Natalie and Quin Smith

New Adventures in the World of Smith

2011-02-18T23:56:00.001-08:00

Here are some pictures of the comings and goings here lately at the Smith household.

I made brownies tonight and let Cameron lick the beaters for the first time. I am normally against eating batter, but this didn't have any eggs so I let them go at it. He seemed to really like it.

Today Cameron found Quin's coconut bra from Brazil. I put it on him and he loved running around in it. The kid is such a ham!

We have told Cameron that he can be whatever he wants to be except a modern artist. Well I guess he is starting the rebellion early because here is one of his latest master pieces that he made tonight at dinner. The medium is mash potatoes on glass table.

For our Valentine's meal we had crab and blue potatoes. They were pretty cool. Cameron seemed to really like them.

We are working on year 3 of the Smith Family garden. Year one was pretty much a flop and year 2 had only marginal results. We are really hoping to get some zucchini this year. I mean the thing is practically a weed and we can't grow it. Oh well, maybe with Cameron's help.

Cameron loves to floss his teeth. If he is throwing a fit at bed time, we just ask him if he wants to floss and immediately the fit stops, he jumps up and runs to the bathroom. Oh well, I guess this is one of the few things he gets from me.

A few weeks ago, Quin was asked to host the Boy Scout Southern Sierra Council Silver Beaver Appreciation dinner. So we got to get all dressed up fancy and go to a nice dinner. We had a pretty good time and Quin did a great job even with only a few hours notice and a cold.

We have had a pretty big scare in our family of late. My mom passed out exercising and was taken to the hospital. They found out that she needs a new heart valve and will have to have surgery here in the coming weeks. I took this picture on New Year's Day and think it is so cute. Just wanted to let my parents know how much I love them and how much they mean to me.

Fun Pics

2011-02-01T17:46:00.000-08:00

So I was working on posting a whole buncha pics from 2010, but never got it finished. I am so sick of looking at my old post so I am just gonna put some cute fun pics up.

Helping Dad out in the yard. He was so excited! This was the first time we had let him walk around out in the back yard. He walked all over. He was so happy to be Dad's big helper!

Cameron dumped out our box of Christmas oranges and the proceed to take the stickers off all of the oranges. He was occupied for some time.

Cameron was too quiet one day, when I went to check on him this is what I found. Sitting in half a box of powdered milk. And yes, that is a nettipot.

Cameron loves to go out in the mornings and help Quin start the motorcycle!

Eye Spy: Cameron Style

2010-08-02T16:53:00.000-07:00

Let's see if you can find the following objects:
A package of floss
A package of toothpaste
A bottle of shampoo
A child's toothbrush
A package of pads
A bag of tampons
Half a roll of toilet paper
A safety outlet plug
A container of deodorant
The cord to a set of curlers

New Garbage Can

2010-07-27T17:43:00.000-07:00

Tonight Quin and I are going to go shopping for a new garbage can. I am looking for a really tall one with a lid. Preferably one where you have to put in a password, then a retina scan is performed. After this, a tall ladder comes down. Once you have climbed said ladder, a voice recognition is performed. Once this is all completed, then the lid opens. Yes, I hope there is one like this on the market. Why? Because I left my very active (understatement of the year) 9 month old unsupervised for a few minutes.

Just some fun pics

2010-05-10T21:09:00.000-07:00

Wow, it has been so long since we posted. We are still alive, we are just super busy with Cameron. He goes non-stop! He is crawling now and gets into everything. He just started to pull himself up and I don't think that it will be that long before he starts to walk!!! He is not even 7 months old yet.

Our little Cameron

2010-02-19T17:35:00.000-08:00

Here's some pictures of Cameron. Quin took these last night with his phone and they turned out great! Cameron is getting so big! He loves to laugh and roll all around. He loves to play and wrestle and has mastered how to do raspberries with his tongue. He even gives great slobbery kisses. We went to the Dr. today and he weighs 14 lbs 11 oz and is 26 1/2 inches. He is in the 42nd percentile for weight and 90th in height, so he is tall and skinny.

Umm...What?

2009-12-08T09:39:00.001-08:00

One of the things I have had to get used to being married is sleeping with someone else next to me. Quin is particularly interesting. Just like a little kid, he doesn't want to go to bed, he is afraid he will miss something. Once he does go to bed, he is asleep before his head hits the pillow. Even if he tries to stay awake so we can talk he falls asleep mid conversation. This usually results in some interesting conversations because his dreams get intertwined in the conversation. He has even gotten mad at me for some thing I have "said" during one of these sleep/conversations.

The other night Quin and I were watching 7 pounds with Will Smith. In the movie Will Smith starts fixing a machine for another character. Unbeknownst to me Quin had fallen asleep. Our conversation went like this:

Me: oh yeah, he went to MIT to be an engineer so he can probably fix that for her.
Quin: Yeah and he is Jewish and naked.
Me: What?!?!
As far as I knew the movie hadn't mentioned that he was Jewish and he definitely was not naked.
I then realize that Quin had fallen asleep. One can only wonder what he was dreaming!

A big weekend

2009-12-02T15:55:00.000-08:00

Quin, Cameron, and I traveled North this year for Thanksgiving. I hate being so far away because it means that we have to spend two days of our holiday traveling instead of spending them relaxing with our families. It's worth it, we love being with our families. This trip was extra special though, there were lots of big events and firsts for Cameron.

~It was his first car ride. We weren't sure how well he would travel especially for so long, but he did great, he slept most of the way there.

~It was his first Thanksgiving, except his came a few hours after everyone else ate and was a little milky.

~He met many new family members: cousins, aunts, uncles. Lots of new people to look at. When his cousin Kate saw him she said "It so pretty" then she realized her mistake because he was a boy and corrected herself, "It so handsome." Ha! We're not sure who was more excited to see him, there was some serious talk about about who was going to keep him, but in the end we won.

~He was given a name and a blessing(for my non-LDS friends that is kinda like a christening). My mom made a super cute little blessing outfit and since we were so far from our own ward, we held it at Quin's parent's house. We would have loved to have lots of friends and family there, but it was really neat and sacred to have such an intimate setting.

~He got his first haircut. We have probably heard "look at that hair" a few hundred times. Cameron came out needing a haircut. I wasn't quite ready for my baby to get his first haircut (I think I was like 3 before I had one and I did it myself), but I wanted his Aunt Mimi to cut it instead of some stranger, so we did it while we were up there. She cut probably an inch off the sides and back and trimmed up the top. She did a good job, he looks like a little boy now instead of a little baby. I miss his crazy baby hair, looking at pictures makes me a little sad.

We were so sad to leave, but we had a great and memorable weekend!

We've Learned to Smile

2009-11-22T23:00:00.000-08:00

Cameron is now nearing the 6 week mark (Tues is the official day), and has made some pretty big advances. He still won't rake the leaves when asked, but he has learned to smile.

One of the rare moments of Natalie holding Cameron with her top on!

4 Weeks Have Passed

2009-11-10T21:28:00.001-08:00

Well it is amazing at how fast our little boy is growing up. Here are a few highlights from the passed four weeks.

Just Chillin'

We got to go Trick-or-Treating as the Flintstones.

Andy, Amanda, and Evelyn helped us complete the look.

Cameron and his mom (notice how he seems to be eyeing the food).

This is his cousin Evelyn. She was crazy about him! She wanted to feed him one night, and kept asking, "Can I feed the baby cousin?" I looked at her and said, "You need boobies to feed the baby." She fired right back with, "I have boobies.", and she proceeded to show us that she could feed her baby doll. It was hilarious!

Hanging out with Grampy

Grammy and Grampy

Grandma and Grandpa

I love how Cameron's eyes are crossed in this picture.

Evelyn took good care of him. In this picture she is making sure that he wasn't lonely. She put her baby dolls next to him and took extra care to make sure everyone had a blanky. Then she would point at each one and say, "Baby doll. Baby cousin. Baby doll. Baby doll. Baby doll. Baby cousin. Baby cousin. Baby doll. Baby doll.", over and over.

She really did try very hard to make sure he was ok and was happy.

I have been trying to take a picture once everyday to put into a time lapse video. These are just a few of the pictures that show how much he has already changed.

Halloween. He was Bam Bam.

His poor little face is broken out right now with baby acne.

Welcome to the World!!!

2009-10-16T21:22:00.000-07:00

He is finally here!!! Cameron D. Smith made his grand debut on Oct 13, 2009, at 7:45 pm. He weighed in at 8 lb 4.5 oz and was 21 inches long. He has a head FULL of hair (as you can see from the pictures), which won over many of the nurses.

The bellow the night of the 12th

Before drugs.

After drugs. "Just say yeessss"

Here are the Newborn Intensive Care guys cleaning his lungs of any Meconium poisoning. The hoses made his sinuses swell up and he was having a hard time breathing so we stayed in the hospital an extra night just to be safe.

Meeting Mom for the first time.

He looks just like his Dad

Absolute cuteness!!!

First family photo.

No I am not choking him. Every time I burp him he falls asleep with his chin resting in my hand. It is so cute the way he just goes completely limp.

Cameron has fun hair to style. He almost needs a haircut.

The following pictures are Quin's baby pictures. Quite an uncanny resemblance.

9 lb 7 oz and 23 inches long (also 4 days late). Just a bit meatier than Cameron.

Those are some rocking chops. When will the hair styles of the 70's make their triumphant return?

Baby Watch 2009

2009-10-09T23:46:00.000-07:00

Well, today (Oct 9) is the official due date, and no immenent signs of baby (minus the gianormous belly). So here we calmly sit during Baby Watch 2009 waiting for him to make his grand entrance. Here are some photos of the belly.

My robe makes Natalie look huge. Almost as if she is wearing a fat suit.

Ball?

2009-10-08T23:07:00.000-07:00

I decided to take several pictures of Natalie turning around 360°, in order to get the full effect of the pregnancy. We often get a surprised "Whoa! You don't even look pregnant from behind. But you ARE!" when we go shopping. So this video is to show how far out this kid is jutting.

Bear, 1997-2009

2009-09-13T23:07:00.000-07:00

I just learned that my sister had to put her little pomeranian, Bear, down today. Bear Bear (as we called her) always made it more interesting to go to Yellowstone. We would leave her in the car and she would whine and bark and Emily would randomly yell out "Bear!" while we were walking through the parking lot. It was great to watch people's heads whip around trying to figure out why and who was yelling 'Bear' and if they needed to run or not. It was also alot of fun to watch the 10 lb dog growl at the bison like she was going to bring one down by herself. Bear is survived by Emily, Bryon, Trigger and Layla.

Belly Bustin'

2009-08-24T21:06:00.000-07:00

So it is a good thing that we are not growing the baby in the garden because he wouldn't be doing very well (see previous blog). Fortunately he is growing in Natalie and doing very well.

Friday August 21, 2009

(We're not sure of the dates of the other pictures, just that there are after June 8th)

He is due October 9th and we still don't have a name for him. Any suggestions? We have been calling him Stitch (as from Lilo and Stitch, the movie)

He is healthy and strong, but he likes hanging out up under my ribs. I am doing really good except I still have my back problems and spend 2/3 of the day having to lay down. I also get winded really easy from somebody pressing on my ribs. I have put on 16 inches around and my belly button is totally sticking out. I even bump it on things.

Unfortunately, he is breach and not showing any inclination to move to where he is supposed to be. Great he is already showing how stubborn he is.

We're really excited, scared to death, and still a little in denial.
Woohoo! Get in and hang on for the ride of our lives!

Square Foot Garden Part Deux

2009-08-24T20:20:00.000-07:00

So we figured that we needed to do an update on our Square Foot Garden.

After about a month or so the garden was looking very good and healthy. The snails really seemed to like it and wouldn't stay out of it. So I had to purchase some snail killer which really slowed them down.

In this picture you can see that everything has sprouted and is doing well. You can barely see the 8 (of 18) spinach plants that the snails or grasshoppers have not completely clipped off yet. The lettuce never sprouted.

The bell pepper (front left) is looking healthy and strong. A little after this photo was taken, the top half of it got nearly cut off by some stupid bug that just chewed half way through the stem. It even had 2 tiny little peppers starting to form.

BEHOLD!!! The FRUIT of our labors. This was the first harvest from the garden.

Shortly after we got our first crop (yes the single cherry tomato) the Bakersfield summer decided to arrive. And arrive it did with 108-112 °F temperatures for more than a week straight. It pretty much finished off the peas. The tomatoes were doing ok and had a few more tomatoes on them. The pumpkin and zucchini both looked sick, and the carrots never got more than an inch tall, but the corn seemed to like it. It would put on as much as an inch or more of growth a day. The weather cooled down (100-105 °F) and things looked like they may still have a chance. The zucchini was looking good finally. Then we left to Utah for a baby shower and the temps jumped back up.

The peas all died. The zucchini killed over. The pumpkin gave up the ghost. The bell pepper never came out of its coma. The poblano pepper produced 1 tiny little pepper the size of a silver dollar (if that). The corn has some tiny miniature ears on it (about the size of those little salad sized ones). The cucumbers keep making little cucumber buds that then shrivel up. The cantaloupe is about the same (the ants seem to like farming aphids on it though). All in all we collected about a dozen cherry tomatoes, 4 Park Whopper tomatoes, and 4 snap peas; but boy howdy were they tasty (which they should be at close to $10 a piece). So as you can see from the photo, we can't be held down, and are re-planting peas and zucchini to see if fall gardening works better. We will triumph over nature!!!

Humm...

2009-08-10T09:05:00.000-07:00

I find myself experiencing an interesting phenomenon. I have a condition called Irritable Bowel Syndrome which I have suffered from for a few years. Symptoms range from nausea, vomiting, gas, diarrhea, constipation, acid reflux, hemorrhoids, and yes, it is as fun as it sounds. Before I was diagnosed I could not even talk about bathroom things at all, now I have little qualms about it (sorry to those of you who do).

