2 months old!

My darling boy is 2 months old today! We just fall more and more in love with him every day! He is pretty darn fabulous and so very entertaining! I wanted to make a list of all the little things that make Blake, Blake.

Blake's little quirks:

- He wants to move SO bad! He is happiest when he is "standing" on someones legs and talking to them. He gets excited A LOT and moves his arm and legs all around.

- He rolled over 2 days before 2 months. I put him down on his tummy and he decided he didn't want to be there any more and just flipped right over. I was so shocked!

- He loves his baths. Especially when I wash his hair. He smiles so big when I pour water over his head. He also scoots down so his mouth is at the water level and tries to lick the water. We of course try to keep him from lapping up the soapy water, but he tries SO hard!

-In addition to licking water, he likes to lick just about anything near his mouth. An arm, his clothing, the water, his burp cloth. Anything he can get his hands on.

-He LOVES his daddy! Whenever Jon holds him Blake will just stare at Jon. It's pretty darn adorable.

-He is such a good baby. He really only complains when he is hungry. He has his daddy's appetite, but as long as we keep him full he is such a happy baby!

-Just this past week he has done a great job of sleeping at night. He's been going down around 7-10 and he'll sleep for 5-6 hours, wakes up to eat, and then will go back down until between 7 and 10 in the morning.

-He'll sleep just about anywhere, but probably sleeps best in his carseat. We have a cover that has been a complete life saver on stormy days, but it also works great for putting him to sleep. If we're out he starts to get fussy, I'll stick the binky in his mouth and cover him up and he goes right to sleep.

-He is a bit dramatic. He rarely gets really upset, but every once in a while he feels the need to complain about how hard life is. He has the funniest little complaining voice and he'll just talk and talk about it.

-He LOVES football. We can lay him down on the floor in front of football and he'll just stay glued to it for forever. It doesn't work with any other TV show, but football captures his attention.

-He is an absolute blast and keeps us laughing all day. We love him so much!

There are many other things that we just love about our little boy, but I'll leave it at that for now.

The Birth Story

Blake is finally here! Here is the long and detailed version of the events:

I was due on Saturday, September 10th and by that point was VERY done being pregnant! However, I woke up on the 10th with no signs whatsoever that labor was even remotely close. My dad was in town so Jon and I went in to Fort Collins to hang out with him. Jon and Dad spent the afternoon golfing while Mom and I ran errands. Unfortunately, the day continued with any excitement. Jon and I headed back home in the evening and I started having braxton hicks contractions pretty regularly. I started to feel hopeful and decided to go get some rest. I woke up Sunday morning disappointed that there was no baby and STILL having contractions. I continued to have them consistently up until Monday night. Tuesday morning I woke up super frustrated. I had signed on to cook this human until the 10th, this was now the 13th and I was SO DONE! Jon dropped me off at Mom's on his way in to work so I could keep myself busy with projects and didn't go crazy during the day. After work he picked me up and we went home to have dinner. While cooking dinner I started to feel a little funny. Jon and I decided to take a quick walk after dinner. We walked for about a half hour and nothing happened so I was sure it wasn't going to be that night. When we got back Jon went out to run some errands before he had to go to his night job. I was washing his uniform while he was out. I bent down to put his uniform in the washing machine and when I stood up I felt a little gush of fluid. Not enough to be sure I hadn't just peed a little. I went up to the bathroom to empty my bladder and change. I continued to leak fluid for the next 15 minutes and at this point I was starting to feel pretty excited. I was tempted to call my mom to tell her my water broke, but I was too scared it was a false alarm. I kept walking up and down the stairs because I noticed I leaked more when I was bouncing a little. I couldn't decide if I should call Jon and tell him to hurry home when my phone rang. It was my mom. I answered with a "how did you know to call me?". "Did you water break!?" she asked. I told her what was going and she got off the phone to put my sisters on alert. I called Jon but he didn't hear his phone so I sent him a text message telling him I thought my water had broken and to have him come home. At this point I had been leaking constantly for about a half hour but wasn't entirely convinced it was my water. So I called my friend Stacie to get her opinion since she had had a similar experience with her water breaking. She told me she thought it was probably my water but to wait it out for a little bit to make sure it didn't stop. While on the phone with Stacie Jon came racing in the door very excited. I got off the phone with Stacie and filled him in on what had been going on. My phone rang again and it was Mom telling me that her and Lizz were showered and heading over. Jon I picked up the house and then when Mom and Lizz got there we hung out for a little while waiting to make sure it really was my water. At about 9:30 after leaking for an hour and half and having non painful contractions every 3 minutes, I decided to call the on call doctor. He told me to go ahead and head over to the hospital. I showered and Jon tried to take a nap.

