person in the entire world to be adjusted by is Keven, and vice versa.  This makes the many states (and occasionally, time zones) that separate them quite problematic.  Ever since graduation day Keven's wife and I have had the joy of listening to our husbands complain about not getting proper adjustments.  So here you have it, reunited at long last:

Brett may or may not ever admit this, but "going to Washington to visit friends" could probably be translated as "going to Washington to get adjusted with the added benefit of seeing friends."  The world may never know.

Hmmmm....what else?

We helped ourselves to a ride on their kid's teeter-totter, which I am certain I have not done since elementary school.

Beyond that, June was a rather uneventful month.  Just to give you an idea:  I usually take at least 500 pictures a month, sometimes over 1,000.  In June, I took 16.  I have a couple more things to tell you about, including another exciting announcement, but these things involve me dusting off my camera (and getting off my butt) which I promise to do at some point this weekend...  Just not right now.  So, I will make you sit on the edge of your seat until then.  :) 

Turtles and Aprons and Ribbons, Oh My!!

I put together a little package to send to Brooke & Truman for their birthdays which are close together actually a month apart, but I had tons and tons of homework and a little gnome stole all my sewing gear and excuses, excuses, excuses am a slacker and could not get the boxes together in time. 

Anyway, I made some homemade turtles.  One for Truman, one for Truman's buddy Khai, and a teeny tiny girl turtle for Khai's new baby sister Rowan.  I am hoping that the turtles were a hit.

Also, I made coordinating mommy and son aprons for Brooke & Truman for cooking, arts and crafts, etc.  I was pleased with the result.  It was a challenge to come up with a fabric combo that works for a two year old boy and his mommy. 

Also, Brooke found these cool ribbon toys online, and we decided it made much more sense to make them than to buy them.  They actually turned out pretty cool. 

Moose agreed.  I had to convince him that they were not intended to be kitty toys.  Then I got this look: 

Adam

Adam came to visit us in Arizona last weekend! 

The first night we all just hung out on our patio, enjoying the fabulous Arizona weather.

Saturday morning Brett had to work, so Adam and I headed to the Phoenix Art Museum.  This picture makes it difficult to tell, but it was absolutely pouring and we got completely soaked walking from our car to the building.

Here's proof:

Really wet feet:

On Sunday we went and enjoyed Old Town Scottsdale even though it was raining.

We posed with the giant boot just for fun:

And checked out the mission:

And all the cool art.

 

It was a great weekend and we always love having our California friends & family come for a visit!!

Brett's Graduation Party

I don't have a whole lot to blog about Brett's graduation party, except that we had a really fun time. Mostly, I really like this picture, and wanted to share it with you. See?

Awwwww......

Such a cute couple.

Why thank you, I agree with you.

But seriously, it was a really great day and it was so much fun to get together with everyone. It felt like one big family and friend reunion, and we got to see many people that we had not seen since our wedding almost four years ago.

Here's our guest of honor:


...and again with his brother:


Then I jumped in there just for fun:


Brett's mom & Melissa, the blogger behind Darby's Daily. I'm sure Darby would blog herself if only she had thumbs:


And Brett with Melissa's husband Glenn:

It was nice to catch up with my cousin Kellie, and I'm so glad my Grandma was able to make it:


And we got to see Karen! We haven't seen her in quite some time, either:

Here's Brett's cool display with all of his smarty-pants awards that he got for being such a Smarty-McSmarterson:


A big thanks to all our friends and family who came out to celebrate with us that day!

Labor Day Weekend

Brett and I had a very nice, relaxing 3 day weekend. Saturday morning consisted of the usual lunch at China Cafe and grocery run. Later that day we headed over to Meggan & Dusty's. We went to Vander Veer park in Davenport to take some pictures of their adorable family:


Afterwards they were kind enough to have us over to their place for some delicious tacos. Brett of course made some of his famous salsa. YUM!

The next day we all decided to rendezvous at Scott County Park. I wish I had known about Scott County Park a few years ago, because it's really a neat place to camp/fish/swim/enjoy the outdoors. This time we all headed to the swimming pool, which was surprisingly un-crowded for Labor Day weekend. I really enjoyed the waterslides! Here's a pic of me going down the spiral-y one:


My timing was way off and the only slide pic I could get of Brett was just of his legs! Haha!


We also tried out the diving boards. Here is my one and only trip off the high-dive:


Dusty was much braver than me:


Since we were all together, we decided to continue Labor Day festivities and have a BBQ. It just isn't Labor Day without a BBQ!

Today was a lazier day, although it did involve 2 unscheduled trips to the grocery store (why can't I ever remember everything I need???). Brett took me to lunch at Lunardi's (a small mom & pop Italian place) and then we went to see Julie & Julia which was really cute and a lot funnier than I thought it would be.

All in all it was a great Labor Day weekend. :)

A Tale of Two Birthdays

Brett's birthday was earlier this month. We celebrated by heading to Red Robin with our friends Meggan and Dusty.

We ordered the Towering Onion Rings:


...and then the nice Red Robin people and the Red Robin himself came and sang Happy Birthday to Brett:


Afterwards we headed back to our place where we had cake that Meggan baked for Brett:


Brett had a very enjoyable birthday.

Last week was Dusty's birthday, so we thought we'd do something new and different!

Soooooooo, we went to Red Robin:


...and ordered the towering onion rings:


...and the nice Red Robin people came over and sang Happy Birthday to him (we aren't sure where the actual Red Robin was this time):


After that we went back to Meggan & Dusty's house and returned their cake pan by baking a cake for Dusty's birthday:


Isn't it great how we always like to try new things? :-P

Blog?

What blog?

After much prodding from friends, family, and co-workers, I decided it might be time to update this blog.

Many weeks ago (I know, I haven't posted in forever) we went and heard a great band play at the Redstone room in Davenport.


This information is largely irrelevant. To be honest I just wanted to post a pic of it because I was having a really good hair day. :)

On June 1st I went back to school. I use the term "went back" loosely because going to school doesn't actually require going anywhere. I am completing my Bachelor's in Business Management online. It's going really, really well so far. The school I am going to allows you to test out of classes, so I am banking on my existing smarts to help me advance through the program more quickly. :)

Brooke came down for a visit with her son Truman, her friend Sarah and Sarah's son Khai. We had a good time, and it was nice to finally meet Truman (it only took a year!). Brooke was kind enough to take some nice pictures of Brett & I. We were going for a professional look for future advertising/marketing/website. I think they look awesome!







Then we took some pictures just for fun. Here we are being a couple of goofballs:


Apparently something was funny:


That same weekend I hosted a baby shower for my friend April. She is expecting her little boy Dylan sometime in September.


I made another diaper cake. I think I outdid myself on this one.


I also made this cute little turtle quilt for Dylan.


The following weekend, my Grandma came for a visit with her friend Shirley. We went to the quad city botanical center where we checked out the flowers and made friends with a little turtle who had perched himself on a rock.






This past weekend I took some Engagement & Wedding pictures for a couple all in the same weekend, which kept me pretty busy. Then my aunt Colleen came for a visit. She has all of the pictures from the trip, so I will have to get them and share them at a later time.

Also over the weekend, we had a crazy severe thunderstorm that began about 3.5 seconds after the outdoor wedding ended. The storm blew in three of our sun room windows and blew off some of our rain gutters. As if that wasn't enough, a pipe burst in our basement unleashing a flood that rivaled Niagara Falls. I am just thankful that 1. We were home, and 2. There is a drain in our basement floor.

I am now off for a week from work which is nice. I will hopefully have more to blog about in the coming week.

That's all I can think up to blog about for now. Happy Fourth of July!