It took quite some time, a million doctors visits, a pharmacy full of different medicines, and fun medical procedures like stool sample collection, an endoscopy, and a colonoscopy (at 23!). Finally the gastroenterologist said "Well your stomach is irritated and I am not really sure why. So we will say you have Irritable Bowel Syndrome." Apparently when they don't know why your bowels are irritated they say you have "Irritable Bowel Syndrome." Wow! All that medical school to come up with that diagnosis.

I was on a whole lot of medicine including one called Belladonna, which is made from the Deadly nightshade plant. It is actually a poison that is often used to kill people (just in case you were thinking of bumping someone off). You know you are not feeling well when you will take poison to feel better. Eventually I stopped taking all of my medicines since they weren't helping anyway and control my IBS by carefully watching my food. When I did this I finally felt some relief with only the occasional flair up.

While I was trying to get this under control I suffered from some fairly embarrassing experiences including throwing up in front of most of Quin's and my family. The first time Quin's parents came to visit us in our little apartment in Las Vegas, he was giving them the tour and when he got to our bedroom and bathroom he was kind of like "and here is the bathroom and here is Natalie throwing up." I spent most of their trip in the bathroom. Another time Quin's older sister Elena and her family were visiting when another round hit. We only had one bathroom and it was being used. I had to ask my little niece to bring me our bucket. The whole time I was praying that I wouldn't have to throw up in a bucket in front of them. Fortunately I didn't! Another round hit when Quin and I were about to get on a plane to fly from Las Vegas to Idaho. The people on the plane around us could see that I was sick and the lady sitting next to us asked if she could move. The flight attendant thought I had partied too hard in Las Vegas and said as much (probably not an uncommon sight). We informed her that we were from Vegas and that I was just sick. She was really nice after that and gave us some free sodas (this airline charged for drinks). These were just a few of the fun and "character building" incidents I experienced along with many scary public bathrooms and a few close calls by the side of the road.

This however is not the interesting phenomenon that I have experienced it has only lead to the interesting experience. Since I got pregnant my Irritable Bowel Syndrome symptoms have magically been "cured" and replaced by pregnancy symptoms. And if you have ever been pregnant you can identify with me that these symptoms are almost identical to Irritable Bowel Syndrome symptoms. Fortunately they are not as bad as they were before, woohoo! Something good about pregnancy. Anyway I have found myself finding commercials that I previously thought hilarious to be interesting and worth my attention. "Perhaps I should try that product because it might be more gentle on my stomach than other products" and "Why yes, I would like to stop the burning and the itching."

If this has taught me anything it is that I should be careful of which commercials I find hilarious for the wrong reasons, I may need to use that product in the future.

EspiCleaning

2009-07-22T12:37:00.000-07:00

I have always wanted to start a business. A friend of mine cleans houses and she wanted to be able to go to school for nursing. So I suggested that we start a cleaning business so she will have time to go to school. And EspiCleaning was born. Her name is Esperanza and she goes by Espi. She already had a small clientele so we decided to keep the name so if we decide to down the road we can roll the houses she cleans into our business.

It has been quite a process. We decided that she would be in charge of the cleaning ladies and I would handle the office stuff. Neither of us knows how to start a business so it has been an educational adventure. Everything is finally set up and hopefully the houses will start rolling in. I guess we will see.

My day in court

2009-07-07T16:00:00.000-07:00

Well I went to court today.

After we got the notification of citation in the mail, we anxiously waited to get our "courtesy notice" which is the worst named thing on the planet! Our courtesy notice informed us that the fine would be $416.00. FOUR HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN DOLLARS!?!?!?! With a fee like that you would think that I was a hardened criminal with a rap sheet four feet long.

Before I got the courtesy notice I was just going to write a check and consider my lesson learned. The notification of citation informed me that "Red means Stop" I considered myself informed and was going to do just that in the future. However, when I got the courtesy notice (and after I had awoken from my shock coma) I decided that I needed to go to court and fight at least the fee. The eighth amendment protects us against excessive bails and fees and I was set to fight for my constitutional rights (I consider 416.00 for going through an intersection two seconds too late on a first time offence excessive).

I set up my court date and have been nervously waiting away the days. I have been going over and over what I was going to say for weeks. I was planning on listing all of the things I was doing right at the time: hands in the right position on the steering wheel, using my turning signal, not talking on the phone, seat belt buckled, staying in my lane as I turned, not speeding, having all the proper documents (licence, insurance, registration), not being under the influence, etc. I also thought that I would point out that the fine would buy 9 months worth of diapers (with a pending baby that is how I now think).

So I went to court this afternoon after spending the morning picking out the perfect outfit that said "I am a cute little momma to be who should have pity heaped upon her and the fine thrown out." I got there at 12:30 the required time and there was like a million people there. Half of the people were in jeans and there were only a few other women in dresses. Some people looked like they had come from working in the yard. I was a little surprised since I was trying to look like an upright law abiding citizen and some of these people definitely did not. We stood in the hall outside the court for half an hour until they opened the courtroom doors. We had to watch a video in English and Spanish (if we left the courtroom during the video at all, even during the Spanish portion we would be considered a no show which is a 400 fine).

The judge called people up 10 at a time alphabetically so I was there for a long time! I was absolutely amazed at some of the charges, people who didn't have insurance or a licence, people who were driving at excessive speeds, one guy was weaving in and out of traffic and passed on the right shoulder, they all had fees less than mine! What!?! Something about this just doesn't seem right. The judge went through everybody so fast reading the violation and then asking what they were going to plead. If you pled not guilty you set up your court date and if you pled guilty or no contest you got your fine. He was really direct and to the point not talking with anyone other than the business at hand. I had been praying that the judges heart would be softened and that I would know what to say and do. When I walked up there he smiled (a first from what I could see) and asked me if I had recognized myself in the photos (there had been a couple of people before me including the guy before me who had the exact same violation as I did and he hadn't asked them this. an attempt at a joke? also a first). I laughed and said I had. Then he asked me how I pled, I said "Guilty." He asked me if I wanted to go to traffic school. I did if it would lower my fine. He said that because I had a clean record (also a first) he would lower the fine . I felt that my prayer was answered in that the judges heart was softened, especially since he was so nice to me, this just didn't include a big cut in the fine. He lowered the fee to $337.00 plus $61.00 for traffic school.

So over all I spent three hours at court to save $18 and I still have to go to traffic school. However, at least it won't show up on my record. And I have learned my lesson that "Red means Stop!"

Natalie's Paparazzi Photos

2009-06-15T20:47:00.000-07:00

Here are some of the latest photos from Natalie's newest Paparazzi fans (which we just retrieved from the mail--sorry so small).

Yes, the paparazzi happens to be Mr. Red-light Photo Cop. She NEVER breaks the traffic laws (for real she never does, she is ALWAYS getting after me to use my signals, not change lanes in side street intersections, slow down, etc.). But the one time she does, her paparazzi was waiting to snap her photo. There is a nice little video that goes with it, but I am not technosavy enough to copy it from the website and embed it here. She is rather upset by the fact that it was her that got caught and not me. There have been various "its not fair, it should be you" mumbled this evening. The ironic thing is she was on her way to the Dr. to get a letter to get out of Jury Duty. Yeah how "random" is it that both of us get a Jury summons the exact same day for the exact same day. Me thinks they just picked our address and said, "hmm, how many registered voters live here?" Then the court didn't want to accept her note because it was electronically signed and not physically signed. So now she has to go back to the Dr. and have them sign another one, then take it over to the court house in person to get out of going. The reason she is getting off is she can't sit for very long because "Stitch" is causing her crooked pelvis to act up and create lots of back pain.

Needless to say she is not going to chance yellow lights again.

Smuggling Basketballs

2009-06-08T21:01:00.000-07:00

When I first got married my dad would often tease me about what I would look like when I was pregnant. He would say that I would either look like a cherry tomato on a toothpick or that I would look like I was smuggling a basketball. I believe the latter is winning. Last month when I went up to Utah to Women's Conference, Evelyn (the 19 month old that can foretell the gender) pointed at my stomach and said, "ball." Apparently she thought that I was hiding one from her. She LOVES playing ball. I am now 40 1/2 inches around and have almost grown out of some of the maternity clothes.

June 2, 2009

June 8, 2009

Old Wive's Tales

2009-06-07T21:29:00.000-07:00

So we just thought that we would post about the best way to determine what gender your child is.

Ring and String Method: First off you have to find a first grade teacher that is part of a burly motorcycle gang (we mainly just ride to eat; "Live to ride, ride to live") to perform this one. So the version that we have heard is you take a ring and suspend it on a piece of thread over the mother-to-be's stomach. If the ring swings in a circular fashion it will be a girl. If it goes in a relatively straight line, it is boy. The ring didn't seem to go in any particular direction, but according to Steve it will be a boy.

Consult the Chinese Lunar Conception Calendar: Google this one. You have to figure out when the baby was conceived along with using the mother's lunar birth date and it gives you the formula. Our result was it will be a boy.

Heart Beat: If the heart beat is above 150 beats per minute it is supposed to be a girl. Our baby's heart rate is at or above 150, so the result is a baby girl.

Ask Your Religious Leader: One of the bishopric members at church is dead set that we are having a girl. He claims he has never been wrong with his predictions. He informed us of this while we were shopping at Target and ran into him.

Ultrasound: Get an ultrasound. Ask the person running the ultrasound machine to try to zoom in between the legs and give you their best guess as to what gender you are having. Two different machines and two different ultrasound pilots both say boy.

But the most effective method is,
Ask Your 19 Month Old Niece: We asked our 19 month old niece "what's your cousin's name?" She would consistently say "Dan" and then run off to go play. The funniest part about this method is when you try to explain that there is a baby in Natalie's tummy to her. She got a bewildered look on her face then it turned quizzical as she lifted Natalie's shirt to try to look in through Nat's belly button. I don't think she believed us that there is a baby in there.

So of these 6 methods it looks like the ring and string, Chinese calendar, ultrasound, and ask a little kid methods seem to be accurate. But we won't know for sure until the first part of October.

Signs of Life part 2

2009-05-20T21:00:00.000-07:00

Well the garden isn't the only thing that is sprouting around here. We have been taking pictures of my belly as it has been growing and I have wanted to put them on here for a while.

March 11th
March 29th (probably the last time I could zip up my jeans)

April 15th

April 20th

I put this put this picture on the blog because I love my belly button (yeah I know weird) It is half innie and half semi-outie. Even at this early time it started to spread out and flatten.

Also April 20th

April 20th too.

April 26th

May 13th (not the most flattering pic)

May 19th

(Note the belly button is almost flat and the outie part is starting to really be an outie.

May 19th

37 inches around. I wish I had been measuring the whole time, but I think I started out at about 28 or 29 inches.

Today we went to the doctor and they did a little informal ultrasound for us. We had to switch insurance and as a result, doctors. Our doctor is Quin's boss's wife. She was so great. I hate going to the lady doctor and thought I had that all taken care of when I went to my previous doctor. The records haven't transferred yet so we had to do the lady exam all over again. I wasn't too keen about that in the first place and then having your husband's boss's wife do the exam was another cause of discomfort. It makes for an interesting office Christmas party. But like I said, she was so great and when she did the ultrasound she took like a million pictures. She kept saying "oh, that is so cute" while hitting the print button.

Some great shots of the little feetsies.

The top one is of the arms. They are crossed up by the head.
We're not really sure what the bottom one is.

In one picture the baby was sucking it's thumb, it was so cute! You could see its little fingers and the thumb up by the mouth moving.

The cute little body.

What do you think? Boy or Girl?

Signs of Life

2009-05-19T20:53:00.000-07:00

Woohoo! The heat (triple digits during the day) plus lots of water seems to be working. We planted the garden last Thursday night and today is Tuesday (5 days exactly) and we have sprouts. The corn, the zucchini, and one tiny little spinach plant have all sprouted. There wasn't anything poking through last night either. After I mowed the lawn we checked on the garden and got our hopes up, but it was just stray grass clippings. But today the corn is an inch tall, and the zucchini has definitely pushed through the dirt. The spinach looks very delicate still. Now I hope the heat and sun doesn't kill the little sprouts.

The zucchini is also about an inch and a half tall.

The planting method is to put 4 corn plants in one box. Here you can see 2-3 plants in each location, which will need to be thinned down to 1 per spot.

Quin's Garden

2009-05-17T20:57:00.000-07:00

For quite awhile now, we have been wanting to put in a garden. We have debated on where to put it, which trees/shrubs will need to be ripped out, how big will it need to be, etc. Well when Natalie went up to Women's Conference her dad introduced her to "Square Foot Gardening". Square Foot Gardening was developed by a Civil Engineer as a means to condense the traditional garden by 80%. The condensed gardens can then be planted in urban areas with little space and used in developing countries where resources are limited. Since I do not want to dig up my back yard I decided to give this gardening technique a try.

First I scouted out a lovely spot next to the fence where earlier Natalie removed a stump by herself with only a shovel. Then it was off to Lowe's for the box and dirt materials. After a FEW phone calls later to Garth (Natalie's dad) on where to find everything and how much and of what, we were off. We slowly put it all together (in the dark after dinner) over a few days. So far it has been quite fun and very easy.

Here are our results thus far:

We used 2 x 8's for the box.

Here's Natalie teaching the baby how to use a rake. You have to instill a strong work ethic in your child labor force while they are still young and can't revolt. (Note the dark grainy pictures. Once again we built it in the dark and the camera was left in Utah, so we had to use the cell phone.)

We used old cardboard boxes for a weed barrier.

The ingredients for Mel's Mix (1/3 compost, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 vermiculite), or the dirt for the garden.

The vermiculite and peat moss are very dusty when they are dry so I got to wear this fashionable dusk mask (I think it brings out my eyes).

The finished "dirt" is very loose and easy to work. It stays moist all day and drains extremely well at the same time.

A five gallon bucket and tarp are all that is needed to mix everything together.

We used 1 1/8-in lattice for the grid.

We planted a few starts and seeded the rest. The biggest threat to our garden now is the snails and the 100°+ heat.

The hardest thing about the whole process was deciding what to plant and where to plant it. So I made a sketch of the garden.

The cost of the "dirt" is a bit scary ($142.87 with all the parts and pieces--Yikes). The creator of Square Foot Gardening says you don't ever have to replace it though. It just keeps producing year after year.

*note from Nat: In case the socks and sandals didn't tip you off, Quin made a graph and a table to inform you of his engineer/nerd factor.

Women's Conference 2009

2009-05-05T11:50:00.000-07:00

Well I just got back from Women's Conference at BYU last night. A few of my friends and I drove up last Wednesday and went to Women's Conference on Thursday. I went with my mom again this year and we spent Thursday morning tying a blanket stitch around fleece baby blankets and listening to some awesome speakers. Afterword we had some lunch and walked through the museum of art on campus. We saw some really great pieces. There was also a modern art exhibit. I took this from the BYU website.

Yes, that is a stack of chairs. When my mom and I walked in there we thought we had walked into a place where they were storing chairs. It wasn't until later that I saw a plaque describing the medium. There were other "pieces of art" with similarly questionable origins. I don't like modern art. Even after studying art in college I can appreciate other forms of art that I don't like but cannot appreciate modern art. I think it is a waste of time and money and that modern artists sit there and say "I wonder how crazy I can get and still have people think I am serious."

Anyway off that soap box, that evening my mom and I spent a few hours tying fleece blankets and assembling newborn kits. It was such a great way to spend a few hours. I loved it and think that it was my favorite part of the conference. That night was a wonderful concert with performances by some wonderful musicians.

I didn't as usual take any pictures but that wouldn't have mattered because the one thing I left in Utah was the camera.

The next morning my mom and I were too exhausted to go to the conference. She was coming down with something and I was pretty tired because of Stitch. My mom slept most of the day on the couch and I hung out with Amanda and played with Evelyn.

I spent the next few days with my family and seeing some friends. My dad is recovering nicely and should be able to go back to work soon. Quin's parents even drove down from Idaho Falls (an almost 3 hour drive) and stayed a couple of hours. It was so good to see them! I love going up but hate to be without Quin! I miss Utah and all of our friends and family. So as soon as we are done with whatever we are supposed to do here in Bakersfield, hopefully we can head back up there!

Experiment 626

2009-04-09T21:37:00.000-07:00

Look out E-arth! Here it comes. Natalie and I went to the doctor today and they gave us this lovely picture. In college my friends would always tell me that they expected my kid to be like Stitch (Experiment 626) from Lilo and Stitch. I guess in September we get to find out if they are right.

Women's Conference

2009-04-09T10:25:00.000-07:00

I am so excited to go to Women's Conference at BYU this year. My mom and went last year and we had such a great time. My sister was kind enough to let us stay at her house since she was visiting her in-laws. I rode up with my friends Stacie and Jeanette and am going to do the same thing this year. Since I didn't post the pics last year I thought I would do it now.

This is me and my mom and Stacie and her mom.

For some reason I only got these two pictures the entire time we were at the conference. This was during the last session. We were up at the very tip top of the arena, which was really nice because we had a backrest. We were waiting for President Monson to come and speak with us (for my non-member friends he is the Prophet and leader of our church). It was such an amazing experience when he walked in. There were 20,000 women who stood up and started singing "we thank thee o'God for a prophet" the spirit in the room was amazing, there wasn't a dry eye in the house. We had such a great time. The conference had some great workshops, we did a ton of service projects, and experienced a couple of mini miracles that reminded us that Heavenly Father loves us and is aware of us (I was guided to find my mom on a huge campus in a crowd of 20,000 women plus all the normal college students when I didn't know where she was and had no way of contacting her; and another when we thought we couldn't walk another step at the end of a long day, a shuttle appeared at a spot where it wasn't supposed to be, driven by we later found out, the brother of some family friends).

Stacie, Jeanette, and I stayed an extra day and I spent it with my parents. We went and toured Temple Square. It was such a great, beautiful day!

The grounds were beautiful!

I had such a great time last year and I can't wait for the conference this year.

Oh how embarassing!

2009-04-07T11:13:00.000-07:00

So yesterday I was walking through the parking lot into the grocery store when I walked past a lady loading her groceries into her car. Two of the buttons in the middle of her shirt had come undone. The wind was blowing her shirt open and you could see her unmentionables. I had one of those moments were you are caught between telling a stranger about something personal and slightly embarrassing and minding your own business. She was probably in her sixties and probably not the type who would want the world to see her goods so I decided to tell her. When I was done, I wasn't sure if I had done the right thing. She seemed glad, but who really enjoys finding out that they have been exposing themselves. So what do you think? Did I do the right thing? Would you have wanted me to tell you? I keep wondering if I would want someone to tell me.

Thoughts and prayers for my dad

2009-03-09T10:55:00.000-07:00

I have always been a daddy's girl (I desperately love my mom, but my dad and I have always been buds)! So it hurts me to know that he is in pain. Last week my dad went cross country skiing and fell and broke his back. Fortunatly he was not paralyzed and the doctor says he will eventually be up and playing again. After over a week in the hospital he got to go home yesterday. He has a long painful road to recovery and any thoughts and prayers you can give him would be greatly appreciated.

Happy Groundhog Day!

2009-02-02T17:21:00.001-08:00

My dad's favorite holiday is Groundhog Day so I like to do a little something every holiday. Today the groundhog saw his shadow so we have six more weeks of winter.

Make a Smilebox greeting

Pet Peeve of the Day

2009-01-28T20:10:00.000-08:00

I have had a long standing dislike of people saying "I could care less!" When they really mean "I couldn't care less!" If you say "I could care less" you mean that you have some feeling toward the manner in question. If you say "I couldn't care less" you mean that there is no feeling toward the manner. If you have some feeling toward the manner than usually saying "I could care less" is completely asinine! Normally I just keep quiet and sit and stew in my smug little way, but lately I have heard this a lot. I heard it on the Fox Cable Network the other day by an individual who has his own show. Then today I heard it in a song. Come on people!

Christmas Vacation

2009-01-14T17:24:00.000-08:00

The Saturday before Christmas we left early in the morning to go to Utah and Idaho to spend the holiday with our families. We drove all day and 800 miles later we stopped in Salt Lake at my sister Amanda's house and had dinner with her and her husband Andy. It was so nice, Andy has been overseas for about 7 months and got a two week leave of absence that fell right at the holidays. After visiting with them for a little while, we left and went to my parents house in Ogden. The weather was really nice, but it was COLD!

This is a view from my parents house. It was so beautiful, the sky was blue, and you could see all the way across the valley! That blue sky seems so foreign to Quin and me!

Sunday we went to church in Ogden. It was fun because we got to take Evelyn, and go out in the hall with her.

After church we hopped in the car and headed north to Idaho Falls. This is the beautiful warm Idaho welcome we received. That is Kade snow blowing Emily and Bryon's driveway. I (Quin) then got to play with the snow blower at my parents house. Like a good uncle I chased the nieces and nephews with it.

Note the needles on the tree how they all point off to the left. No, the wind is not blowing. The tree was frozen in this position after the wind stopped.

Sunrise at the farm.

This is the thermometer on Wednesday before we headed back to Ogden. Yes that is a 3 point 4 °F not a 34 °F. It actually got down to 2.5 °F when we got stuck at the end of the driveway leaving. Someone didn't seem to do a very good job snow blowing the end of the driveway the day before. Luckily some passerby pulled us out. On the downside it packed the rims full of snow and made the car feel like the tires were out of balance and vibrated down the highway for an hour before all the snow fell off.

On Monday night we had a Nativity Re-enactment where we all got dressed up in costume. While getting ready for the party, during the day, we made sugar cookies and decorated them like little birthday cakes. My mom kept talking about the birthday party and Natalie had the audacity to ask "who's birthday is it?". My mom and I both looked at her and simultaneously said Jesus'. Ooh...

We acted out the story as we moved throughout the house.

No room in the Inn.

Mary (Halle) asked, "Why did the wise men bring Jesus Frankenstein?"

I was Joseph, Halle was Mary, Natalie was an angel, Carter was Cesar (hilarious to watch), Mom was narrator, Liberty was Gabriel, Dad was the Inn keeper, Jarom and Alyssa were wise men, Kade Deidra Kayson Brylee and Brancyn were shepherds, Elena and Emily were townsfolk, Kate was an angel (we all know the truth though), Dogs played by Trigger Layla Sadie and Jack, while Bryon was making us all worried that he was in trouble out hunting (the weather was getting really bad).
We then went and sang a special happy birthday Jesus song. It was kind of funny. But Quin's mom is great about celebrating birthdays and we definitely can't leave out Jesus!

After the Nativity we did family gift exchange. Elena suggested to her kids that the gift haul was so great that maybe Santa didn't need to even stop by their house. Halle promptly spoke up, "He better if you want your basement cleaned." I guess Elena had been threatening the kids that he wouldn't come to a dirty house. I think her bluff got called.

Quin and I gave the girls some nail kits. They LOVED that they got to make Uncle Quin pretty!

The next day we went to Quin's sister Elena's house. We found the girls still playing with their nail kits.

Of course Uncle Quin had to get his nails done again.

After Kate did Quin's fingers, he asked if he was done. Kate responded "no, not beautiful!" Quin then asked her what had to be done to make him beautiful. Her reply "Toes!" When she was done he was painted on every digit, toes too from the first knuckle down. But he was finally beautiful!

We left Idaho Falls the on Christmas Eve morning and headed back to Utah. This is a picture of the roads headed back to my (Natalie's)parent's house on Christmas night (it is a little out of sequence).

Some of the icicles at my parent's house in Ogden.

The snow was so deep, it was awesome to have a white Christmas.

Quin and I and my parents all got up Christmas morning and got dressed and drove to Salt Lake to spend Christmas with Amanda, Andy, Evelyn, and Andy's parents and brother.

Here is Evelyn on Christmas morning. If you are going to take a picture of her you don't say "say cheese", you say "ready, set, go" and on go she poses and makes this face, it is the funniest and cutest thing.

She loved opening the presents and was thrilled with everything she got. She got these pink boots for Christmas. At first she had trouble walking them because they have a little heel on them, but she got them down. Hey after all she is a Thornock girl and it is pretty hard for us to walk without wearing high heels!

My mom made these awesome aprons for Amanda and me. I think it was my favorite gift. Amanda and I are trying to convince her she should make them to sell!

Evelyn got a little kitchen for Christmas and so Quin and I got her some play food. For some reason we didn't get any pictures of my parents. This is the only one of my dad and we didn't get any of my mom.

My parents gave Andy RockBand for Christmas. I don't remember him playing it at all, we kind of took over it. Here is Manda rocking the mic, I am on drums and Andy's brother Tyler is playing guitar. He was awesome. Manda and I sucked it up. When it was just Manda and me we got booed off the stage. The only way we could stay on was if Tyler was playing with us and he was playing on the hardest level.

I kinda just hit the drums randomly instead of when you were supposed to. I did a lot better when I was on the mic. Quin played drums then and we did pretty good.

On the way back to my parents house Christmas night my trusty Altima hit the 100000 mile mark, oddly it did it right in front of the dealership where I bought it. I bought that car 2 months before my 21st birthday. It was my first car that was all mine and I bought myself. Quin and I decided that night that we are going to try to hit the 200000 mile mark.

The day after Christmas, my friend Rachel and her husband Jon came over to my parent's to visit. They stayed for a few hours. It was great to see them. She is going to have a baby in the next few weeks and she was so cute and pregnant. Amazingly her Grandma was in our old ward here in Bakersfield. On our first Sunday I sat down next to her and we got to talking. She found out I was from Ogden and asked if I knew her granddaughter Rachel. I almost fell over. I couldn't have gotten married if it weren't for all the help Rachel gave us with the reception.

When Quin and I bought the house she got the two of us a little mixed up and started telling people that I was pregnant. Rachel had to correct her that she was the one that was pregnant and Quin and I were buying the house. Fortunately she didn't tell too many people. Anyway the whole point of that was that it was good to see my friend.

That night Quin and I went and had dinner with my parents and Quin's old roommate Jeff and his wife Becky at Maddox. We hadn't met Becky yet so it was nice to meet her. Quin had a buffalo steak! Unfortunately we didn't have our camera. Afterword we went and met Jeff's two daughters. Yes it seems that everyone is multiplying and replenishing the Earth but us!

We went home the next day. We were so sad to leave but really enjoyed our trip!

One Thousand and Ninety Seven Days

2009-01-13T13:28:00.000-08:00

Quin and I were married one thousand and ninety seven days ago today. Today is our 3rd anniversary and it has been a wild 3 trips around the sun. We have lived in 3 states, had 4 addresses, Quin has had 4 jobs, I have had 2. I have tried to go to school 3 times. We bought a house and a motorcycle. We have been to the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, had some serious and not so serious health concerns, and have been to 10 states: California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, New Mexico, Colorado, and Florida. We have loved every minute of it, every day we grow closer together and know that no matter what comes along we can face it. I am so grateful to be married for all eternity to my best friend, he is so fun to be around and takes great care of me! There is never a dull moment around here and I am excited to see what happens in the next 20000 days!