11:00 PM- We left to head over to the hospital. It was a really weird feeling to walk in to the hospital not really in pain. It was very different than I thought it was going to be. They put me in a triage room and tested to make sure I really was leaking amniotic fluid. The test was positive- I was officially in labor!

11:45 PM- They admitted me and I was moved to labor and delivery. However, I was only dilated to a 1 and 30% effaced.

1:00 AM- They finally got done with all their testing and Jon and I were instructed to try to rest. Mom and Lizz left to go get a little rest. I slept very little off and on while my cute nurse, Cindy, checked my vitals every 2 hours.

5:00 AM- My contractions had gotten slightly stronger, but not strong enough, so they had me get up and walk for a while. The contractions started to get much stronger while walking.

6:15- Mom and Lizz returned to the hospital after a very short night of sleep.

7 AM- My doctor came in to check on me. I was dilated to a 3 and 70% effaced. At least I was finally making progress!

8 AM- Jon and I went for a walk again to try to bring on stronger contractions. Contractions were starting to get to the point that I couldn't walk through them and after getting back to my room I threw up from the pain.

10:15 AM- CeeCee showed up to join the labor party!

10:30 AM- My contractions started to get really painful and I was having a hard time breathing through them

11:15- Courtney showed up to join the labor party!

11:20 AM- I got my epidural and became a much happier person!

1 PM- Dr. Guiroy came back to check on me. I was still only dilated to a 4 so they decided to put me on pitocin to hurry along the process

1:30 PM- My mom and sisters left to grab some lunch

3:15 PM- My mother-in-law arrived to join the labor party!

5:15 PM- They had to put me on oxygen because Blake's heart rate was dropping during contractions

5:45 PM- Nurse Amber checks me and I am dilated to a 7 and 80% effaced

8:00 PM- I started to go into transition and was sure I was going to die. I was shaking and very nauseous and had no idea how I was going to survive this delivery

8:30 PM- I was dilated to a 9 1/2 but still shaking so bad. I hadn't had anything to eat since Tuesday lunch (I was feeling icky and didn't want to eat dinner on Tuesday night) so my nurse, Amber, smuggled me in some apple juice. After that I started to feel much better.

9:20- Dr. Guiroy arrived and I started to push

After about a half hour of pushing I started to feel really defeated. I had no idea how I was going to survive this. They gave me a mirror so I could watch and know when I was pushing correctly. As time progressed, I started to see more and more blood because I was tearing pretty badly from the inside. After about an hour he was so close but couldn't make it out so they ended up cutting me. The next contraction, out came his head. I could feel his head come out and wanted to continue to push to get the rest of them out but Dr. Guiroy had me stop for a minute. My sweet baby boy had the cord wrapped around his neck once and then across his body. She had to turn him quickly and pull him out the rest of the way. He was born at 10:31 on Wednesday, September 14th. I looked down to see my sweet boy and was terrified to see the cord around his neck. He was blue and limp and all I could ask was "Is he ok? Is he ok?" Everyone assured me that he was find they told me they needed to take him straight to the heating lamp. The plan was to have Jon cut the cord, but since we were in a bit of a hurry Dr. Guiroy quickly cut it and handed him off to the nurse. They whisked him away to the heating lamps and I waited to hear the only sound that could make me feel better- his cry. Finally (after what felt like forever but I'm sure was only a few seconds) he started to cry. As soon as he started to cry his skin pinked up really well and he became a very normal looking baby. I sent Jon over to be with him while they stitched me up. It took them over an hour to stitch me after the tearing and about half way through that I was able to hold me sweet baby boy. I was so in love with him already! We passed him around and everyone got their chance to love on him and I was FINALLY able to eat something. At around midnight they moved us into our recovery room and we were left with just our sweet little family. Jon changed Blake's first diaper and we spent very little of the night actually sleeping, and most of it loving on our sweet baby.

We are so glad to finally have him here and are slowly learning how to be his parents! Hopefully he'll forgive us for all the mistakes I am sure we will make. Thank you to everyone for your support and love as we've gone through this crazy adventure!

Easter and Baby Ultrasound

Jon and I really enjoyed our first married Easter. We decided that since it will be our last major holiday before the baby will be here that we were going to go all out and really enjoy some time just the two of us. We got up in the morning and gave each other our Easter baskets in bed.

In my basket (in addition to lots of goodies including a giant diet Dr. Pepper) was a single egg with a poem inside leading me on a treasure hunt around the house to find the rest of my treats. It was really cute and my final treasure was an Ulta gift card. Which may be the greatest thing ever! After the treasure hunt Jon made breakfast while I got ready for church (I love being married!). After church we headed out to Greeley to spend the day with my family. We had a FABULOUS Easter dinner and then the kids did an Easter egg hunt. It was cold and rainy so it really didn't last for very long. But overall, it was a fabulous and low key Easter.

Monday morning was our ultrasound! My 2 older sisters and my Mom came along with us to the ultrasound so it was a blast to have everyone there! I woke up Monday morning with my tummy in knots. I was so nervous about it. And on top of that I had to drink 40 oz of water and hold it, so by the time I got to the ultrasound I had to pee SO bad. Check in was at 9:15 so my poor sisters had to leave Greeley before 8:45. We had the entire day planned out: we were going to find out gender, go out shopping for baby clothes, and then have lunch. Well we got in to the ultrasound and got to see babies little legs and arms and face... and nothing. Baby would NOT show us gender. It looked very squished in there, it's legs were tucked up underneath it. The ultrasound tech took some pictures and measurements and tried multiple times to figure out gender, but baby was just to squished to tell. So finally she let me go relieve my bladder and try again. There was absolutely NO way I was leaving without knowing gender. The day was planned around finding out gender. After peeing we tried again. Immediately we were able to tell... IT'S A BOY! And there is no "Oh, it's probably a boy". I am having a son! Jon was pretty excited. I think he'll really enjoy having a little boy to through around a ball with. We were able to continue with our plans for the day and go out shopping. I found a couple of cute things for my little munchkin. I'm so excited for him to get here, but I guess I should keep cooking him for the next 19 and half weeks.

Day #3: Favorite Food

I'm not sure if I can pick just one food, so I'll break it up in to categories.

Appetizer: I LOVE chiles chips and salsa!

Meal: Honestly, I don't really have one. Right now I crave Mexican food ALL THE TIME, but that could be because I have Jon's kid growing inside of me. I love cooking new meals I've never tried before, especially anything out of "Taste of Home" or that I can make in my crock pot.

Dessert: Although truthfully anything chocolate does the trick, my absolute favorite is French Silk Pie! The best is from Perkins. I've made a few myself, but I haven't found the perfect recipe yet.

Snack: FRUIT!!! At the moment it's apples and grapes. Any kind of berries and pears are also fabulous!

Day #2: Favorite Holiday

I absolutely love Holidays! Holidays means being with family, eating lots of yummy food, and getting to decorate! Whats better than that?

My Favorite Holiday is....

The 4th of July!

I love the 4th of July! It's the perfect time to eat lots of fruit (especially fruit salads!) and spend time outdoors. The last few years it has been our tradition to go up to Estes Park and watch the fire works. That might be another reason that it is my favorite, I love being is Estes Park. We usually walk around the shops all afternoon, eat dinner some place yummy, and then head back to the lake to watch the fireworks! It's fabulous! And I love getting to celebrate being an American! :) Talking about it makes me so excited for this 4th of July!

Here are some of my favorite 4th of July memories:

Trying to stay warm last 4th

Mom and I hanging out July 4th, 2009

Lauren and I riding the slides in Estes 2008

Avery, Lauren, and I at City Park for the 4th, 2007.

See you tomorrow!

30 Day Blogging Challenge

Happy Valentines Day!!!

So, I have decided to star the 30 day blogging challenge. There are 30 questions (one for each day) that I will be answering for the next month. It should be a blast! Feel free to join in with me! Todays subject: Introduction, recent picture, and 15 facts about yourself.

This picture was taken by my Sister-in-Law, Stephanie, heading in to my bachelorette party at PF Changs.

1. I just married my best friend, Jon, September 4th and am LOVING married life!
2. I have a very serious obsession with shoes. Shoe shopping is one of my favorite things to do. I have a tradition that I buy all my nieces and new pair or PINK shoes for their birthday every year!
3. My favorite place to go for the day is Estes Park. I LOVE all the cute shops and being in the mountains and just really everything about it.
4. I have 9 nieces and nephews, all of whom I adore!
5. I recently have developed a passionate love for all kinds of Mexican Food!
6. I work part time at American Eagle and love getting close at a discount! :)
7. I probably eat at least one apple a day, not because I'm trying to keep the doctor away, but because I love them!
8. I am a total wimp and if my husband isn't home when I'm going to bed, I have to leave the bathroom light on.
9. I LOVE to bake, and my Sister-in-Law, Stephanie, is a FABULOUS cook, but when we are together, we can't even manage to make cookies. It's become a bit of a joke.
10. Girls Nights with my sisters is one of my favorite things to do!
11. I rewatch episodes of Reba, Gilmore Girls, and Grey's Anatomy that I have probably seen a 100 times. On the plus side, those are a few of the TV shows I watch that my husband can stand.
12. I would LOVE to have another wedding, not to find a new groom, (I'll keep Jon) but because I had so much fun dancing the night away with my husband, family and friends at my wedding.
13. I LOVE seeing movies at the theater. They are ridiculously expensive (especially when you buy popcorn, coke and candy) but it is one of my favorite things to do on a Saturday.
14. I love love love all things CHOCOLATE!
15. I frequently feel the need to break out in song and dance for no particular reason.

Check back tomorrow for #2 :)

Memorial Day Weekend!

I got to go home for memorial day weekend which was really nice! I got home Thursday night and had been craving Quodoba for forever (since Rexburg has no real food) so I went and picked up dinner and met up with Jon!!! It was SO great to get to see him again! :) Friday morning I got ready and went out for a day with the girls. Mom, the sisters and I spent the day in Denver wedding dress shopping! Sadly, Steph wasn't able to make it for the weekend and she was greatly missed! We did, however, spend most of the day texting or calling her getting her opinion on lots of things! I found the PERFECT dress! It was like the 4th of 5th dress I tried on but we kept trying on dresses for a bit just to make sure. By lunch time we'd narrowed it down to just a few dresses and decided to take a break for lunch. We went to On the Border (yumm!!!), hit another dress shop, but then headed back because I was missing "my" dress. We tried on the ones that were still main contenders, but THE dress was still THE dress! Once I put it back on, I refused to take it off. We then played with veils and tiaras and then were looking at bridesmaid dresses and I just walked around the store in my dress. I didn't EVER want to take it off! The day was total success and I had a blast with my girls! Jon and I had a fun date planned for the night, but we were both too tired so we were going to rent a movie and just hang out, but ended up hanging out with his roommates and their girlfriends which was totally fun. The next day Courtney came into town and we spent the day running more wedding errands. That night Jon and I grabbed dinner and took it up to Horsetooth for a picnic. It was the first place he told me he loved me, so it was really fun to go back up there. Sunday I drug Jon to the ward I grew up in and got to introduce him to all my people which was so fun. After church we went down to Colorado springs to see Jon's family and meet his brand new baby nephew (pics to come when I get memory card adapter). Monday we got up and CeeCee came in to town to take our engagement pictures! She did an AMAZING job and we all had a blast! Thank you SO much CeeCee and Mommy for helping us with those :) ! Afterward we went out to Greeley for a memorial day BBQ at CeeCee's and got to make s'mores which is just about my favorite thing in the world. I hated going back to school on Tuesday, but I'd really missed my roommates and it was good to see them. I miss my family, and can't wait to come home again! Hope you all had a fabulous memorial day weekend too!

Girls Weekend

I love my girlfriends! They ALWAYS make me laugh!!! I got to hang out with my girls this weekend and it was a total blast. I took a trip down to Utah to go wedding dress shopping (I didn't find "the one" but I had a blast!!!) I got to stay at Lauren's new apartment and go shopping with Lauren and Laura. It was so great to hang out and laugh and reminisce about fun old times! It was great to chat about inside jokes. Good times!

I love you girls! Thanks for being my besties! And, on another note, I get to go home in 3 days! I have all sorts of fun plans with my family and the love of my life! I'm so excited to go wedding dress shopping with my mom and sisters and have date night with my man and go see my (future) baby nephew! Such a fun weekend planned. I can't wait!!!

Wedding Plans!!!

Well, it's official! The temple date has been set! Saturday, September 4th at 11:00 AM! Just under 4 months. I can't wait! College life is busy without planning a wedding, so needless to say, there's never a dull moment in my apartment! Things are starting to come together slowly. Jon and I are fortunate to have lots of connections. His mom is doing the invitations for us, my brother-in-law, Steve, is a phenomenal caterer, my sister-in-law makes beautiful cakes. We've met with some rental places on decorations, talked to a DJ, and have an appointment with the butter cream cupcakery. There is absolutely no way that I would be able to get this done without the help of my AWESOME family. Especially my mom, she's helping out so much! My colors are Victorian lilac (a dark, dusty purple) and buttercream yellow with a touch of navy blue. And I'm going with a sort of fairytale vintage theme. I can't wait!

School is going really well. I'm enjoying all my classes, not so much the homework though. I LOVE and adore the girls I live with. We have so much fun together! We're all going to a BBQ tomorrow that I'm super excited about! And then hopefully to go see Iron Man 2. It's been a blast, but I am, of course, missing home and Jon quite a bit. Just over 10 weeks and I'll be home again!!!

Also, Happy Birthday to my beautiful and amazing sister! I love you Cee Cee! 25 looks AMAZING on you! ;) Wish I could be there to celebrate with you! Hope you have a fabulous"you" day! Love you Sister!

I'M ENGAGED!!!!

Well, unless you have no access to facebook or anyone in my family with a phone, you have probably heard. But just in case you haven't.... I'M ENGAGED!!! But even for those of you who have heard I wanted to post the entire proposal story.

I left Thursday afternoon to return to Idaho for my second semester. Jon and I had been talking about marriage but I asked him not to propose until after I had left for Idaho. I told him I didn't care if it was the day after, as long as it was after. So Thursday we had our tearful goodbye and I headed of to live approximately 587 miles away from my love. The next few days were very rough and emotional. I had a difficult time getting in to my apartment because of a misunderstanding and I had that extra stress on top of the stress of moving in. It was FABULOUS to see my roommates again, but also really hard to be away from Jon. We were talking on the phone several times a day, and he seemed to be taking the long distance thing a whole lot easier than I was. Saturday night he called me on his way home from work and seemed very distant and distracted the entire conversation. At 9:30 he told me he wasn't feeling well and needed to go to bed. I though this was very strange since he sounded just fine, but told him to go get some sleep. He immediately accepted this response and was anxious to get off the phone. I was feeling very down at this point and went to crawl in to Jule's bed with her and Syd (which is by the way a twin size). I was telling them how down I felt about the whole situation and didn't feel like I was getting much sympathy. They were being a little weird and just laughing off certain things I said. When I jokingly made a comment about how comfortable we all were and that we should just sleep like that Syd quickly and sternly replied "NO". Feeling rather lonely and confused, I went to bed, planning to wake up at 8 the next morning for church.

