Our little Pepper is 18 months old

I tried SOOOOO hard to get a cute picture of Lola after church on her first day going to nursery.  Every single picture had some sort of a blur in it...the little stinker was so excited and happy and just kept running around the kitchen like a little chicken.  It was pretty cute.  I resorted to a video, which turned out quite adorable.

 

And here she is the next morning.  If there is anything around that can be climbed, she's on it.  Subsequently, she has several bumps and red spots on her head. 

This stage of development has been a lot of fun to witness.  I want to start practicing homeschooling by having an educational activity planned every day.  Nothing big, just something to challenge her mind and encourage her creativity.  I would also like to find some sort of a play-thing for the backyard that would provide a good climbing set-up.  Lola naps and sleeps so well when she can run around like crazy, so anything to facilitate that would be great!

Yesterday we spent the evening with my brothers and their families.  My nephews and nieces adore Lola, and they keep her very active.  She slept like a champ last night!

We love this sweet girl.  I'm trying to intentionally slow down to really cherish this time in her life. :)

Family Visit in February

I'm playing catch-up on the blog today.

In Febraury, my parents, my sis, and her boyfriend came to visit us for a weekend. It was nice to have family visit.

My Mom and Dad hanging out on our couch just after arriving.

Par for the Mecham Course, we ate a lot. We had Indian food one night, my dad filled my fridge with groceries, we snacked, I introduced my mom and sis to Costa Vida, we all ate at Thaifoon, etc. Soooo much food.

On Friday and Saturday that weekend, we girls went up to Ogden to Time Out For Women. Patrick's mom was able to attend the event as well, and we stayed the night at her house. It always amazes me how hard it is to be away from Patrick overnight. Even when it's just one little night. What can I say? I love snuggling with him!

Time Out For Women was amazing. I know I got a lot out of it, and I hope everyone else did to.

My dad and Kosette's boyfriend, Matt, went skiing on Friday and toured around Salt Lake City on Saturday. Patrick unfortunately had to work during both days.

On Sunday, Patrick and I spent some time with my parents, and we went to the library so my dad could take some architectural photographs. I love watching my dad look at awesome architecture. It's when I see the passion for what he does for a living, rather than the day-to-day lethargy that we all kind of develop towards our careers. My dad is a great architect.

The view from the top of the Salt Lake City Public Library.

I've lived in Utah for almost 8 years, and I finally got a library card. :)

My parents at the top of the library. It was a bright and windy day!

These little books are hung in the shape of a head in the library. It made me think of the tv show, Reading Rainbow that I watched allllll the time as a kid. And then the song was stuck in my head for the remainder of the day.


There you go...now it can be stuck in your head all day. :)



Kosette and Matt (sitting in a tree...K-I-S-S-I-N-G...)

The last night we were together, my sis and her boyfriend made a vegetarian feast for us. I think they thought we were feeding 10 more people. I had leftovers for a week! It was a great meal, though. I really enjoyed sitting around the dinner table and just enjoying conversation and time together as a family.

Thanks, Mom, Dad, Kosette, and Matt for visiting and staying with us. I'm so grateful for a wonderful family!!!

Playing with food

The kitties have been at it again:







What talented kitties we have!!! :)

Mmm, bread.

Here is a picture of the bread I made a week or so ago. It's not my favorite white bread recipe I've ever used, but it was easy. I thought about making bread again this last week, but it is a bit time consuming. I think I'll add bread to our grocery list and make this a monthly habit to make home made bread. I need to get the few ingredients I didn't have to make the recipe my mom always used. It's much more moist.

Photos from our stop in Boulder City, NV

My handsome hubby with deep dam thoughts...

Wild desert flowers. I figured out how to use the super macro setting on my camera! :)

More desert flowers

and more

and a desert plant in bloom.
I'm so happy I got to see some desert plants/flowers at their prettiest stage.


Our stop in Boulder City was really nice.
We stayed at La Hacienda for $20, went 4-wheeling in Patrick's Jeep,
ate a lot of food, explored the dam and nature,
got a shower and some good (much needed) sleep.
It was our first time staying in a hotel
AND
doing a random little adventure together.
Crazy, huh?

It was way overdue. :)

DORK

Yes. I am. But so is Patrick. :) We had biscuits and gravy this morning. I was on biscuit-patrol and Patrick was on gravy-duty. He makes the best gravy!! So, I made some biscuits and put a little creativity into it:



And he called me a dork. :) Well, I'll be as dorky as possible if it tastes this yummy!!!

Whoa...

Before I forget, I wanted to post a picture of Patrick's car that he (THANK GOODNESS) sold a month or so ago. He is now the proud owner of a '89 Jeep Cherokee Pioneer. It's much nicer, and we can go 4-wheeling and camp in difficult to reach places. Yeah! :)


In case you can't read it, it says "General Wee" above the passenger side doors. Patrick's buddy, Dirty, spray painted it one day. Needless to say, our neighbors don't like us much. Oh well. :)

The guy that bought the car from Patrick said he liked the paint job, and "any girl that won't ride in it isn't the girl for me." While I think that is adorable...I wouldn't ride in it post-paint job. I'm all about being an individual, but that was a little too much for me. Patrick sure got a kick out of that car, though, and that's what matters.