My end of year resolution

2009-01-07T16:08:00.000-08:00

My end of year resolution was to get caught up on all of my blogs before the new year, but that didn't happen. Hopefully my new years resolutions go better. I started school again today. I have mixed feelings. I love learning, but I hate doing homework! I am taking a religious studies class on western religions, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. I think it will be really interesting. I am going to try and take as an objective as an approach as I can. I am also taking an American Government Political Science class. These promise to be a lot of reading and writing, but with everything that is going on in the world they should be pretty interesting! So you probably won't hear too much from us, but I will try to post and I have some fun post to catch up on! So good luck to everyone on their new year's resolutions.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T11:35:00.000-08:00

Quin and I went back and forth as to whether to party or have a quiet night at home, we even talked about going to bed before midnight. Then we decided to invite a few couples over to celebrate the first new year in our house. One couple couldn't come because they had to chaperon a dance, another couple wasn't feeling well so they decided not to come. The other couple we invited over had a singles party they were stopping at (they were just recently married and wanted to say hi to their single friends). So about 10:30 I fell asleep on the couch while Quin watched t.v. At 11 Quin woke me up and I called my mom in Utah and wished her a happy new year. Our friends still weren't at our house so I changed into my jammies and Quin sent our friends a text message that we were going to go to bed. As he turned off the outside lights, he said "there's a car outside." It was our friends. So they came in and we started playing this game called "Settlers of Catan." It was so fun. We sat there until 1:30 playing and drinking Martinelli's sparkling cider out of champagne flutes. We barely took thirty seconds to yell happy new year, give our significant others a kiss, toast each other and then back to the game.

Quin and I have made a few new years resolutions, among the usually like get into better shape and stop swearing, we have decided to keep the kitchen clean. We find it so much easier to clean immediately after we cook, but for some reason we always wait a day or so and then it is a lot harder. It's just the two of us, so we want to get in this habit now and that way it will be easier if there are ever more of us. What are some of your new years resolutions?

Thanksgiving

2008-12-18T17:13:00.000-08:00

This was mine and Quin's first Thanksgiving all by ourselves, so we wanted to go all out and have a big meal with everything. We invited a few friends from work, Budge and Jana Tungate and their sons Jaden, Rohan, and Xander, and Amr and his son, Begad (I don't know their last name). Thanks to Jana for the pics. Sadly because she was the photographer, we didn't get any of her.

The Thanksgiving table, we used paper plates and disposable utensils, clean up was a breeze, it was great!

Dinner was an hour later than I had planned (which I hear is typical) so the kids (Rowan in the front with Begad and Jaden in the back) played with Quin's toys.

Xander played a game while Amr watched.

Here I am fighting potatoes. I look mad, but I am really just concentrating. Potatoes can be tough opponents.

Quin and Budge carving the turkey. Quin smoked a turkey and Budge brought a deep fried one. They were both delicious. You might notice Quin's fancy clothes. I have learned the secret to getting Quin to dress nicely is to make sure all of his other clothes are dirty. He wore his only clean pair of pants to smoke the turkey so he was forced to wear slacks, which I did not mind at all!

After dinner we finished with pumpkin pie and ice cream. I made my first pumpkin pie, it was so fun!

Looks like the turkey got to Jaden.

We had such a great time. We were sad we couldn't be with family, but we had a fun adventure!

Christmas time in Bakersfield

2008-12-16T21:23:00.000-08:00

Christmas time is a little different in Bakersfield. We thought that we would show a few of the things that make Christmas time here unique.

The lemons are ripe and ready to eat. This is in our backyard and Quin is in heaven! He has always wanted to live in a place where lemons grow. When we moved in, he went and bought a little lemon tree, but was sad because he wouldn't get any lemons for a few years. Then we found this growing and realized it was a sweet lemon tree. It is now his baby, he checks on it all the time.

Oranges are also really common around here. We have a miniature orange tree in the back yard (Quin bought it at the same time he bought the lemon tree), but it won't give oranges for another few years. These oranges are the best I have ever had, they are a million times better than the ones in the store, we like to go buy a box every year about this time.

I am dreaming of a white Christmas, but this is as close as it usually gets to snow around here. Fog delays are really common. From inside our house, we couldn't even see our neighbors house.

We turned on the Christmas music and decorated our little tree. We put it on a stool so it could be seen from the window (it is a bit vertically challenged). I grabbed some sheer white fabric and wrapped it around the base for our tree skirt.

We didn't have a star or an angel to go on the top of the tree, so we improvised and Quin grabbed two bows and stuck them to the top of the tree and it works nicely!

Quin decorated the outside with lights, it was so exciting! This is our first Christmas that we get to decorate outside!

To finish it off, when I wasn't looking, Quin hung some stockings by the chimney with care. And when I say stockings I mean old socks and when I say care I mean he draped them over some old nails that happened to be in the mantle. But I think it adds that special finishing touch.

Weekend Review

2008-12-15T11:01:00.001-08:00

Quin and I had a pretty busy weekend. Friday afternoon I spent preparing food for our ward Christmas Party and then spent Friday night at the ward party. It was a lot of fun and good to spend time with our church friends! Unfortunately we realized too late that we should have brought our camera.

Saturday morning Quin's company had their annual year end employee appreciation brunch. It was held at the Petroleum Club, a really exclusive club that you can only belong to if you are a big wig in the petroleum business, so Quin's bosses were nice enough to extend their elite status to us for a day! It was beautiful and the food was delicious! It was fun to visit with people. We sat at a table with Rob and Greer Garcia and their son Rocco, Jeseka Snider, Amanda and her son Benjamin, and Amanda's ego-centric sister Lisa Marie Val Verde. The big boss was the MC and was kind of struggling so he asked for jokes from the audience (you know you are dying when you have to ask the audience for jokes). Well in a room full of engineers the jokes are few and far between, so after a few minutes of sweating it out, he started asking where Quin was. He caught us sneaking to the buffet table and had Quin tell a joke. S0 of course Quin was the hit of the party and afterward people kept coming up and telling us how funny it was and how their kids would be telling the joke for weeks.

After the party, we went Christmas shopping. ~WOW~ We went to Toys-R-Us and fought our way through the crowd for a few hours! I don't even know what to say about that experience.

That night Quin and I went to an ugly sweater party. We stopped on our way home from the toy store at the Goodwill and picked out some doozys! An ugly sweater party is a party where everyone comes in the ugliest sweater they can find. One of Quin's co-workers used it for the theme of her birthday party. We had so much fun! Quin took first place with his beauty!

Quin wore this beautiful bright angora and wool blend sweater. We are still finding brightly colored fuzz everywhere! Quin wanted me to get the sweater I am wearing because he was sure his sister had one just like it!

Our gang

Going left to right is Daniel Burk (aka Go Fast), Shelton Stevens, Mel Stevens, Jeseka Snider (the birthday girl), me, Quin, and Rob Garcia!

The other winners (I don't know who they are)
Quin also won a giant bottle of beer, but he left it at the party.

Quin with his great sweater and trophy, he is going to proudly display it in his office

(it even says ugliest sweater, first place)

A Thousand Splendid Suns

2008-12-10T16:51:00.000-08:00

This book is a must read for all women in the U.S.! A friend of mine loaned it to me a few months ago and I have finally had some time to read it. It is a fictional account about two women in Afghanistan spanning the last thirty or so years, written by the author of The Kite Runner. While it is fictitious, I believe it gives an accurate account of what women endured there under the different government factions, including the Taliban. At one point I put my head in my hands and bawled. I cried for the character in the book, I cried for women who had to endure similar fates, I cried because I have been blessed to live in this country of freedom and choice, and I cried for those who are sacrificing right now to maintain our freedoms, both those heroes who are overseas and those who stay home waiting for them to return. I loved it and encourage you all to read it! Let me know what you think!

We're back!

2008-12-10T16:38:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone, long time no blog! I have been super busy with school and Thanksgiving and getting ready for Christmas, and working to pay for next quarter. I was looking at some friends blogs and it said that my last update was a month ago, it has almost been two months. So now that I have a little bit of time (very little, I already have an assignment for next quarter from an overzealous professor) I hope to catch up on everything that has been going on the past few months and even some flash backs that I have been meaning to post.

Austen Heroine

2008-10-16T18:04:00.001-07:00

Well, we just took the quiz to see which Jane Austen Heroine we are most like. Natalie was pegged as Elizabeth Bennet. I, myself, see to identify with Elinor Dashwood. Exciting!

Take the Quiz here!

Halloween Party Invitation

2008-10-12T21:58:00.000-07:00

You are all invited to our Halloween Party!

Make a Smilebox greeting

School...

2008-10-01T16:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I've done it. I have gone back to school. And I didn't start out slowly. I have 4 classes, 17 credit hours, and working on my senior research paper. I have been crazy busy, which is why I haven't posted in a while (not like I post very often anyway). I am actually in class right now, I am trying to type really quietly so that my teacher cannot hear me (he is kinda deaf, so I don't have to try too hard).
Quin has been so good about helping around the house, pushing me out of bed for my seven am class, and giving me my space when I need to study (for some reason he doesn't mind when I tell him to go play computer games while I do my math homework).
3 of my classes are beginning freshman classes (of all the things that transferred, my intro classes didn't) so I have had some interesting moments in class, sometimes it is a flashback to high school.
I even got asked if I wanted to join a sorority, humm that might be interesting.
I am sure I will have some good adventures, but most of all, I just want that stupid piece of paper!

Morro Bay

2008-09-12T22:43:00.001-07:00

My parents, Amanda, and Evelyn came down the end of July to visit us and to celebrate Evelyn's first birthday. While they were here, we headed to the coast to Morro Bay, for a few days. Most of these pictures are Amanda's she took 1.5 GB of pictures while she was here.

I was dancing around the house the morning before we left for Morro Bay so Manda snapped a picture

Amanda gave Evelyn some shaving cream to distract her while she got her hair done. Besides wiping it all over the mirror, she ate some too.

This was our first morning in Morro Bay.

We stayed in our friends, the Johnson's beach house. They had a bunch of pictures in frames on a shelf and for some reason, they had an empty frame. So Quin and I ran to the drug store and got a print of us and put it in the frame. They said they were so surprise when they saw it among their family photos. They have left it there and we are now their adopted children.

I don't know who had more fun, Quin or Evelyn. These two were having a blast with each other the whole time.

We belatedly (like 5 mins after) realized that Evelyn found this fork on the ground.

A beautiful shot of Amanda

This is our favorite place to eat in Morro Bay. They have great fish and chips and clam chowder in sour dough bread bowls. Yum that is one of the best things about going to the coast, the delicious fresh seafood!

Quin and Evelyn had matching shoes

The famous Morro Rock

Some sea lions

Quin. . .
We went out to Morro Rock and walked around. My mom stayed in the car with Evelyn

One day we went to Hurst Castle. It was pretty cool, but we all agreed it was over the top.

This is just one of the swimming pools.

I am glad that we went, the grounds were beautiful and it was kind of cool to see all these priceless artifacts.

We went to see some Elephant Seals

Here we took a walk through the Eucalyptus forest to the shore. The smell is amazing and when you get back in the car, you can still smell it because of the oils on your shoes.

We didn't get many pictures of my parents for some reason, but here is a fun one of us walking back through the forest.
We later went to a different part of the shore and played in some tide pools. Later that day we went to the beach. I wished we had gotten some pictures of that. It was cold and overcast. Manda and Quin were crazy enough to go play in the waves though. I just laid on the beach and slept while my parents went back to the car and took a nap with Evelyn.

We had so much fun, I am so glad they came to visit!

Evelyn's first Birthday

2008-09-12T17:32:00.000-07:00

For Evelyn's first birthday we came back from Morro Bay and celebrated it here.

We played in our back yard, that was a lot of fun.

Here is one of my attempts at getting creative with the camera angles

Manda and I enjoying some of the frosting after we frosted Evelyn's cake.

Evelyn's Cake, Manda and I have a history of decorating cakes not very cute. This one is an Evelyn bug cake.

Evelyn had a little trouble at first figuring out what to do with the presents, then she got it down. When she would open one, she would want to play with it and would get mad at us when we took it away so she could open another gift.

We forgot to get candles so we called my friend Stacie to see if she had any. She was so good, she went to the store and bought a special "1" candle.

At first Evelyn didn't know what do do with the cake.

But she eventually figured it out.

(The band-aid on her leg wasn't because she got hurt. Manda had a band-aid on and Evelyn wouldn't stop picking at it until she got one herself)

Girl's Camp

2008-09-08T20:51:00.001-07:00

So this summer has been totally crazy! and has left little time for blogging, but now that things are calming down a bit I want to try to catch up on our blogs.

The second week of July I headed up to girls camp with the Meadows Ward. We kept going to the Meadows ward for an extra two months just so that I could go to girls camp with my young women. It rained the first couple of days, but it worked out to keep the dust down. I was on a hike with the older girls and got stuck in the rain. At one point it was pouring and lighting and we were all huddled under trees. I kept thinking that was probably not the best place for us to be huddled together, but it turned out all right and it went along well with some of the lessons the leaders had. Quin came up on Friday and stayed the night. The day after we got back they released me and I cried and cried. I am not exactly a nature girl, but it was worth it to get to spend some extra time with my girls.

This was the Tree of Life, I just thought that it was really pretty.

They did this activity to teach us to appreciate the things that we had. We were divided up into groups and assigned to different tarps. Everyone had a different amount of food. Some people had a lot of food. Some people had only a tiny cup of rice and almost no water. This was to represent the different amounts of food that people around the world have. Only one group had enough food to satisfy them, the rest did not have enough to meet their needs.

Our group was the group that had plenty of food. We were the only group of all the groups that had plenty of food to meet our needs.

I think the girls were amazed at how little some people have to eat. It is something that we all take for granted.

There is a tradition when the fourth year girls come in from their hike, everyone makes posters and welcomes them home.

Byron McArthur told us a great story about a giant, talking gorilla. I am sure it was true.

The younger girls of the Meadows ward and the leaders. The older girls were off doing their activities. I missed them, but it was fun to get to know the younger girls.

Our New House

2008-09-07T21:01:00.000-07:00

Well, we are officially "Home Owners". We purchased our first home ever and we love it. We decided in June that we should at least start looking to see what was out there since the prices here in Bakersfield had finally come down to a "reasonable" level and while the interest rates were still good. We looked at a few houses here and there, but tried to stay in our ward boundaries (we really love the people in the Meadows Ward and tried to stay over near them). When ever we found a house that we thought we liked we would talk to our realtor about making an offer. He would come back and tell us that the sellers had just accepted an offer yesterday or that morning. One house that we were in this guy came in as we were looking at it and told us that his offer had just been accepted that morning. So we went on looking and feeling sorry for ourselves that we were having difficulty finding a house in the ward. That Saturday we decided to look around the Stake boundaries "just to see" what we could find. We drove through this GREAT neighborhood with beautiful homes and saw one for sale. We wrote down the info thinking to ourselves that there was NO-WAY we would be able to afford the neighborhood. We had our realtor Tony set up an appointment for Monday evening. Well the house was awesome and in our price range. Our friend Stacie also found one in her neighborhood (Meadows Ward) that we rushed over to look at. Now we had a dilemma as to which one to make an offer on. The one in the old ward was actually at a higher price, while this one was further away from our friends. So we made and offer on this one on Tuesday. Tony called us Wednesday to say the offer was accepted and we entered a 30 day escrow. It was very fast and almost scary. So now we are living the American Dream of Home Ownership!!!

The house has 3 bedrooms plus an office, 2 baths, and a 2 car garage on a 1/4 acre lot.

This is the image from Google Maps Street View

That is my flag that my parents gave me when I earned my Eagle Scout. It was flown over the US Capitol Building in Washington DC. I made the flag pole that is now its home.

We kept joking with our realtor Tony that we would only be able to afford to entertain friends by way of spaghetti barbecues. This is the gift basket/house warming gift he gave us. Note the spaghetti and BBQ sauce.

Looking in the front door.

Formal dining area/entrance (we plan to put the full size grand piano there as soon as we have LOTS of money just sitting around)

Living room

Great backyard. There is already a lemon tree that has lemons on it (supposedly very sweet tasting ones) and I planted another two citrus trees: eureka lemon tree (common grocery store ones) and a navel orange tree (the really good flavored ones).

More of the backyard.

Our kitchen.

We have LOTS of snails. I counted 80+ in an area that was 10 ft x 10 ft. According to the internet these are the edible snails (garden full of food storage?). Apparently they were introduced to CA by an Italian immigrant for use as escargot. There are several recipes online too. Let us know when you plan to come visit and we can serve you up some lemony escargot.

Always the fashionable one.

Mowing my OWN grass finally!!! (I was raised on a sod and tree farm)

Several guys at work and myself decided to do some beard art. I was told I looked like the Pringles guy.

Our yellow rose bush for our Texan mothers.

These are our sad tomato plants. We only got 4 tomatoes off them. They were doing good until we took over. I still think it must be bugs eating the roots.

our family

2008-09-04T16:34:00.001-07:00

This was on my sister-in-law Elena's blog and I loved it, so I thought I would make us one. Notice I am wearing a dance costume because I am always dancing around. They didn't have an engineer outfit for Quin, so I figured this was as close to his daily uniform as they had, all we need to add is some brightly colored converse shoes.

Create your own family sticker graphic at pYzam.com

Wicked

2008-06-19T11:38:00.000-07:00

Last night Quin and I went with some friends to see the musical "Wicked" in LA. It was awesome! The songs were wonderful, the costumes were fabulous, and the story was so fun. It is the story of the witches of Oz. It takes the point of view of the Wicked Witch and tells why she is green. It gets the Natalie Thornock Seal of Approval (this seal has not been given since I was married, how could I find something that could even be in the same category as Quin?)! After the show Quin got this look on his face like a little boy and exclaimed in excitement how great the show was. Wicked was so fun and I recommend it to everyone!

There's no place like home

2008-06-13T19:09:00.001-07:00

Well, Quin and I were hoping to be able to post pictures of our new house for you today, but unfortunatly we do not yet have a new house. Quin and I have been in the process of purchasing a home here in Bakersfield for the past month and it was supposed to close today. We were married on Friday the 13th so we thought, "Oh good, our lucky day." Unfortunatly there were problems that I am not going to go into and we probably won't close until Tuesday. So until then, here is a shot from google maps.

Senior Prom 2008

2008-06-10T07:48:00.000-07:00

The Laurel's of our ward wanted to put on a service project for the adults of the ward. So they decided to throw them a prom. They called it the "Senior Prom" since it was for those who were more senior then they were. They chose "Once Upon A Dream" for their theme and wanted to make it like the adults were going to a ball. We delivered invitations rolled up as scrolls.
It was a lot of work, but it was so much fun. The room was decorated beautifully. The colors were black and white with touchs of red. We had mini lemon tarts, cucumber sandwiches, and fruit and vegetables. To drink we had water and lemonade. I was put in charge of the food somehow and spent the day of the prom cooking up a storm. It turned out surprisingly well though.

The girls draped fabric and lights all around the room and set up a background to take pictures. One brother really helped us out. He got us black fabric table toppers, two champagne fountains for the drinks, had a huge flower arrangement made for the food table, loaned us and installed the faux ceiling you can see in the pictures, loaned us a fountain to put in the room (a real water fountain, it was so elegant) and got us about 75 carnations so everyone would have a boutonniere or corsage! The Beehives and Mia Maids provided babysitting, and a girl in our ward took all the pictures. We encouraged people to come in formal dress. It was really neat to see how excited some of the people in our ward were. A DJ in our ward donated his services so we could have some good tunes.

We had a few couples tell us some of their romantic stories and people requested and dedicated songs to each other. Quin was on a bike ride with his friends, but he called up the DJ and dedicated a song to me. It was really sweet! We had a treat table set up with candies that were white, black, and red so when people left they could scoop up what they wanted and put it in a bag to take home.

It was sooooo much work and we couldn't have done it with out a lot of help from some awesome people. People kept saying that it was the best night they had ever had at a church activity and that it was nicer than a lot of weddings they had been to. Everyone was talking about it at church on Sunday. I am so glad that it turned out well. We keep getting asked it we are going to do it again next year. Well... we'll see.

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The Team

2008-06-10T07:16:00.000-07:00

This is one of our team pictures. We can't seem to get the whole team together so we have taken a couple of pictures, this one has most of our team in it. Quin looks like he is in a stupor because he was engaging in physical activity. We love it though and are all signed up for the summer league. I never knew that I married an athlete. Last week he played goalie and did a great job!

I almost punched a girl this week. She ran up and pushed me in the back, I wasn't even around the ball. Then a few minutes later she was guarding me and she dug her nails into me. Quin went and talked to the ref because I was so mad, I didn't even care if I got thrown out of the game. The ref said he would watch her, but everytime she did something he would just give us the ball. She should have been thrown out or we should have at least gotten a penalty kick. Right before the end of the game she threw me against the wall and I started yelling at the ref to do something. I am trying this new thing were I am trying to be nice and take the high road, but it seems that now that I am trying, even more people are being jerks! Who knows, I may just turn green and start smashing things "NATALIE MAD, NATALIE SMASH!"

My new obsession!

2008-06-02T12:40:00.000-07:00

I just found this website and I love it! Goodbye spider solitaire and hello Freerice.com! This is a site that tests your vocabulary and every word that you get right the website donates 20 grains of rice to the UN World Food program to end hunger. I did the math and it takes 19,200 grains of rice to feed a person a day. I figure if 19 of our friends donates 1000 grains of rice a day, than together we have fed a person for a day.

I love it, there are 60 different levels of vocabulary and I am obsessed with trying to get to a new level. So at least click on the link and try it out. It will help your vocabulary and help those in need.

I Scored A Goal!

2008-05-17T22:12:00.000-07:00

Quin and I are on a city league indoor soccer team. The two of us are not great, but it is good exercise. We play for an hour on Saturday evenings at a rec center. We are sponsored by Quin's work and all have matching jerseys. Tonight I scored my first goal ever!!! I have been playing soccer since I was in Kindergarten and am not very good. So I am not bragging when I say I scored, I am expressing my amazement! It was pretty cool though. We'll try to post some pics later.

Amanda's Visit

2008-05-08T16:33:00.000-07:00

The week after Rachel visited, Amanda came down with Evelyn and Amanda's old roommate and friend of Quin, Ashley, and Ashley's son Sean. They drove down Friday before conference and went home Monday. They stayed for a short time, but it was so fun to see them. We took the camera everywhere we went, but of course only got a few pictures.

Evelyn wasn't too keen on the helmet, but she sure looked cute!

On Saturday, we got up and went to the mall. Amanda got a ride on Quin's motorcycle and had a blast! We shopped for a while and then came home.

Ashley and Sean

We went to this awesome ice cream parlor called Dewar's and all got a treat. It was great!

My friend Stacie loaned us this Pack n Play, Evelyn loved holding on to it and walking around.

Quin fed Evelyn a lemon, at first she seemed to not know what to think. Quin's family loves lemons with salt on them. I think they are bad for your enamel. It makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

Sunday we watched conference and laid around the house. We were sad to see them go, but were so glad they came. That's a long ride for a very short trip.

Rachel's visit

2008-05-08T16:23:00.000-07:00

I would be a horrible friend if I failed to mention that one of my best friends came to town the last week of March. I would not have been able to get married if Rachel hadn't been there to help me she was such a blessing (she even brought treats to the temple so we wouldn't die, a brilliant idea on her part) and has been a great friend since. The first Sunday Quin and I went to our ward I sat down in Relief Society and started talking to some of the women there. It turns out that the lady I sat next to happened to be Rachel's grandma. It's a small world. Rachel's husband came down for a conference in LA and she came with him. She took the bus to Bakersfield and stayed with her grandma. It was great to see her and spend some time with her. I am really bad at taking pictures, so of course I didn't get any, but here is a picture from our wedding of the two of us.

I BEAT MY HIGH SCORE

2008-05-07T12:36:00.000-07:00

So much has happened since we last posted, Amanda came to visit, Quin went on a bike ride, I was in charge of a huge awesome dance, I went to Utah for Women's Conference at BYU. So what am I going to post about? I beat my high score on Spider Solitaire. I set my score a year ago and it has taken me this long to beat it. A perfect score is 96 moves but sometimes the computer lays the cards exactly where you want them, saving you a move. My high score was 95 moves and now it is 93 moves. So for those of you who wonder what I do all day, wonder no more.

March Ride Report

2008-04-08T21:11:00.000-07:00

For my birthday present Natalie agreed to go on a motorcycle ride over to Morro Bay and then up the coast on Highway 1 to Fort Hunter Ligget. The route we took was about 400 miles long.

Here we are at the Logue's house getting ready to go.

This is at Ragged Point. The guy behind the counter at the gas station I swear was wearing a ski mask. Regular was $4.53. The view of the coast line here is BEAUTIFUL!

Left to right: Steve Johnson, Kim Logue, Lanny Logue, Natalie, and Me. Patty Johnson had to bail and take the dogs back to Bakersfield in the car, so Steve rode solo.

The wild flowers were absolutely stunning. I have never seen wild flowers in bloom like this ever in my life. It looked as though someone had dumped buckets of yellow, purple, and orange all over the hillsides.

Nice shot of the purple ones.

I almost drove into the side of the hill when we came around the bend with all these flowers because there were so many. There were seriously just blankets of flowers everywhere. You could even smell them while riding along.

Natalie posing in her new ridin' gear. She was soooo ready to be done at this point. Only 90 more miles to go til home.

We told Steve to pose so that we could photoshop Patty into the picture. I just need to get a picture of her and do that now.

Lanny...

It is hard to see but there is pollen all over my nose and lip.

Nat only got a few bugs on the top of her helmet.
The windshield and my visor took the brunt of it.

I had the visor up about half an inch at one point and a bug hit me in the nose. I then rode with it down.

Blood Traitors and Vandals

2008-03-24T19:53:00.001-07:00

We've been got!

Yesterday we came out of church and this was on our cars! Quin is so upset he couldn't even post this blog! He says this is what they must be learning at "That" school.

Our friends the McArthur's daughter was in town (the blood traitor, as Quin calls her) and she decided to do this. Our protective layer of dirt wasn't thick enough I guess. But we did hear that they almost ruined their markers trying to get through it.

30 Tablespoons of baking cocoa

2008-03-24T19:31:00.000-07:00

So apparently 30 tablespoons of baking cocoa is too much for a double batch of brownies. I was trying to make brownies from scratch to take to one of the ladies I visit teach who just had a baby. I decided to double the batch so that Quin could have a few brownies. The recipe called for 5oz of baking chocolate. I don't have baking chocolate, but on the back of the Hershey's baking cocoa it says that 3 tablespoons of baking cocoa and a tablespoon of oil equal a 1oz square of baking chocolate. So lets all do the math. 5oz x 3 tablespoons= 15 tablespoons. Now I was making a double batch, so of course 15x2= 30 tablespoons of baking cocoa. While I was scooping out the baking cocoa, I was thinking, 'Wow, this is a lot of baking cocoa.' But I am not the best cook, so who am I to argue with Betty Crocker and Hershey? When I was all done, I decided to try to make butter cream frosting. It was really lumpy and not fluffy at all like it usually is when I make it, so I thought, 'hum? I wonder if the brownies will be good enough without frosting?' Good thing I tasted them before I took them to the lady. They were awful! So dry and they tasted like I had eaten a spoonful of unsweetened baking cocoa. I guess if I cut the brownies into 30 squares, it would be like I had eaten a spoonful of unsweetened baking cocoa. I don't care what the recipe says, that is too much! Good thing Quin can cook or we would likely go hungry!

Beware the Ides of March!!!

2008-03-23T20:46:00.000-07:00

In May of last year I decided that since Quin was going to turn 30 he needed to have a surprise birthday party. It stayed in the back of my mind all year and I kept thinking of a way to plan a party with him right there all of the time. I was thinking that I would do it the day before his birthday, he would come home from work and "Surprise!!!" Then a friend of ours suggested that we go on a motorcycle ride together that weekend. Of course, Quin was sooo excited to go on that ride. So I had to change my plans. The subject was brought up about us having a dinner party with all of our friends. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to plan a party that Quin knew about but didn't know that it was his party. The Saturday before his birthday was March 15th, the Ides of March. In Shakespeare's "Julius Cesar" Cesar is warned by a soothsayer about the Ides of March. Brutus kills Cesar on the Ides of March and you have the famous "Et tu Brute'?" line. Can you think of any better reason to throw a party than that? I can't! We originally thought that we would have a murder mystery dinner, but then we just decided to have a Roman themed party. Above is the invitation we gave to our friends.Quin and his cake. He was pretty surprised when I announced that it was actually his birthday and my friend Stacie brought in this cake. Pretty ingenious if I do say so my self, this way I got him to help with his own party. I forgot to buy candles so we only had a few and tried to make it into a 3--0. I had a dream that I forgot to get the cake. I was so worried about that, I forgot candles. Oh well.
(Note the cake has golf balls and is on the 118th hole)
Most people dressed up, it was so fun! We even went to a party store and rented pillars. You can kindof see them in the background of this picture. We had really tall ones that we wrapped with vines at the entrance, of course we didn't get a picture.
We mostly spent the night talking and eating, what a great combination!
For the centerpieces we bought grapes and put them on gold plates and put leafs around the table. It was easy and tasty!
We had harp music playing. It made for a nice relaxing atmosphere.

Our friends the McArthurs. They arrived late, but they looked good!
How awesome is it that Quin humored me when I told him I wanted an Ides of March party?

The lady in the toga in the back is my friend, Stacie. I couldn't have done it without her!
To everyone who was there, thanks for coming! To everyone that didn't, we missed you!

Unemployed

2008-03-11T14:36:00.000-07:00

Well I am now a housewife again. I decided to quit my job and stay home and watch my 'stories'. That is not really why I quit, but that is what Quin likes to say. I am sure I am going to cause all kinds of rumors, but the truth is I want to finish school. I have so many credits that I could probably have a couple of degrees, but no official degree. So I quit and am now going to be a "lady who lunches" as one of my co-workers put it. My boss and I worked out an agreement that I will be on call. When they need a substitute, then they will call me. This works out quite well as far as I am concerned I can go to school, lunch with my friends, and on occasion go to work. Quin is terrified that I am going to get bored (that was the original reason I got a job, because I was going crazy cooped up inside the house)! I guess we will see. I just have to keep myself busy so he won't be right.

Spring is Here

2008-02-28T19:30:00.000-08:00

No, these trees are not covered in frost, snow, or ice.

Spring has officially arrived here in Bakersfield, and the almond groves are blooming.

This almond grove is about 8 blocks to the north of our apartment complex. The smell from the trees is sometimes almost overpowering. It is one of those flower smells that is nice faint but almost suffocating when in strength.

As I was driving home from taking pictures of the almonds I saw this tree branch hanging over a brick fence. I stopped and took some shots and was pleasantly surprised by how nice they turned out. Our cheap camera once in awhile really takes nice pictures.

Spring in Bakersfield also brings rain storms. The storms don't seem to put much water down and rarely have lightning and thunder (big disappointment compared to the Vegas rain storms). It also is really windy and LOTS of dirt blows around. The other night Natalie and I went to a surprise birthday party of our friend Shelly Carter (Happy 50th), and there was so much dirt blowing that it was drifting and visibility was reduced almost as much as a blizzard. One of the great things about blowing dirt in Bakersfield is Valley Fever. So now whenever one of us has any sort of ailment (fever, cough, sore leg, cut finger, etc.) we blame it on Valley Fever.

New Year's 2008

2008-02-18T20:42:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!!! Our dear friends the Van Meters invited us over to Morro Bay (a very cute quiet beach town about 2 hrs from Bakersfield to the west) to spend New Year's with them and our buddies the Johnsons. The party was THUMPIN' the night of New Year's Eve. We played Pit (one of the funnest card games ever) til about 8:30 pm. We then played Apples to Apples (one of the other funnest card games ever) until 9:30 when the Johnsons went home. the rest of the party evening was filled with milling about mixed with this and that. At 11:58 we woke ourselves back up enough to open some Martinellis and say Happy New Year. At 12:02 am we all promptly went back to bed. New Year's day was spent playing in tide pools harassing the star fish, sea anemonis, and hermit crabs (Nat's disclaimer--"I did none of the above." She didn't want nature to get on her hands).

And to our friends/family in the north, Yes, this is January 1st.

There is a very nice nature trail that runs along the top of the sea cliff where you can see California Sea Otters and birds of all sorts.

"Ya just never know what yer missing, something could be just right there."--Janet Smith's famous Yellowstone quote

It was so nice and beautiful to spend time at the ocean. It is amazing how big and powerful it is, it makes you feel small and insignifigant and inspires great thoughts.

Natalie, Burt and Kate Van Meter, and Jessica climbing down the cliffs to the waters edge.

Happy Groundhog Day

2008-02-02T21:39:00.000-08:00

Well today is February 2nd. That means it is Groundhog Day, my dad's favorite holiday. I am not really sure why, I think it is because it means winter is almost over and you don't really do anything for it.
It is tradition is that if a hybernating animal sees it's shadow on Candlemas (the catholic holiday of candles) there are 6 more weeks of winter. If it does not see it's shadow then it means it will be a short winter. How much shorter is not revealed. The tourism department in Punxsutawney, Penn. decided that they need a reason to have people come to their town and spend money. So they decided that they would have the "Official" groundhog, Punxsutawney Phil. Every year they pull the poor sleeping animal from it's warm bed in to the frigid air so we can know how much winter is left. We have mastered space flight, but we rely on a large rodent to tell us what a calendar could.

(Poor Phil)

What ever the reason, I love holidays and I love my dad so I have been helping him celebrate. I wrote him this song and called him up and sang it to him.

It is Groundhog Day, shout hurray!
I'd like to sing to you today,
Springs around the corner and summer too.
Happy Groundhog Day to you!

Tagged

2008-01-28T15:52:00.000-08:00

Back in August I got tagged by Quin's sister, Elena and I never did it, so here goes:

1. Who is your man? Quin C. Smith

2. How long have you been together: January 13th was our two year wedding anniversary and we dated for exactly one year before we got married. But sometimes I think we met in the pre-existence, ahhhhh.

3. How long did you date: as stated in the previous answer, we dated for a year, but about 5 months before we officially started dating, we went on 3 dates. I wasn't super interested and Quin didn't want to put in the effort. I think we just needed some time to figure things out. We ran into each other a few days before new years and decided to hang out on new years day and we have been together ever since. We distinguish between the two time periods as our first first date and our second first date etc.

4. How old is your man? Quin will be the big 3-0 at the end of March. He used to joke that he had to wait for his wife to grow up, little did he know he wasn't really joking.

5. Who eats more? Ummm... I think it is pretty tied. Which is pretty bad because he is soooo much bigger than me. Although, we will be sitting there eating a meal and I will look down and all my food is gone. He says that I ate it, but I am not so sure.

6. Who said 'I love you' first? He did, he said it in Portuguese because he was too nervous to tell me. When I asked him what that meant, he wouldn't say. A few days later he told me in English. I think I said something like, thank you. Later when I told him I loved him, he said "eww gross." I started crying and wanted to go home. He wouldn't let me. My sister called him a little while later to go jump start her car, he told her what happened and she laughed at him. Some day I am going to write a book of all the really romantic things Quin has said to me, that being the first.

7. Who is taller? He is, I am 5'8" and he is 6'.

8. Who sings better? Well he does, but that is because he doesn't have much competition.

9. Who is smarter? HMMM... that is a tough one. I am really not sure, this is probably a tie. I couldn't marry someone who wasn't my intellectual equal.

10. Who's temper is worse? Mine is by far, there is no comparison.

11. Who does the laundry? I do, that is because I don't let him.

12.Who does the dishes? we usually do them together, Quin washes the extra food off and I load them, even if he does load, I usually go through and move things around.

13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? I do.

14. Who pays the bills? I do. I have been paying the bills for Quin almost since we started dating. He used to wait until the bill came in pink envelopes "because you knew those were bills and that they were serious." Yeah, we don't do that any more.

15. Who is better at the computer? He is, why should I learn, that's one of the benefits of marrying a nerd.

16. Who mows the lawn? We live in an apartment complex so the lawn guys do, but we would love to have our own lawn so he could do it.

17. Who cooks dinner? We usually do it together, but he does the majority of it. He really likes to cook and is really, really good at it (except sometimes experiment night doesn't go so great).

18. Who drives when you are together? He does with me front seat driving right next to him.

19. Who pays when you go out? We take turns, it's all on the same credit card account but we joke about who is treating whom.

20. Who is more stubborn? I think I am more stubborn, but Quin has his moments.

21. Who is the first to admit they are wrong? I am sure that if I ever were wrong I would admit it.

22. Who's parents do you see the most? I would say probably mine, but we don't see either sets enough, my parents are 800 miles away and his are 1000.

23. Who kissed who first? I kissed him first and it surprised us both.

24. Who asked who out first? Quin asked me out first and almost every time after that. I kept trying to think of ways to get out of the dates, but he was persistent. One day I woke up and realized I couldn't live without him.

25. Who proposed first? He did, but we don't like to talk about it, it will be included in the book of romantic things he has said to me.

26. Who is more sensitive? I almost don't even dare say for hurting his feelings. Quin is WAY more sensitive than I am. But I keep telling myself that having a sensitive man is a good thing.

27. Who has more friends? Quin, without a doubt. He is such a nice, good natured guy, everybody loves him. It is one of the things I love most about him. He is your friend from the moment you meet him.

28. Who has more siblings? He does. I have one and he has three.

29. Who wears the pants in the family? He calls me the President and CFO (Chief Financial Officer) of the Smith Family Household so I guess that means that I do, but he is the CEO (Chief Executive Officer).

So if anyone out there actually reads this I tag you.

The perseverance award

2008-01-21T20:52:00.000-08:00

Back in October (which, is when we started this post, but had some technical difficulties) Quin's work sponsored a golf tournament. Other than the mini kind, I had never played before and Quin had only played a few times. So of course Quin signed us up. I was not excited at all (Quin says I was disgruntled, but I don't remember that)! I finally agreed to go on the condition that if at lunchtime I wanted to go, we were out of there. I had such a blast that by lunchtime, leaving was the farthest thing from my mind.

Here we are before we first teed off. Another condition of me going was that I got to drive the golf cart.
Quin doesn't like this picture, he calls it his Jaba the Hut impersonation picture.
The Fantastic Four--we were teamed with Kirk and Dmitri, they were so nice and a lot of fun.

Quin pretending to sink a putt

This was after I had actually sunk the putt. We played "best ball' where you hit it from the best spot from your team. Here we got a birdie, which was a hole in two thanks to yours truly.

Quin played with SpongeBob SquarePants golf balls (you can kind of see it flying by the trees). One of the things that made the day so great was that Quin would hang out of the cart while I would floor it and try to grab our balls as we cruised by. One time I hit a bump right as he was reaching for it. He went flying out of the cart. Fortunately his ninja training took over and he rolled and was not hurt. The best part was, we were around a ton of his co-workers, they were talking about it for weeks.

The day was great for golf, not too hot, not too cold. The sky was clear and blue (quite a rarity for Bakersfield, usually you cannot see the sky, no joke)!!! To top it all off, T.J. Cross gave us these great matching shirts with their logo on them.

Look at my mad skills, I believe that went like 5 yards!

We had a great day! We are now golf addicts, Quin even went out and bought us clubs. Who knows, maybe we will have to go pro.

This is a video of my first time teeing off in the tournament

We won the perseverance award, which sounds good, but it actually means that we got last place, but they gave us these great big nice duffel bags and hats with the T.J. Cross logo on them. Hey better last place with stuff than 2nd to last with nada.

Thanksgiving 2007

2008-01-19T13:27:00.000-08:00

Apparently we have been neglectful in updating our blog, so I thought I would post our pictures from Thanksgiving (especially since we have had a request for this one).

The Wednesday before Thanksgiving, Quin and I loaded up the car and drove 800 miles to my sisters house in SLC. For some reason, I really wanted to go on a car trip and was really excited to go. I forgot however that, I have a really short attention span and don't particularly like LONG car rides. This one felt like it was particularly long! SO, I guess I got it out of my system.

We got to her house at like two in the morning and instead of going to bed like sane rational people, the two of us stayed up talking forever (amazingly Quin went right to bed, I usually have to fight him, it's like making a 6 foot 230 pound two year old go to sleep). On Thanksgiving Quin and I got up and drove to my parent's house where Quin proceeded to try to smoke a turkey. Usually there is a lot of sitting around waiting for food on Thanksgiving, so Quin and I tried to keep ourselves preoccupied:

I put my mom's wig on top of my hair and the color matched amazingly well. I walked around talking like a hick about how I was going to go to a bar-b-que with my big pouffy hair.
Yes, I am holding a baby and a beer (empty bottle) because the two go together don't they?

This is actually the day after Thanksgiving and Quin hadn't shaven in a few days.

I just wanted to see if I could put cotton all over Quin's face. He really didn't want to do it, but I make Quin do a lot of things that he doesn't want to do, like floss, get man pretty, and satisfy my whims such as this one.
I like this one because it shows how pretty his eyes are

THE BIG JUDD

Almost since the beginning of Quin and I dating I have heard about "The Big Judd." It's this burger place up in Idaho that if you eat the above pictured burger, you get your picture on the wall for a year. If you eat the double, you get your picture on for life. I have always wondered if I could do it. So the Saturday after Thanksgiving we went up to Idaho and decided to finally go to Big Judd's. Unfortunately, I didn't come prepared to eat that much cow and didn't do it, but never say never, I may some day get my picture on the wall.
It was a pretty good burger, throw in fries and an Ironport soda and you have yourself a pretty good meal. (You also have the makings of a big butt and a heart attack, but I try not to think about that too much.)
I am not sure what Emily is doing here

Quin's parents enjoying their burgers (they did not get the Big Judd)

KATE'S 2ND BIRTHDAY

Elena postponed celebrating Kate's birthday for a week so we could be there for the party (which was sooooo awesome because we are so sad that we always miss everything). When Elena's older kids asked why they were waiting a week to have Kate's birthday party, Elena told them it was so we could be there for her party. Their response: Uhhh, how come Kate gets to have Natalie and Quin at her birthday party??? HA, I love it! Nice to know we are liked. A super cute picture of Alyssa, Kate, and Halle

The Utah/BYU game was that Saturday. Unfortunately Quin's team lost, but it was still fun joking around.
Quin, Halle, and Alyssa we joking around and sticking one of those pool noodles in their pants, down each leg and running around. The girls thought it was the funniest thing they have ever done, and I will have to admit we were all rolling on the ground. They looked like they had big ol' butts and bow legs. It was hilarious

I got one good picture of Kate in her dress up clothes. We got her dress up clothes because she loves to dress up and we thought, hey why fight it. Quin wanted to get her a red cheerleader outfit, but we didn't think Jarom would let her wear it.

Christmas 2007

2008-01-06T18:01:00.000-08:00

CHRISTMAS 2007!!!

We had a really nice Christmas this year. We were unable to make the journey to the frigid north and stayed here in Bakersfield and had our first California Christmas.

This is our humble little tree. That is our "First Christmas" ornament.

The beautifully finished tree. The pumpkin ornament is really a Halloween decoration that my mom (Janet) sent down with our Christmas gifts. It is an unofficial tradition to get decor for holidays other than the holiday it really is (plus my mom just likes to get us decorations and when you see each other only 3 times a year that is when you give them).

Natalie's parents Sheri and Garth were able to make the trek to come visit us.

The traditional pajamas on Christmas Eve.

Natalie liked the ones that we got Sheri so much that she had to get herself a matching pair. She was SOOO excited to have matching pajamas with her mom. It was actually pretty funny because Natalie was wearing them and Sheri commented on how cute they were.

Natalie made me this U of U bath robe. She was able to hide the fact that she was making it from me for an entire month. She would take the scraps to work and throw them away to keep it a secret. She would also go over to her friend Stacie's house at lunch and get help and pointers. She spent as much time picking up every little red thread as she did sewing it. I was impressed when I opened it, then my jaw hit the ground when she said "I made that."

Sheri and Garth opening our gift to them. We got them the family crest and origin of the name Thornock. We have been planning to give it to them since September when we found the crest at the county fair.

My mom has been very busy working on genealogy and gave us both a 4 generation picture. It was very awesome! (Nat got teary eyed) Thank you for the great gift mom.

Manders got me a new Yoda shirt!

The day after Christmas we all piled into the car and headed over to the coast to look at the ocean. This is a picture of Nattie enjoying her car trip (note the sarcasm).

The Madonna Inn. The Madonna Inn is a rather famous themed Inn. The decor is VERY floral! The banisters are all carved to look like grapes and flowers. If people are nice to us and we like you, we may just book you a night in the Pony Room, Traveler's Yacht, or Irish Hills. In the men's room the urinal is a giant rock waterfall that takes up half the wall and is activated when you step up to it. Classy!!!

The pier at Pismo Beach.

I started to feed the Seagulls and they swarmed the car.

I was holding up a Cheez-it trying to get the bird to take it out of my hand and got bitten. It actually kind of hurt and left a red mark on my thumb for almost 2 days.

Go WILDCATS!!!

2007-11-19T21:17:00.000-08:00

Tonight California State University Bakersfield played the Weber State Wildcats. I am technically currently a student at Cal State, but Weber is my real college! Some friends of ours had 2nd row seats to tonight's game and invited us. The four of us screamed our lungs out cheering for Weber State. We literally were the only people cheering for Weber in the whole arena. Some people were getting in to it and having fun with it. I heard one lady complaining that we were ruining the game for her. Come on, there were four of us and about 500 of them, besides there were about 10,000 empty seats in the arena, she didn't have to sit behind us. Hearing her huff and puff was half the fun, never give Quin any power to control you!

I have never done anything like that! It was a rush! I was slightly afraid we would be met in the parking lot after the game, especially since Weber won 61 to 56. I highly recommend going to a game and cheering for the other team, as for now, we have to let our voices heal! WEBER STATE, WEBER STATE, GREAT, GREAT, GREAT!!!

THE Smith Halloween Party 2007

2007-11-04T20:22:00.000-08:00

This year was the first annual THE Smith Halloween Party. We had been debating on whether or not to have a Halloween party this year. Quin and I both LOVE Halloween; it's our favorite holiday. We love decorating and dressing up. We had planned to have a Halloween party when we lived in Vegas, but we moved at the beginning of October 2006. We were so busy this month we wondered if we could pull it off. Plus our apartment really can't hold that many people. Someone recommended hosting it in the apartment complex's rec room. We decided that scaring the evil spirits away for the year was much more important than sleep or anything else we could be doing and decided to do it. Plus it was a good excuse to get me (Quin) a fog machine finally!!! I have always wanted one. Fog machines are awesome! After we got it, Natalie came home and of course the place was full of fog. The party was complete with a costume contest and prizes. The entry way into the party was supposed to be SPOOKY SPOOKY with fog and spooky music and a strobe light. Of course, setting everything else up first allowed the guest to get there before the entry was ready. Next year's will be better.

This year we went as Princess Leia and Han Solo from Star Wars Episode IV A New Hope. Yes we made the costumes ourselves. (I tried to make the Han Solo outfit as authentic as possible, which it was, minus the blaster. Unfortunately the $300 blaster and holster replica set wouldn't have arrived in time. Due to my obsession with Star Wars, Natalie had to take several attempts at the pockets on the vest for me, which resulted in a valuable yet frustrating lesson of don't try to sew late at night. Adding the Corellian Bloodstripes to the pants took forever.)

President Rodriguez made this cake especially for our party. It was SOOOO good!!!

Pres. Manuel Rodriguez (Hawaiian clown/cake maker) and Hannah Montana (Heidi Schmidt)

Steve and Gera (or at least the back of her head) Bahr.

Our favorite Amber McArthur

Steve Johnson

Shelly Carter

Jaime, Rebbeca, and Esperanza Barroteran our new BFF's from the Mexican Hat Dance

Monte Priebe--Most Humorous Costume for Cuban Mafia. Prize: Laffy Taffy

Gail and youngest Glende, Shelly, and Kayleen Nelson. Kayleen--Tie for Least Effort Costume. Prize: Stick on mustache for next year's costume.

Byron and Jeanette McArthur. Byron--Coolest Costume. Prize: Stephen's Hot Cocoa

The famous Stacie (from previous posts) and Alan Dartnell

Rebecca Barroteran (Vampire)--Scariest Costume. Prize: Bottle of Martinellis'

Kate and Burt Van Meter. Burt--Creepiest Costume for ???. Prize: Bottle of Martinellis'

Robert Garcia (Q's co-worker) and his wife Greer. Robert (Shawn from Shawn of the Dead)--Most Original Costume. Prize: Wurther's Originals. Greer--Tie for Least Effort. Prize: Stick on beard for next year's costume.

Al and Shelly Carter winners in 2 categories--Best Pair. Prize: Uno; Honorable Mention (in case the best overall can't fulfill their duties throughout the year). Prize: Martinellis'

Yes, we won Best Overall Costumes. Prize: Martinellis' and Trans-fat free brownie mix. No we did not rig the ballot, we didn't even vote.

We had so much fun with all of our friends. We were sad that our family wasn't here for the first annual THE Smith Halloween Party. Next time we won't accept the "we are 1000 miles away" excuse. Only 361 more days until THE Smith Halloween Party 2008!!!

Crazy October

2007-11-03T19:30:00.000-07:00

So one might notice that our blog is a little bit out of date. This month has been crazy busy! We were in a golf tournament, participated in our stake LA Temple 50th year commemoration and had a wild Halloween party. Plus all of the other responsibilities we have we were pretty preoccupied. I think we sat down at our table for may be 5 meals the whole month. We'll catch you all up on it soon.

Natalie

Wild Hogs

2007-10-08T21:27:00.001-07:00

The Bakersfield LDS Brothers ride again.

I was officially "jumped" into my gang on Sept 21, 2007. We rode over to Morro Bay and spent the night at Steve Johnson's condo. I learned something very important about touring on a motorcycle, make sure you have a VERY comfortable seat (a new one is on my Christmas list, hint hint hint Natalie, Mom, or Momma Bear). We had planned on leaving at 3:30, but of course every plan regarding a trip of some sort made by a Smith is made to be broken. I was planning on leaving work around 1:30, but noooooo I got stuck working on something that needed to go out by 5:00. Well, the guy I was working with was stuck in meetings all day and wasn't able to get around to my stuff until about 2:30. This made me really nervous. So of course there is lots to do. I ask him if he thinks we would be done by 3:15 and he looked at me and chuckled. So, very disappointedly I called Byron (gang member) and let him know of my dire predicament, and that they could go ahead and leave me if they needed to, because I wouldn't be ready to go til about 4:30. He said he would talk to everyone and get their opinion. Then at about 3:30 my boss came in and asked why I was still there. I let him know that I wasn't done with the project that he was having me do. He was nice enough to tell me to finish first thing Monday morning. I REALLY like working here. Byron called back and let me know that everyone else was also running late and that I didn't miss the ride. So I sped (or um drove safely) home, kissed Natalie goodbye and rode off.

Left to right: Lanny Logue, Byron McArthur, me, Larry Schmidt, and Steve Johnson.

Near Cambria and Hearst Castle

I was truly initiated in the fact that we rode in every condition possible: Strong gusty winds, night, rain at night, bright sunny day, construction zone, LOTS of rain (picture shows everyone suiting up), construction zone in the rain, and a muddy dirt road.

Cheap rain pants and high speeds don't work so well together.

This is a picture of elephant seals sunning themselves near Hearst Castle.

This was the part of the view as we rode up the PCH (Highway 1 for those none coastal dwellers). I can't wait to take Natalie on the next ride.

Dizzyland!!!

2007-09-30T15:59:00.000-07:00

On my birthday, we were supposed to fly back to Burbank (where our car was parked) and then drive to Anaheim (where Disneyland is). It wasn't that simple. There was a MASSIVE rain storm in Utah and all the flights were grounded and those in the air were put in a holding pattern, including the airplane we were supposed to be on. The plane eventually ran low on fuel and had to fly to Las Vegas to refuel (where we were supposed to change planes). So we watched our flight leave us in the Salt Lake airport. There was NO way we were going to make our connecting flight. I had visions of spending the night of my birthday in the airport! Fortunately, Quin wasn't going to take NO for an answer. He got us on a flight to Los Angeles (only thirty miles from Burbank). We then shared a limo with a guy who was going in that direction. The limo dropped us off at our car and we drove to our hotel in Anaheim. The next day, we went to Disneyland!Our first day at the park! We slept in a little because we had had so much fun the day before. It was kind of neat because my first time to Disneyland was on my ninth birthday and 16 years later, almost to the day, Quin went for his first time. This picture is at the entrance. Notice the great bag! my parents got it for me for my birthday.
Here we are in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle.
We went to Lilo and Stitch's Aloha Breakfast. We got lais and learned how to hula and played around with the characters, it was great!

Quin was perfectly dressed for the occasion!

One of the coolest rides was Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. It was like being in a video game, It was SO much fun! You get those little blasters and you try to shoot Zurg. As you can see, Quin was a little bit better at it than I was.

We took a ride around on a paddle boat called the "Mark Twain" it was really pretty!
This is the view of the stroller parking from the Mark Twain. This shot really doesn't do it justice as to how many strollers are in the park.

Not a great picture of us (especially me), but Quin was trying to snap it as the Disneyland Train was pulling up.

This is an action shot, we were on the teacups spinning when we took this. Turned out pretty good.

Quin on the Carousel

This is the Sleeping Beauty carousel, it kind of means a lot to me. I didn't get to go on it the first time I was there because my cousin Jonathan wanted to go on It's a Small World again and he is an only child and gets everything he wants even though it was my birthday. Anyway, I was glad to go on it with Quin!

These two pictures are probably our favorite from the trip. We were just goofing around in this building called Innovations. It is full of the latest technology you can try out. Apparently these cardboard cutouts are cutting edge.

This guy was amazing! If I didn't know better, I would have sworn Captain Jack Sparrow had stepped out of the movie. We were coming back from Pirates Island when he stepped on the raft with us. He looked like him, he sounded like him, and acted like him, it was awesome! He even performed an impromtu marriage on the raft for a couple of guests (he is a captain and can do that when you are at sea). We are still talking about how amazing and believable he was!

Our final night ended in a spectacular fireworks show, Quin was even impressed. It was a great trip and we are so glad that we were able to see our families and to have such a fun experience.

Natalie vs the screen door

2007-09-29T22:03:00.000-07:00

So today was a beautiful fall day here in Bakersfield, so I opened the sliding patio door and closed the screen door to keep bugs out. We went to the grocery store and we closed and locked the sliding door. When we got home I had to run back out to the car and when I came in I saw one of the funniest things ever. Natalie had decided to go out on to the patio because that is where the washer and dryer are. She opened the sliding glass door and proceeded to walk out. Well, she had forgotten that the screen was still closed and tried to go through it. Boing!!! The look of utter shock and confusion was priceless! I thought I was going to fall over from laughing so hard. It was hilarious. But of course I was informed that "it wasn't that funny".

Labor Day 2007

2007-09-29T21:32:00.000-07:00

Natalie celebrated her 25th birthday this year. Here she is opening a few presents from my family. My mom gave her a nifty cast iron pumpkin. We were lucky enough to make a quick visit to see my family in Idaho after we went to Evelyn's blessing.

My dad the pyro started a fire out back so that we could all burn marshmallows (Natalie insists that hers were nicely toasted). This is a picture of Natalie teaching Alyssa how to "nicely toast" one.

One fire wasn't enough so Dad had to light another one; only now we have moved inside the TeePee. Kayson, Carter, Halle, and Liberty loved it.

Kayson and Deidra with their new ugly dog, Jack. He is great with all the kids.
Grammy trying to keep Kate out of the fire.

Brylee had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction.

MISS Liberty and MISS Halle choosing the perfect roasting sticks.

Evelyn's blessing

2007-09-16T20:55:00.000-07:00

Amanda and Andy decided to bless and name Evelyn at their house on Sunday the 2nd of September. It was a really neat, special event and I am so glad that we could be there.

Amanda made this dress for Evelyn, with a little bit of help from her mother in law, Debbie. It was so cute and Manda did a great job on it!

It still cracks me up how funny my dad is with Evelyn. He keeps trying to hint that he would like more without trying to put too much pressure on us. Good thing that when Andy was blessing Evelyn, he said she would be a help with her brothers and sisters. It sounds like there might be a few more from Amanda for my dad.

This is Quin's dog, Roxy. Amanda and Andy are kind enough to take care of her and feed her for us.

A few family photos

Notice Manda and I are so vain, we took off our glasses.

Our big adventure

2007-09-16T20:42:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago Quin and I went on our first really vacation since our honeymoon. As most of you know, we traveled a LOT our first year of marriage with all the craziness of Quin's job, but most of it was not fun and definitely not a vacation. Amanda and Andy blessed Evelyn over labor day weekend so on Saturday, Quin and I woke very early (3 in the morning) and drove to Burbank (that is where the film Jeopardy, one of my favorite show) and hopped on an airplane to Utah. We spent Saturday night with my parents and Sunday Evelyn was blessed. After the blessing we drove to Idaho (I don't know why but the stretch of road between Ogden and Idaho Falls feels like forever) and visited with Quin's family. Sadly we left Idaho Falls less than 24 hours after we got there. We drove back to Ogden and spent the night with my parents. The next day was my birthday (yea!!) and my family went to lunch. That night we flew back to California and went to Disneyland for the rest of the week. Quin started coming down with something when we left Anaheim and was down for the count for a few days. We all know how considerate Quin is and he didn't want me to feel left out so he shared it with me and I have been sick for the past few days. Well that is the summary. I am going to be posting pics over the next few days and will fill in the details as I go along.

Evelyn

2007-09-10T21:27:00.000-07:00

When I went up for Jessica's wedding, I met my newest niece, Evelyn. At the time she was only three weeks old. I am very smitten with her and could not stop holding her. I took a ton of pictures and now three weeks later I am posting them.

Here I am holding Evelyn. For Jessica's reception, we dressed her in a super cute outfit that Quin's mom and sisters got for her.

Here is a little better photo of the outfit. Also, note the fact that my sister just had a baby and she looks great.

The very proud grandma
The proud grandparents

Check out the blanket, I made that for Evelyn, again, with the help of my ever talented friend, Stacie

Me sewing the blanket
The full blanket
A close up of the blanket
I know that I am tooting my own horn a bit, but I am very pleased with it. I had to sew it twice, the first time I had to unpick all the seams and start over.

My dad makes me laugh. He is Crazy about Evelyn! It really is cute. I was burping her one night and he was so concerned that I was doing it too hard. If he had been doing it, he would have barely touched her.
My dad with his babies
Evelyn is going to think that her name is "Little one." You just can't help yourself. Whenever any of us are holding her, we always say in singsongy voice "hello, Little one."

Evelyn loves bath time. She even has a rubber ducky, you can kind of see it in the mirror.

Jessica's Wedding

2007-09-09T21:15:00.001-07:00

One of my oldest friends ever (we have literally known each other since we were babies, we probably knew each other in the pre-existance) got married about three weeks ago and I flew up to Utah to be there. She was married at the Salt Lake Temple on a beautiful day. I am so happy for her. Mike seems to be a great guy and I am sure they will be very happy together!

Here they are coming out after the ceremony. She look gorgeous and they look good together
I took a few pictures of the grounds after the ceremony. I walked around reminiscing. Jessica and I took a tour of the temple grounds the day I met Quin and Quin and I were married there so it was extra special. These are with my camera phone, I am pretty impressed with the quality.

Jessica and Mike dancing their first dance together as husband and wife
The two of us together at the reception. She had a garden reception at her grandparents, it was so nice!

The Super Scouter

2007-08-27T20:42:00.000-07:00

I had to post this picture of Quin in his scout uniform. I don't know why, but every time he wears this I have to laugh, he is just so adorable in it! I am sure that I am going to see him a lot in it because we are pretty sure that he is going to be a lifer (meaning he is going to be in scouts for the rest of his moral existence). It is probably hereditary.

Our Friends, THE Changs!!!

2007-08-27T20:14:00.000-07:00

Two weeks ago, we were visited by our good friends the Changs. We met them while living in Vegas and miss them a lot. They called us up and asked if we were busy because they had just decided to road trip it to Cali. Of course we dropped all of our public appearances for them.

These are THE Tori and THE Kameron. Tori was one of the girls that went up with Natalie to Girl's Camp 2006. They became friends; Best Friends. Kameron and I had lots of good times being sarcastic in young mens. Here we have young Becca.
Maggie (left) and Katie (right) had a little too much fun road trippin'.
This is Cindi (momma Chang) and Becca. Cindi is one of the greatest people you'll ever meet.

My first year at Girls Camp.

2007-07-29T20:02:00.001-07:00

The Meadows Ward 2007 Girls Campers

Well, this was my first year to go to the Church's annual girls camp, even if it was only Friday night and not the whole week. It is much different than the scout camps that I am used to. There is way more hugging and emotions!!! Although someone did accidentally cut their friend with a pocket knife, which made me feel more at home. The other "interesting" injury (there is always a good "interesting" injuries when working with the scouts) was some girl got glow stick juice in her eye when trying to wear it as eyeshadow. Overall it was really pretty fun!

This is a picture of Natalie defending us from nature (swattin' at flies).

I spent most of my time in the kitchen area and helping run the zipline.

Byron McArthur was the main zipline supervisor.

Byron's turn.

We made Natalie wear a helmet so she wouldn't hurt herself.

See what I mean?!

This is Jennifer McArthur. She is the naughty one that taught the girls how to make the zipline more thrilling.
Amber McArthur applying her older sister's teachings.

Sister McKeon the Stake young women's president.

Hannah Dartnell ziplining it.

I had a bag of gummy O's that melted in the car, so I gave the re-solidified Log-O-Gummy to Hannah and her friend Aly. It was hilarious to watch them take turns gnawing on it. I believe it is the longest that I have ever seen them go without talking.

Hannah (green shirt) and Aly (wearing helmet) still gnawing away.

From left to right: Sister Shelly Carter, Darian, Natalie, and Cassidy eating breakfast on the last day of camp. Cassidy was sporting the bed-head hairdo quite well.

And we finished off the trip with the traditional McNally's Burger lunch.

Welcome to the World Evelyn!!!

2007-07-29T19:41:00.000-07:00

Evelyn Gwen Rigby was born on July 28, 2007 at 12:48 pm. She was 6 lbs 10.5 oz and 18 inches long. She has curly brown hair and after much discussion, Quin and I think she has Andy's head shape and chin and Manda's face. Of course she is still kind of squished, so I guess we will see.

Manda says she is such a good baby so far. She is not fussy and the nurses tell her she is the only one in the nursery that wasn't crying. We are so happy to have a new niece (except that means Quin has just lost the 'favorite' status)! We can't wait to see her and hold her!

Go to this website for more pix of her. http://www.flickr.com/photos/10683794@N02/

Amanda's Test

2007-07-21T18:43:00.000-07:00

My sister Amanda is going to have a baby any day now and it made me remember something that happened while I was up in Utah.
My mom is going through chemo and if you are pregnant you cannot go into the room while an individual is getting the chemo treatment or even have contact with them for 24 hours. So I had to take a pregnancy test to make sure I wasn't pregnant, just as a precaution. We decided to have my very obviously pregnant sister go into the pharmacy and buy the test. I positioned myself where I could clearly see the cash register. Amanda walked up with pregnancy test in hand and plopped it loudly on the counter with the name of the product clearly visible. The cashier got a weird look on her face and said "Uhh, I think you are pregnant." Without missing a beat Manda replied, "I just want to make sure."
If any of you are wondering, it came out negative.

Natalie's Trip North

2007-07-09T19:59:00.000-07:00

I have been home from "The Frigid North" as Quin and I call it, also known as Utah and Idaho for over two weeks now, so I figured that it was time for me to post my pictures. I LOVE to look at pictures, but I never think to take them. The only reason I have these is because Quin and I talked on the phone about 10 times a day while we were apart and he told me to remember to take pictures every time we talked.

I had so much fun, it was good to see my family again, but I missed Quin so much. One of the reasons I went up to Utah when I did was for my little sisters baby shower. She is having a baby the end of July and Quin's place as the favorite will be usurped.

This is a scan of the invites. Amazingly enough, Quin helped me come up with the idea, sometimes I think he is more crafty than I am.

Manda is holding up her gift from me, burp cloths that I sewed. I thought we got a picture of me making them, but we couldn't find one.

Amanda and I made this diaper cake from scratch as the center piece. Quin told me to take lots of pictures. I got a ton of Amanda holding up her gifts and of the decorations and the food, but I didn't even think to take any of all of Amanda's friends and family. Oh well, next time I guess.

Amanda, my mom, and me at the end of the night. You can't really see it, but Amanda is large with child.

I managed to get up to Idaho for a night while I was in the vicinity. While I was there, Alyssa had a tea party with Johnny. It was the funniest thing. Johnny kept trying to run away and Alyssa would run him down and haul him back to the table. He finally gave in and sat there long enough for her to serve him. Of course, I don't have any pictures of anybody else because Quin forgot to remind me.

We took this picture the morning I left. I was so sad to go. I miss how beautiful it is there and I miss my family. This is a great picture though, I got a little bit of Quin's dog in the background.

Sheri's Bag

2007-06-18T21:14:00.000-07:00

About a month and a half ago my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. She is a trooper though and is going through chemotherapy. I made this bag with the help of my friend, Stacie Dartnell (Yes the same Stacie who Quin called a bad influence and helped me pick out my machine). We made this bag so my mom can take it to chemo and she can remember how much we love her.

Here the bag is being embroidered with her name and a pink ribbon (thanks for the help Stacie)

Here I am sewing away

It took a little while and a lot of effort, but I managed to get it done in time to take it with me to Ogden

Here my mom is modeling how great she looks with it!

Quin got a new toy

2007-06-09T15:33:00.001-07:00

Well, it is official!!! I got a new toy. I figured Natalie got a new toy so I needed one too. It is a Yamaha V-Star Classic 1100 cc's. It has aftermarket pipes so people know you're coming! And it sets off car alarms. Coooooool!!!

Ours! All ours now!

Awesomeness.

Pure raw awesomeness and Beauty.

DJ for Bishop

2007-06-08T17:46:00.000-07:00

In our spare time we usually have lots of fun. For example one of the types of things that we do is stay up really late on March 31 preparing for April Fool's Day. This year it was my buddy DJ's turn to be victimized. At 2:00 am April 1st Natalie, my friend Ryan, and I went over to DJ's house and took it upon ourselves to be his campaign managers, by hanging signs all around his neighborhood and staking signs in his front yard. He was running for Bishop. It was awesome!! When he called me up (early am on April 1) I could feel the icy chill in his voice when he let me know that I had finally crossed the line. Natalie and I just laughed and laughed. Then Natalie felt bad, so I called Ryan and we laughed and laughed. Later in the day DJ called back laughing at how funny it was and how we had gotten him pretty good.

Making signs

A list of all his qualities that make him the Indolent Party's choice.

Ryan Ledesma and Natalie hanging the neighborhood campaign signs.

Natalie got a new toy.

2007-05-29T21:30:00.000-07:00

Well, Natalie's friend is a bad influence on her. Stacey Dartnell took her shopping the other day and they brought home a new toy, a Bernina sewing machine.

She already sewed a shirt!

Quin's Bandage Job

2007-05-26T16:52:00.000-07:00

About a month ago or so, I inadvertently left the curling iron on. When I went to pick up the bathroom, I scooped up the items on the bathroom sink, including the curling iron. I burnt my arm pretty badly. I had a huge blister on my arm and when it finally burst, I had Quin put a bandage on my arm. Below is the result.

Yes, that is gauze, surgical tape, a Strawberry Shortcake bandage, and a Thomas the Tank Engine bandage. Perhaps this is why he became an engineer instead of going to medical school. However, my arm did heal quite nicely thanks to his doctoring.