Morning came and I was woken up by someone shaking me. I rolled over and looked up and saw Jon standing there looking very handsome in his suit. I was SO shocked to see him there. The first words out of my mouth were "what are you doing here? you can't be here!" Syd and Jules sat in the hallway and captured (blury but sweet) pictures of the magical moment.

I was so excited to see him I didn’t notice he was holding a ring. I just wanted to hug him!

Oh goodness I love this boy!

Telling me he loves me and needs me and doesn’t want to ever have to do anything without me and asking me to be his wife!!!

Trying on the ring!!!

VERY happy to be engaged!

My BEATIFUL ring (with wedding band)

We spend the remainder of the week cuddling on the couch, doing dinner with friends, shopping in IF, watching movies, playing at the park, making wedding/marriage plans, and spending LOTS of time on the phone with our relatives sharing the good news! It was an amazing weekend and very hard to see him leave on Tuesday night. But, now I get to put my missing him time in to planning a wedding!

By the way, we’re tentatively planning on a September 4^th wedding. We know that’s at a difficult time for everyone but would love to see as many of you as can make it.

Back to Idaho

Wow... time flies! I head back to Idaho tomorrow to start my spring semester at BYU-Idaho! I have a lot of mixed feelings about it. I'm excited to be going back to college life but sad to be leaving home. I move in to my old apartment on Friday, and start school again on Tuesday. At the very least, it should be an adventure. I believe it will be a semester of transition and changes for sure. I look forward to it and will be sure to keep you updated! :)

PS: September (particularly Labor day weekend) may be a very very good time to make a visit to Colorado ;)

You know when you feel old???

When you have a baby niecelet that is turning 9, that's when! Little Avey Baby is 9 years old today! Crazy! My very first niece is 9 years old! I love you Baby Girl!

Avey Baby,

I love you! You are such an awesome little helper! You have a huge heart and always seem to know what people need! You are always first to offer a hug or help in whatever is needed! You are growing up so fast and you are so mature! You are a beautiful and independent young woman! Keep up the great work baby girl! I love you! Happy Birthday!

Love,

Auntie Mary

Goodbye 2009!

I have to say, 2009 was probably the biggest year of my life to date. It's crazy to think about my life a year ago. I was a high school student living in Ft. Collins, and now I'm a college student living (most of the year) in Rexburg, Idaho. It's been a lot of fun! I've met some amazing people (miss you Syd!) and learned a lot!

Highlights of my 2009:

Avey Baby got baptized!

I had my Senior Prom!

I Finally graduated from High School! It was weird, you work toward something for so long, and it's a strange feeling when you finally accomplish it.

I went camping and a bear tried to attack our tent. What an experience!

I turned 18 and embraced my inner princess!

I moved to Idaho and love it there! And started College and BYU-Idaho

I got roommates and met some of my new best friends!

I took a roadtrip to Idaho with my new best friends to surprise my nephew, Bryce, for his 15th birthday. On our way back we hit a crazy snow storm, all the roads shut down, and we were stuck in a hotel in Laramie for the night. We ordered Pizza and watched "say yes to the dress" and thoroughly enjoyed our adventure!

I went to see David Archuleta with my Bestie! Does life get any better?

I moved back to Colorado and will be spending the next 4 months working here until going back to BYU-Idaho

2009 brought with it lots of fun surprises and twists! I can't wait to see what 2010 brings! Happy New Year!

One of those Days...

"I know that God will not give me more than I can handle

... I just wish he didn't trust me so much"

An Update on Life in The Burg...

Hello Everyone!

Things are pretty crazy right now! I'm down the the last week and a half of school. I have a portfolio for my infant and toddler class due on Thursday, a test for my math class to take over the weekend, my CIT final on tuesday, a magazine form of articles for my english class due on wednesday, a math takehome test due on wednesday, a BOM final on wed, and on top of all of this I have to move all by my self for the first time. For the past 2 weeks my roommates and I have been searching for a storage unit. We finally found one, but the person we were talking to weren't willing to give us the advertised price, so we spent a decent amount of the day on the phone trying to get the correct price. Well, we finally have a storage unit and i'm going to start moving things in on Thursday (Mommy's birthday! :) ). I honestly have no idea how to move OUT of an apartment. I bought a few plastic tubs to store my stuff in, but it was hard to try to guesstimate what size tubs I would need. It's a new experience, and a stressful (but exciting one). I can't wait to be back in Colorado and with my family! Although I am deffinately going to miss the Burg and the people here

Happy Holiday Everyone!

I must be crazy...!

College life...

It is about a half hour after midnight on a Tuesday night (or Wednesday morning by now I guess), and I am just now starting most of my homework. I was planning to start when I got home from Classes at 4:30, but the internet was down for a long time so I couldn't get anything done. A little while after the internet came back up my roommate asked me to join her on a movie date. Apparently they had plans and they had one more guy than girl and I'm incapable of saying no-so I agreed. Silly me. I know have about 3 hours of math to do and a 9:00 class. I'm going to be VERY tired tomorrow! So why am I sitting here blogging? Well... like I said... I must be crazy!!!

Oh Brother...

My brother sent me a HILARIOUS e-mail today about "You live in Colorado if..." and one of them was about how if a Coloradoan steps out on to the front porch and there is a bear standing there we wouldn't be startled. I mentioned that I would be scared but not particularly shocked. And this is the conversation that followed (over about 15 text messages):

(You have to hear it in Lon's voice for it to really be funny!)

"Right but you would also be like that's cool"- and "I wonder what that tastes like" and "I bet I could pet him- he looks REALLY cute!" Cali's would be like..."OMG! We are like totally going to die- and gross is he drooling on the deck"- and then CO would tell them "thats not a bear...its my dog." And then Cali would say- "no way that is NOT a dog! Dogs are little and cute and you can carry them in your purse with you on the airplane and to get your hair done." And then CO would say -"No, that's not a dog, that is a chijuajua literally translated to mean 'Mexican shark Bait.'" And then Cali says..."I can't believe you would say that about Snoots(her chiuaujua) I bet you think ti would be good to just keep driving your SUV until the Polar Bears died from global warming. And then CO said "Look it's one thing to take care of of the enviro. But another to be a prius driving freak!" Then Cali gets pissed and she storms off, out onto the deck and the dog who was really a bear (CO was just making a joke) and the bear eats her and she dies screaming "I hate your dog!" And then CO says "it's not a dog-learn to take a joke- and by the way- God hates Queers!" And laughs and walks away.

I may have peed a little I was laughing so hard! Pretty entertaining!

Crazy College Road Trip

I have been missing home a lot recently and Bryce's 15th birthday was coming up so I had been thinking about making a trip home to see the family. I brought it up to my roommates andthey were very excited about that idea! So, we started making plans for a trip back to Colorado. I told my Dad and CeeCee but I was planning to surprise everyone else. Our plan was to leave Friday around 11 after everyone got out of classes. Well Whitney ended up getting out of class late and we ended up eating lunch in town instead of grabbing something at the drive thru so we could eat with our other roommate that wasn't coming and didn't end up getting on the road until around 12:15. That was still going to hopefully put us in around 9:30 and I was very excited to surprise my mom and Lizz that night. We had absolutely perfect weather until we hit about Rock Springs. At that point it was starting to get snowy, cold, and dark- never a good combination. It was about this point in the ride that we all started praying very hard. Shortly after this point we hit basically white out conditions and had to slow our speed to below 45 mph. We were about 10 miles outside of Laramie when we came to a stop on the highway. It was like being parked in a Semi Truck parking lot. Whitney and Jamie were brave enough to get layered up and go knock on a truck driver's door to find out what was going on. We found out that there were 2 semi trucks that had jack-knifed and were rolling down the hill. We were parked for 45 minutes before traffic FINALLY started moving (very very slowly).

This is us parked on the road pretty board but staying warm and snacking!

When we finally reached Laramie we found out that ALL roads in every direction were closed. We were stranded in Laramie for the night- unfortunately, so was everyone else, so we were really worried about finding a hotel room. I was on

the phone with my Dad and he was on the phone with Days Inn and was fortunately able to find us a room!

We ordered pizza and drinks and watched a movie and just made the best of it! It's not hard to enjoy being stuck in a hotel room w

ith your best friends.

The roads FINALLY opened up around 11 on Saturday and we booked it out out to meet the family for Bryce's surprise lunch. We were meeting at Old Chicago's in Centerra at 12. We didn't get there until about 12:30 so poor CeeCee had to stall. CeeCee told us what table they were at so we walked right in and walked up to the table and said "Hey guys, sorry we're late". It was fun to see everyone's surprised faces. I wish I could relive that moment over and over. Lizz started crying, Bryce hopped up to hug me, and Brynlee walked up and kept saying "Mary, I lost a tooth. Mary, I lost a tooth". It was so fun to hug everyone and introduce everyone to my roommates! Unfortunately, Courtney and her family couldn't make it to lunch but that was fun because we got another round of surprises. After Old C's w

e went back to CeeCee's for cupcakes. Courtney and her family were there when we walked in and Brielle saw me when I walked in and got a really excited look on her face and ran up to hug me. Next I saw Avery and she came running up to hug me. Courtney heard the kids screaming at me and walked around the corner and gave me a hug! It was so exciting!

The trip was way way way too short- but very fun! My roommates loved my family and we had so much fun with them! The drive back was pretty uneventful except for almost hitting a deer. I'm still trying to catch up on the sleep I lost this weekend- but it was well worth it.

The next time I drive home from Idaho I want it to be with Lon and Steph, that work for you guys?

College Life

Hey guys!


I thought I would give an update on my college life. It's been an absolute blast but it's so busy all the time! I feel like I haven't stopped running since I got here! But, (this one is for you Court) I am making good choices. Fortunately, thats not hard here. Every day is packed full with wholesome activities- too many of them! This weekend for example: on friday when we got out of class the girls (my roomies) took a road trip to Idaho Falls to do some shopping. We got back around 7 and touched up makeup and hair and went over to our FHE brother's apartment to hang out. We hung out there for a while and then went to a ridge dance party- when we decided that party was lame we went down town for another dance party but decided that was way too crowded and went to Ramire's and then back to our apartment to watch a movie. Saturday we got up, got ready, I ran some errands, and then we went shooting with a couple guy friends. After shooting we went to get DQ and then were planning on going home and just chilling. But then we got a call from another group of guys who wanted to the bonfire so we ended up doing that. We weren't planning on doing anything on Sunday but ended up feeding a huge group of guys (like 12) dinner and then are heading over to our FHE boy's apartment for dessert and games. It's a pretty crazy life but I'm loving every second of it! I didn't know I could feel so home sick and miss my family so much and be having so much fun at the same time!

My new best friends!

Graduation!

I thought it was about time I got some of my graduation pictures up.

I graduated from High School May 23rd and it turned out to be a fabulous day! My family is absolutely amazing and decided to all make matching hot pink shirts so that they would be visible in the crazy crowds of graduation. They're the best and everyone looked adorable!Even my amazing Brother-in-laws, nephews, and cousins wore the hot pink shirts, what men!

The whole family in their hot pink shirts. Seriously, how awesome are they?!

My awesome College friends at my graduation party

The Graduation Party set up

And, the best surprise of all. I was taking pictures with my Mom, Dad, and Lizz, and my mom turned around and asked, "who's standing behind us", I turned around and my brother was standing there. I got super excited, jumped up, accidently screamed in his ear, and started crying. I was so excited that he was there! I couldn't believe it! Thanks for coming Bubba! I love you!!!

Typical Graduation picture.

My AWESOME brother!

Sister picture!

Overall it was an absolutely fantastic weekend! Thank you so so much to all of you that were there, especially all of you who traveled to be there. It honestly meant the world to me! To all of those who weren't able to make it, know that you were missed and I love you!