Shop til you Drop:

Tyler's not a big fan of shopping until we discovered this consignment store: Plato's Closet. They give you cash on the spot for your "gently used" name brand clothes. Sweet deal. What's even sweeter was that while I was waiting for them to go through my clothes I brought in I browsed the clothing racks and found a BRAND NEW, TAGS STILL attached white button up blouse from banana republic. It regularly retailed for $58! Guess how much I paid? $14! The fabric feels so good, you can obviously tell it's high quality. I was happy about the good find, and who CAN'T use a basic white button up shirt? I mean, it'll never go out of style. It is tailored very nicely, and has great seams. I will be sure and take a picture of it when I wear it on Sunday. I LOVE a good bargain. My mama taught me there's nothing better than a great deal.

Poor Quincy was so exhausted from his shopping adventures he fell asleep on Tyler while I was trying on my shirt. My boys are such good shopping troopers!

FINALLY!

I was so dissappointed that my little garden hasn't been doing as well as I hoped. I have lots of green tomotoes, but had to wait forever to get his ONE red tomato:

I love fresh tomotoes out of the garden, since Tyler hates them, I will get to enjoy all the rest by myself.

Just Call Me Racheal Ray

Even though Tyler insisted that he didn't NEED anything for his birthday and tried to convince me a baked potato and chili was good enough for dinner.....I ended up winning the conversation. I told him to pick whatever he wanted for dinner and I'd make it, with no complaints of course. He finally decided on eating some oven baked Pork Tenderloin. I paired this tasty meat with some oven baked potatoes, all of which were marinated in some yummy honey and spice rub seasonings. Then I steamed some green beans for a little veggie on the plate. It was delicious!! I was pretty proud of myself.

So I know that many chefs do a two in one meal, Racheal Ray does them all the time, so like I said, just call me Racheal Ray. After We had a yummy birthday meal I transformed it into some spicy, sweet, and sour stir fry. I used the left over pork tenderloin and stir fried it with some sliced carrots, broccoli and green onions. Then I made some sweet and sour sauce form scratch and thoroughly coated the vermicelli noodles. It was really good and the best part is that it lasted for two more meals!

I LOVE leftovers!

Happy Birthday Tyler!

I remember it all so clearly... the first time that I met Tyler, and the many times that we hung out after that first meeting. Tyler had been and still is one of the best men on this Earth, at least I think so. He was always the first one to crack a joke, the one who wasn't affraid to join in a pick up game of two on two, even though the 'other two' were about twice his size. Tyler has always been up for a challenge, no matter what. Tyler made me smile, and it's still something which makes him irresistably charming; He can make me smile even when I don't want to, and try as I may I can never stay mad because he knows how to make me laugh.

After many months of dating and courtship, I came to realize that Tyler was the man of my dreams. He provided security and safety, respect for me, love, kindness, laughter, fun, and so many other things. It was one of the best days of my life when he finally proposed to marry me. Although, Tyler might have been a little reluctant to get married at first, or the thought of it anyway, he has been one of the most caring spouses anyone could ask for.

Tyler cared for me when I needed it most, he showed me love when I felt discouraged, he supported me, pushed me to become better, he never judged or criticized. I thought I loved him so much then, little did I know it would grow to be even more.

On May 6, 2006 Tyler and I were married in the Portland, OR temple for time and all eternity. We had begun our little family... just the two of us. The first months of our marriage were both amazing and trying. It was so great to finally be able to share everything with the man I loved, and yet there were times were we both got on eachother's nerves. Through great times and bad times, Tyler's stuck by me. He has made it clear that he will always love me no matter what. He has clearly outlined that his intention is to stand by me forever. He has vowed to never give up on us. I believe him. We have shared so many wonderful experiences together, had so much fun--- Tyler's always been about having fun-- although he knows how to be taken seriously too. I remember one particular time where we experienced countless occassions of having our jeep break down. The times it stopped running never seemed to be convienant (like when we were in Utah with no friends or family near us) and I remember wanting to cry or yell. I looked to Tyler during those times because he showed such great strength. When I wanted to loose control I was comforted in Tyler's faith that everything would work out. My husband is amazing! I thought that our life wouldn't get any better than it was. Tyler was everything I wanted in a husband.

Then came the time that we started discussing having an increase in our family's numbers. At first, like the thought of the responsibilty of marriage, Tyler was nervous. I mean, having a baby requires A LOT of responsibiity! This was probably one of the few times where I showed a little faith, reassuring him it would all be fine. The day finally came where we knew we were going to have a new addition to our little family. Tyler was SO excited to be a dad! The day I told him he couldn't wipe that smile off his face. Tyler was religious about going to my doctors appointments. He held my hand when they had to draw blood, when they gave shots, he smiled at me when I felt scared, he went to every childbirth class, and even managed to keep his eyes open during the majority of the acutal childbirth video. He was incredible.

August 15, 2007 arrived, the day of our baby's birth. Tyler was right there by my side the whole time. He was so kind and did such a great job making sure that I was taken care of. He regulated our family and kept them updated, made sure that I was comfortable, and spoke sweet words when I needed to hear them. Little Quincy finally greeted us at 1:17PM and Tyler was in awe from the moment he laid on eyes on his son. In the recovery room, after I was finished in surgery I watched my husband carefully hold our baby boy. His eyes were so full of love. He was gentle, and though I had never seen Tyler even hold a baby before Quincy was born, he looked like a natural father. He did such a wonderful job the weeks after Quincy was born helping me and caring for Quincy. He has been a great dad!

.

Tyler loves to watch Quincy play...and in many ways Quincy resembles his dad... he always makes Tyler laugh. He rough houses around with his son, feeds him, changes a fair share of diapers, and reads to him. Tyler has been a wonderful husband and an awesome dad. We are so blessed to have him to love us, care for us, and make us laugh.

Happy 27th Birthday Tyler! We love you so much!!

Get Yer Motor Runnin'

Quincy's been enjoying his four wheeler a lot lately. Tyler even pushed him around the front yard. I did it too, but not as many times as Tyler did because I was busy taking pictures.

Faster dad faster!

Notice that Tyler's looking a little tired from running him around.

Here are some snapshots of Quincy at the end of his ride doing a victory dance for the awesome ride Tyler gave him. There is a button on one that sings a song and he likes to dance like this:

Who Ate the Cookie Dough from The Cookie Dough Bowl?

The other day I decided to brave a new cookie recipe. It was from the cookbook my mom gave me for Mother's Day that has recipes the young women in her ward gathered from Friends and family. I have to say, there have been some really yummy recipes in there so far, at least baking ones-- I haven't felt creative enough to start trying the cooking ones--. Anyways, I made these cookies called Pinwheel cookies (From Abbie Pickett's grandma). They were really good... peanut butter cookies swirled with chocolate... next time around hopefully mine will look prettier though, they were more in the shape of biscotti than cookies, but they tasted great!

I let Quincy have the big wooden spoon to lick the dough off and where do you think our little cookie dough thief ran to to eat his goodies? Right in the corner behind the arm of the couch; It's where he likes to hide with anything he's not supposed to be doing. He's so funny, because even though I GAVE him the spoon, he somehow felt it was a forbidden pleasure and thus he needed to lick his spoon in the privacy of his secret corner. What a funny boy!

Exposing too much?

Quincy is finally starting to fit into his 12 month and 18 month clothes! Whoo hoo! I look at him, and though his growth has been slow and steady, I've suddenly seen a huge change in him. He's more mobile, running, walking, and has the ocassional crawl. He's picked up on little things that we do, like for isntance he realizes that we talk on the phone--- not only do we talk on the phone, but he knows that there is a voice on the other end of the phone and he also knows how to hold it to his ear so he can hear the voice. It's s amazing to see him learn things like that which we have never explained to him, even if we did try and explain it's still a difficult concept to learn.

It also reminds me that Tyler and I have to be cautious about the things which we expose him to, or unintentionally expose him to-- like TV--we will also have to watch the things we say to eachother. I mean, even a seemingly harmless comment, like: "Don't be stupid" could turn ugly when he starts calling everyone stupid. We are excited for his new enthusiasm in learning, and it's scary at the same time; Scary to think that our sweet innocent little boy will be exposed to the many horrible, sinful, awful, terrible things that are in our world. Although, I know there are also many great things we have to look forward to him being exposed to, like the knowledge of the gospel, the spirit, and the plan of happiness. It's comforting knowing that along with all the bad things in this world, our Heavenly Father has given us such great things too. Our little boy sure is growing up!



So because he's been sick with a runny nose this past week, he's had a difficult time breathing when he sleeps. We are consistent about giving him medicine to help, but it doesn't always do the trick. On this particular day I found him taking a nap over this mound of blankets in his crib, snoring really loudly. He didn't even wake up when I took a picture or two. I think he's nearing the end of his little cold, cross our fingers it doesn't get worse.

Happy Grandparents Day!

I just wanted to say happy grandparents day to both Quincy's grandparents! We are so lucky to have such wonderful parents who love us. Not only do they love us, but they absolutely adore our baby! Quincy loves his grandparents very much and has so much fun when they're around. I assume mostly that's because they spoil him rotten each time they see him. Anyways... sorry this is so short, I promise I will be posting some new pictures this week, I don't work this week (not that I'm aware of yet) and so I will get around to it.

Happy Grandparents Day!

Labor Day Weekend

Well, unfortunately we don't have a bunch of fun or cute pictures to prove our weekend, but it was good none the less.

I think as I said before, I worked on Friday and Saturday, so those days weren't especially fun. Sunday was pretty good. Most of our class was gone, with the exception of Spencer.

However, the CTR7 class's teachers were gone and so their class got combined with ours... bummer, cuz with only one kid we were hoping to skip out on teaching and let him join one of the other classes-- apparently we weren't the only ones to think about that, as the CTR7 teachers bailed on teaching/ finding a sub. Oh well, it's not like we haven't done that before.

We didn't mind, though the kids were a little rowdy. I taught this week, a lesson about Obeying the law. What a difference 1 year in age makes in our classroom. The older kids were much more vocal in answering the questions about different laws that we have and why. Some of the things they said were funny while others had absolutely nothing to do with the question I asked. One of the little boys in the CTR7 class named Brady, was talking up a storm... eventually I'd just have to cut him off in order to get back to the lesson.

Our whole class lesson lasted most of the class time, with a couple minutes to spare before primary.... which NEVER happens in our class. Our class doesn't really have the attention span to sit and answer questions the whole time or share personal experiences. I guess teaching the other kids gave us a good perspective on our own class. Sunday after church I decided to invite our friends Conner and Lindsey over. We seem to get along with them really well. We played a game they brought called Settlers-- which is totally a strategy game-- and got killed. Lindsey won. It was funny to see Conner and her compete... especially as they are newl-ier weds than we are. Conner even tried to bribe me into helping him make Lindsey loose. I decided against it... friendship is more important than winning. :) We had a blast and it was fun to visit with them.

Monday was fun. We sort of slept in, if you could call sleeping in until 8:45AM sleeping in. Poor Quincy has come down with a cold; He has a runny nose and sounds pretty congested. We bought some cold medicine for him, which seems to be helping... but I still feel bad. It's not a great time to have a cold either because the weather had been cooling down. We just have to bundle him up more if we're going to be outside.

Monday afternoon I got a call from Lindsey, inviting us to a BBQ and to play some volleyball with them and some other couples. We of course said yes and I volunteered to bring a dessert over. We were the first ones to get there, seeing as how Tyler wanted to watch the Tennessee/ UCLA game with Conner. I didn't mind, because I could visit with Lindsey during the parts which I wasn't interested in watching.

Quincy was such a handful. Despite being sick with a cold he hasn't slowed down a bit... in fact he seems to have taken his trouble up a notch in speed, since discovering how to run. I felt bad, and slightly embarrassed when we had discovered him getting into their room and taking stuff out! I caught him with a small baseball bat, making a run for the bathroom in efforts to get away. Lindsey is such a good sport... she will be a great mom.... she just laughed and said not to worry. Other young couples came over around 6:00PM and we all visited, ate some yummy food, and played the game Balderdash. I think most everyone headed out around 8:30 or 9:00. we stayed though... because the football game was almost over and the score was close-- so of course Tyler wanted to see it, especially since we don't have ESPN. The game was pretty good, being close until the last minute when UCLA pulled ahead, and even went into overtime. Unfortunate for Tennessee, they missed a field goal and UCLA, the under dog team, won. Tyler was so glad that we stayed to watch! I was glad that Conner and Lindsey didn't seem to mind us staying a little later. Quincy was finally glad to go home at 10:00, he nearly passed out in the car, and once we set him in his crib he was out!

It was a great Labor day weekend...thanks to our friends the Maclennans!

handsome little boy:

Quincy wore some of his new clothes that he got from his Nanny and Pappy for his birthday. It was cool enough weather to wear some of his long sleeved clothes... he looked pretty cute.

Here he's taking one last glance checking himself out in the mirror before we go.

When Grandma and Grandpa Howard come....

.... THIS is what happens:

Friday night Kent and Teesy flew into the Boise airport from their trip to Oklahoma. They stopped and visited with us for a while on their way home-- which was nice. Before they left they told us they were going to stop by Krispey Kreme Doughnuts to pick up a dozen. They also said they had a coupon for buy one get one half off, so explaining they couldn't eat two dozen doughnuts between the two of them they offered us the other dozen. How could we turn down free Krispey Kreme doughnuts? We couldn't... and didn't. Quincy didn't eat much for dinner, but gee whiz, he sure was able to wolf down a doughnut or two and even managed to choke down a big bottle of warm milk. What a rough life huh?

Quincy's Friend

On Thursday afternoon Quincy and I went over to visit our friends Shannon and Arabella. Shannon is my age and he daughter Arabella is only two months younger than Quincy... so all in all I'd say we're a great match for friends. We get to go play with them every now and then. It's nice that they just live around the corner in some apartments... which proved to be even nicer in the heat of the summer, swimming in their pool.

It's such a nice break for me to talk with another mom-- even better that Shannon and I have quite a bit in common-- and Quincy and Arabella usually entertain each other. Though I have to say this last time, Quincy was kind of being a little bully. He wasn't hurting Bella, but a couple of times I had to sternly remind him to be nice! They both wanted the chapstick. I even gave Q his own chapstick, that was exactly the same, but wouldn't you know it? That wasn't good enough.... he wanted HER chapstick. It's just like when Tyler and I eat together.... he's starve himself before he actually got up to make something, but the second I get a bite to eat, he's ready and eager. What is it about boys?

He's slightly distracted by the the hotel mints.... but not for long.

Going in for the kill.

Luckily I whipped out his Cheerio Tupperware and the chapstick feud was over.
Don't worry they are still friends. :)

MY BOYS

Each day that I have to go to work, which fortunate for me is only about two days a week, I leave my boys like this. All snuggled up in bed, nice and warm. They look so sweet. It makes me want to stay and snuggle with them!

Growing BIG!!

It's hard to believe that Quincy is now past 12 months. My once tiny and helpless little baby has grown so much. He is striving to reach Independence and testing us as parents. He loves to play games with us and we are surprised at how coordinated he's become. He loves to play hide and seek behind our couch with us and will walk back and forth, laughing when we 'find' him. He is learning to see the world in brand new ways, like upside down. He's also discovered climbing, though he hasn't perfected the skill yet. He is growing more each day, learning new things and practicing 'old' things. Quincy has most recently been practicing his running skills. He has increased his running speed significantly these past couple of weeks... and gave me a good workout yesterday in church.

Despite his tendency to become independant, there are still moments where he enjoys being close to mom and dad and doing things they do. He's quite the little helper. Here he's 'helping' by sweeping the sidewalk:

My work here is done mom.

Not only does Quincy enjoy 'helping' outside, he likes to lend a hand with the house work. Tyler seems to think it's funny when Quincy helps rearrange my shoes. Here he was caught in the act:

And what do you think he said when I caught him in the act? Oh mom, I was just going for a run and forgot my running shoes.

Never mind the fact that they don't match.


What a happy little helper. I can't believe how fast he's growing up.

Bogus Basin

On Saturday we went to Bogus Basin for a picnic with Tyler's family. Aunt Heather and Uncle Trevor got to ride with Quincy in the back of our car. It was a very nice day and a short ride for the most part. The only downside was that the roads up to Bogus were REALLY winding and we ALL felt SO car sick. I swore in my head I was going to throw up several times on the way up. Poor Heather and Trevor were car sick also, so I didn't feel so bad about wanting to puke. The view at the top was really pretty. There are actually evergreen trees in Idaho, who would've known! I'm only partially kidding, because growing up in SW Washington I saw alot more trees and the green was alot greener. But I have to say it was a beautiful view none the less.

We had very nice picnic complete with sandwiches, chips, watermelon, brownies, and pop. Of course Quincy refused to eat anything nutritious and only consented in eating the brownies, chips, and some root beer. He gets every ounce of that from his dad, NOT me.

Quincy went up with Aunt Kelly, Uncle Derek, and his Grandpa Kent to the top of this rock-- which wasn't too far from our picnic tables.

After our long drive up to have a picnic, a couple of hours exploring, and a lack of food in his stomach Quincy spent an hour like this at home:

He was thoroughly and utterly exhausted! It was fun though and we were glad to see all of Tyler's family, since most of them are in Utah now.

Thanks Guys!