My baby

Here is the picture of Patrick before he rode off in the rain on his motorcycle last Thursday. Isn't he cute with a plastic diaper?? :)

Smiles

This picture makes me happy. Patrick is so handsome, and I love his smile. Whenever I need a bright little "pick-me-up" I look at this picture.

I love you babe!

Alison's Work Christmas Party

It's hard to type with a kitty sleeping on my lap...oops, she woke up and is off to find a more accommodating pillow.

It's snowing again. This is a double-sided coin. I miss the beautiful white coat over everything and the clean air. I don't miss driving in it or being cold all the time. Still...it's winter, and it's cold. Therefore, there better be snow to make me feel like I'm freezing for a reason!

I thought I'd post some pictures of Patrick and me from my work Christmas party a couple weeks ago:

Apparently we blinked at the wrong time....both of us! :) I cut Patrick's hair. Doesn't he look fabulous?? Okay, hot is a better word.


Better picture. (other than my blasted double chin!)

It was a fun party. We held it at Sky Box at the Gateway, and everyone got a $50 card to play games in there arcade. That was a blast. We ate pizza and nachos and some awards were given out. I love the people I work with. I think that's why I still enjoy my job after 1 1/2 years. And Patrick gets along with all of them, so it's great.

Our Christmas

We had a lovely Christmas Day. Patrick brought me with him to the shop where he works so he could finish making his mom's present. He hand-made a trough bird feeder that will be mounted under her kitchen window so she can watch the birds come eat. Ever little fold, bend, twist, etc. was done by Patrick. He's so talented! It was fun to watch him weld and grind his creation.

...something about my man with a welding mask, working on hot metal....mmmm.....

This is the finished product. Jana might paint it, and she might leave it as raw metal. Either way, there are some cool details. And it only took Patrick a handful of hours to make.


Jana LOVES it. :)

This is Patrick's Grandma Claire, his mom, Jana, and his step-dad, Jerry.

Patrick's sister, Lissy and her husband, Dan.
Very cute picture.

This is what we had to drive home in. It was a long and not-so-fun ride home from Brigham City.

After we got home, we decided we should shovel the walks since it was still snowing pretty hard. It's easier to shovel less snow twice than a huge amount once. So, I grabbed our neighbor's shovel, Patrick grabbed ours, and we went to town. I shoveled the neighbor's walk and by their car to be nice, and in front of another neighbor's house. This picture was taken after we were "done."

As you can see, it kept snowing, and there was already a new layer of snow when we walked into the house. When we got up the next morning, you couldn't even tell that we had shoveled anywhere. Our neighbor, Shay was out shoveling the sidewalk, so Patrick got out there and shoveled our walkway again. (And he got all the snow off of my car...what a sweetheart!)

It snowed about 12 inches on Christmas day, on top of a previous 2 weeks of snowing every day. I was gone for most of the two weeks, thank goodness. My body was not meant to live in the snow. By far, this was the whitest Christmas I've ever experienced.

A Day in the Park

Here are some pictures that my sis-in-law took when we were visiting them the day after Thanksgiving:

Here is my dad with Braedi and Kendall. He is such a cute grandpa, especially when it comes to being a total sweetheart with his granddaughters.


Something about being in the Arizona sun again... That was a great nap!!
And thank you, Christy, for the candid shot. :)


We were playing Keep Away with a kick ball, which was fun. The kids loved it until their turn in the middle took too long. Then you had to kick it close enough that they could get it and get out of the middle.

New Background & Picture

I updated our background for this season of Thanksgiving and changed the picture to one that has appropriate colors. I don't love this picture of us, but it'll do. One thing I want to do in the next month or so is to get some pictures taken of us by someone who knows what they are doing. Maybe I'll hit up my sister-in-law while we're in Phoenix for Thanksgiving. She has a knack for photography. Their family blog is full of super cute family and kid pictures. If/When it happens, I'll be sure to post them!

Patrick's Baby

On August 12th (we think), Patrick got his Triumph Bonneville. It was seriously like taking a kid to a toy store to pick out a toy he's been drooling over for months. Something along the lines of Ralphie dreaming about getting a Red Ryder BB Gun for Christmas. Here are a few pictures from the exciting occasion:

Waiting to sign the paperwork.
A supportive wife. :)
Patrick sitting on the Triumph Thruxton...he wanted that one, but it just wasn't as comfortable as the Bonneville.
The salesman brought out Patrick's Bonneville.

Patrick's first perch on his new girlfriend.

The close-up. Look at that grin!

The beautiful and sexy Triumph Bonneville.

Patrick brought her outside, ready to ride off into the sunset.

And off into the sunset he rides...

Model A Sittin' Pretty!

Hello!!! I am happy to announce that there has been significant progress made in the hot rod department!

Patrick, his friend, Tom, and Tom's son, Dyllan, helped move the body into the correct position on the frame. They did some cutting of metal with a plasma cutter. The circuit/breaker kept shorting, so when I was out there I wasn't able to try out the plasma cutter. Bummer. Most of the day I just kept hopping up to switch the breaker.

It is nice to see some progress, though! Here are some pictures: