Can you say holy basketball?

This past weekend we spent approximately 48 hours in a gym.... at least that's the way it felt! Tyler's parents, Mike, and Kelly were all here in town.

Mike's younger brother, Kevin, plays for the Jerome --- or as they like to refer to themselves as "J-Town" ---so we spent a lot of time watching games. By the end of the weekend I felt like Borah's High School Gym was our second home and not a very nice smelling home at that. The games were all packed since it was the final play offs.

We saw some really great ones... and some really painful games. The pictures below are from the Fruitland game. Those games were more painful to watch than any of the others. Fruitland, by some miracle ending up placing 2nd in State. Jerome, however, wasn't so lucky and finally placed 3rd in state. I think they deserved better, but you know how the saying goes 'you win some, you loose some.'

Sorry these pictures aren't the best quality. We were in the top part of the stands and because of the lighting I couldn't use my flash.... which made the pictures all blurry because the boys were moving. You get the idea right? :o)

Mike comes from a large family.... one of his nephews was there at the games. His name is Tyson. It's funny because he's a month younger than Quincy and almost half a foot taller. They had some fun playing, but found it difficult to share with each other.

Tyson's mom trying to convince him to share the basketball with Quincy. It wasn't working out so well. Both were tired and had been sitting in the gyms all weekend.

Eventually when Quincy got the ball, they tried to get him to make a basket. He tried.... but it was just a little too high up there for him. Tyler got a good workout for his arms though.

Random pics:

We've been working on the 'cheese' for the camera. It's getting better:

On a side note: Quincy loves to help unload dishes and comes running every time he hears us open the dishwasher. Too bad this is something that most likely won't carry over to his teenage years!

Oh and Quincy knows his colors: brown, black, white, green, orange, yellow, red, and pink. He loves to say yellow... which we think is funny because it's the hardest one to say. He's also learning his letters and points them out when we're in public. His favorite letters to say are E, W, and D. Yesterday when we went grocery shopping at Winco he proudly pointed up to the sign and said 'W!' What a smart kid we have on our hands.

A sneak peek:

Here are some sneak peeks at Kelly's wedding flowers. These are just a glimpse of a small portion of her bouquet. She is here this weekend and loved it. I'm so glad. I can't wait until I can show you all of it.

Going out with a kid is a long process...

Especially when your child insists on doing everything by himself! Here is Quincy with the car keys..... "I'm ready to go guys. COME ON, lets get in the car."

"No dad, I don't need help. I'm a big boy and I can do it myslef."

"Don't worry dad, I'm almost there. I TOLD YOU I CAN DO IT MYSELF."

"See, I was right. I know everything."

This is the face that Quincy makes when he says 'cheese' for the camera:

After that long process of getting into the car we went shopping at Burlington Coat Factory. We've been looking for a little suit for Quincy to wear to Kelly's wedding in may. We thought we might find a good deal there.

We did find the suits... they were an okay deal, but we found a perfect sized tux for him at Other Mothers for $16.99. I can't wait for him to wear it. I'll post some pictures later.

Although at Burlington Quincy did find his best friend. ELMO.... life-sized Elmo!

This picture looks like he's saying, "The price isn't that bad mom and dad."

"Come here Elmo and let me put my fingers in your mouth."

He would not let Elmo out of his sight.

Best Buddies.

All that shopping is hard on a little kid.

I love the way that he fell asleep like this with his had over his heart. It's so patriotic! :o)

A day in the life of an ex-shopaholic

Like stated in the previous post I find it difficult to go shopping for myself these days. Or rather our bank account finds it more difficult. :o) There's one thing that I just can't pass by though... and that's a great deal.

When Tyler and I first got married we were registered at Target and Walmart... not too classy I know, but we wanted someplace that our guests could purchase something for us at a reasonable price. Let me just say previous to us getting married..... that Tyler's style and my style clash.

Tyler's sense of style or sometimes in my opinion lack thereof -- sorry Tyler-- is more practical if you will. He would be content with a house full of mismatched, hodegepoged, hand-me-down furniture for quite some time. I, however, lean towards more modern chic. I like clean lines and color. Despite our clashes in interior decorating........ I have always been allowed to do what I wanted with our home.

Tyler thinks it's ridiculous that our bathroom towel rack holds towels which are 'for looks' and not to use, that I straighten up our bed which has thirteen pillows on it after every time he sits on it, that when I vacuum the floor I don't want him to walk on it and so on. He puts up with alot from me when it comes to my 'decorating needs'.

With that said, when we register for our wedding 3 years ago I had to choose some neutral bedding for our room which we both agreed upon. Of course it wasn't something I was in love with, but we both agreed on it. I always thought in the back of my mind that if I had my wish I would choose the colors blue and brown for a master bedroom color scheme.

A couple of weeks ago I found this perfect bedding at TJ MAXX, an 8 piece bedding set for $69.99. It was blue and white and I thought it was perfect. I always go browsing online and had seen the bedding at Macy's for three times the price. I told Tyler I loved it, but of course he said... "Kati, we don't need any bedding ours is just fine." This is the practical Tyler talking.

I was perfectly aware that we didn't NEED it, just that I WANTED it and that it was a killer price. It was the exact colors I wanted, there were no trendy patterns that would easily go out of date or become something we'd hate in a few years, it had simple clean lines, and I thought it was practical in the sense that we could easily change the complementary colors.

After trying to convince him of all these reasons to buy it he was still unconvinced. He simply ended the conversation with, "Do whatever you want." After contemplating "doing whatever I wanted and buying EVERYTHING in the store" I decided otherwise. I didn't want him to get mad. And I tried to reason with him that if it was meant to be... the bedding would be there in a week.

Well a week went by and we were back at TJ MAXX doing some other shopping. I went back to the bedding section just to see and was heartbroken that the queen size wasn't there. There was only a king size set, which wasn't ideal since our bed is queen sized. Tyler saw that I was upset and said... "Well, it wasn't meant to be" in a lighthearted voice. This sort of made me fume and little and I said "It wasn't meant to be because you didn't WANT it to be." Somewhere deep down I immediately became determined to find a way to make the bedding of my dreams come back.

While Tyler and Quincy were off in another part of the store I picked up the king size bedding and heaved it into the small cart. Tyler looked confused and I said.... " We'll just See if it looks ridiculous; if it does I can return it and then we'll know it was 'meant to be'."

And so here it is.

Eventually I'm going to swap out the black sheets and pillow cases for brown stuff, but for now we've got the beginning part taken care of.

What do you think?

A treat for Mom.

I always feel guilty about buying things for myself.



Why is it that moms all over feel that way? Is it something that happens to your brain when you are with pregnant? Is it some kind of subconscience thing you pick up on watching your own mom while you're younger?



I dunno.



All I know is that when I had Quincy, suddenly I felt like I wanted to give him everything and I didn't care so much if my clothes were out of date, or were worn here or there, or didn't look so stylish and classy.



I suppose since giving life to my baby...suddenly my needs have become overshadowed by his needs. I never used to feel guilty spending a little dough on me, but times have changed. Now I go only so long without spending any money on me before I feel like I deserve to treat myself.





My treat last month was after Valentines day. I purchased these classy heels.

I love them!







I also got this top... the pink one. I can't wait until the weather is nicer and I can just wear it with a T-shirt underneath. Yeah.... speaking of, it snowed again today. When will spring arrive?!?


I tried to get Quincy to smile for the camera with me, but no such luck. Wouldn't you know it?

Welcome Baby Lexi!

I am officially an aunt.

Some of you probably don't know, but I have a sister.... half-sister. She lives in Sacramento, CA. and her name is Emy.

Today she gave birth to a healthy baby girl.

Lexi was born today at 8:37am weighing 8 lbs. 9 oz. and measuring 20 and 3/4 inches long.

Congrats Emy! We are so happy for you and are glad to hear that everything went well!

A night out:

Thursday night Justin, a friend from our ward, called to invite us to join a big group of friends for dinner at a place called Tangos. We had never heard of it before, but decided to go anyways. So last night we headed over to Tangos with 3 other couples... the Cranny's, the Bank's, and the Higbee's. The food was delicious!



We both ordered Empanadas..... I got the Gardel (pulled chicken in a spicy marinara sauce) and Tyler order a the new Pork Empanada (pulled pork, potatoes, and green salsa) and the Hawaiian Empanada (ham, pineapple and mozzarella cheese). It was all very yummy!

Besides the tasty food... they were at great prices! Who can beat $4.00 for a dinner for two? We even ordered dessert empanadas.... I got the Caribe, and Tyler got the Cocoa. Halfway through Tyler finishing his dessert empanada he realized he was eating mine. Ooops... they were both really good!

In addition to great food and prices they had wonderful service. The man who served us is pictured below.

No, I didn't take his picture... this is off of their website. He was hilarious and so nice. He's the kind of guy you remember after you leave and walk away thinking you've known him all your life. We had a blast. It was so nice to get together with our friends from the ward. Thanks Justin and Jessica for inviting us!

After we finished dinner it was only 7:30PM, we were feeling a little adventurous, if you will, and decided that we couldn't all go back home just yet. I spoke up and told everyone that they were more than welcome to come over to our house. Half-way home I thought... hmmm I wonder what kind of condition our house was left in. It wasn't too bad and our friends didn't mind one bit. Though I was a bit embarrassed because it usually looks nicer. The girls and babies spent a good hour talking in our living room and the guys played basketball on Quincy's hoop in his room. Funny to think about those three grown men playing in a 18 month old's room.

We meant to play games, but everyone just got caught up talking. It was fun. We hope to go out with our friends again soon.

Thanks everyone for a great time!

DIY home project:

From the second we moved into our apartment... going on 2 years ago... I've hated the kitchen and bathroom cupboards. They are these cheaply made MDF (medium density fiberboard) cupboards which I think had been purposely stained a dark ugly brown... of course to match our dated brown laminate counter tops.

The insides of the cupboards are gross too.... someone tried to brighten them up by putting in some light colored 80's themed contact paper-- complete with the teal and lavender designs. I'm sure after several years wear and tear they had good intentions, but our cupboards needed a little face lift.

Since we're only renters, it's hard to want to put in the effort to paint or do any serious home improvement projects... afterall, who wants to put time and money into someone else's home? I finally decided that we could afford some new contact paper. I have to admit, for only spending $6.00.... it looks like a million bucks compared to what I started with. I only have one of the lower cabinets done... so I'll just show you the finished product. (Sorry I forgot to take before pictures.)

I can't wait til I own my very own home, and I can do permenant projects. Ahhh.... the life of a renter. Although there are definate pros of renting...so I won't complain too much. :o


*******Update: This is the BEFORE pics of the drawers:
And here is the AFTER:

Looks a little brighter and cleaner don't you think?
..........................................................To be Continued...............................................

There is a nurutring side to my son.

Last Christmas Quincy's grandparents gave him these marshmallows.

He finally finished them.....with some help from Elmo.

Sometimes Quincy gets in these silly moods where he does funny stuff. I was cleaning out his closet and pulled out his stroller so I could vacuum. He climbed up into it by himself and sat there as if he were going to go for a ride. Then he decided that he needed to take Elmo on his pretend walk.

After he got tired of pretend walks, Tyler kept him happy with the fruity marshmallows. I'm guessing he was in a generous mood because he continued to "share" his mallows with Elmo in this fashion:

One for me........

One for Elmo............

Just Kidding.....two for me and NONE for Elmo.

Busy part III

Saturday we spent with Tyler's youngest sister Kelly and her fiance Mike. They came over from Jerome to watch the girls High School basketball play-offs. Well, I should say that Mike came to watch basketball, Kelly came for that too, but we had some wedding stuff to plan also.

I have decided that my gift to my sister in-laws is that I will do their flowers for their weddings free of charge. It's good experience for me, and a great gift for them, seeing as how cost of labor adds up when there are many flowers involved. I have already completed the men's and boys boutonnieres. I also finished Kelly's wedding bouquet. It turned out beautiful.....but I can't exactly post pictures just yet. I didn't think it would be fair that everyone saw her flowers before she did..... so I'll just give you a sneak peak at the baby cousin's boutonnieres. This is the smallest of them for our soon to arrive cousin and nephew Jakoby (sorry Heather if I slaughtered the spelling... I think that's how your mom spelt it for us). It looks much bigger than it actually is because I zoomed in.

I love the tiny little boutonnieres for the boy nephews. They are just adorable. I'm sure they won't last longer than for one picture during the wedding, but hey I couldn't resist!

More to come later on the finished results for Kelly's flowers.

*****And just so you know Kelly, everyone that has visited our home and sees the bouquet and everything else thinks it's all gorgeous. So I hope you love them as well. :o)

Lastly, Sunday...............to wrap up our crazy week, I sang a solo in church. To say that it went well would be generous. I walked up to the podium only to realize that I didn't have a full sheet of my music. As if I wasn't nervous enough.......By that time I was terrified that I'd forget the words and totally screw up. My throat was entirely too dry and I felt like I squeaked through a couple of notes. Lets just say I was glad to have ended it. Maybe next time, if they ever asks me to again, it will be better. Lets hope so......for my reputations sake!

Busy Part II

The rest of the week didn't let up.

Tuesday I called up my second cousin, Sabrina, to get together with her and her kids. She is amazing. She is just a couple years older than me and has 5.... yes 5 kids! Her third pregnancy was with triplets!! Yikes.... AND did I mention she's probably my size?! I could barely keep one baby inside my belly without the seams of my skin bursting... I can't even imagine three! It was all natural.... no doctors putting three babies in or that kind of stuff. Do you know the odds of conceiving natural triplets? Like 1 in a million.... or something like that. Crazy!

She has a 6 year old boy, a 4 year old girl, and 2 year old triplet girls. Talk about having your hands full. It was fun to catch up with her. Quincy and I went over to her house while Tyler studied at the library. To say that Quincy was overwhelmed when we walked through the door would have been putting it lightly. I think he was a little terrified of all those kids at once. He clung to me for the first 20 minutes before he decided it was safe to play with the other kids.

I had such a good time talking and catching up with my cousin. We ended up staying well past our welcome, and before I knew it she was inviting our family for dinner. I told her we couldn't do that and she insisted we did because they were just ordering Papa Murphy's pizzas.

After I picked up Tyler at the library we headed back to their house, had yummy pizza, and played Rockband. It was my first time playing.... and so of course it was a learning experience... I stuck to singing and let the other's rock out with their instruments. Tyler wasn't pleased with his bass skills, but I think we all had a fun time.

When we got back we were all exhausted.

Wednesday was just as busy with Activity Days for me.

Before we knew it Thursday had come around. And.....drum roll please.................................Tyler passed his life insurance test. I'm so proud of him. He was really worried about taking it, but I assured him-- as I always do-- that he would do great! And he did!

Later that night I let him go play Basketball with the guys while I stayed home to watch a movie. I figured he deserved to go out and celebrate.

On Friday we had tickets to go see the girls BSU vs. Utah State basketball game. I was extra excited because I would get to see a former Vancouver-ian friend play in the game. She's a junior at Utah State and starts. She's so tall, I think 6'3......

The game was awesome. I'm not one to watch much sports, but it was genuinely a good game. In the beginning Utah State was getting killed by 20 points. Of course everyone was thrilled since it was held at BSU. I felt bad a few times for cheering loudly when Utah State scored. Sorry BSU, any fellow friend of mine always takes priority over where I'm living. Nikki was able to pick up the team's spirits in the second half and they made a great comeback with a final score of 55 to 51. I was excited... I think everybody watching enjoyed it. The last 2.00 minutes were a 1 point game.

Thank you Nikki for our seats.....you did a GREAT JOB!!

These were some pictures I took during their warm up for the second half. Nikki is #50 shooting the ball.

These were the BSU players.

And because Nikki was able to put our names on a list to get into the game for free we had her put Tyler's parent's names onas well. Quincy had fun watching the game, sitting with his grandpa Kent and eating all the popcorn he could ever want. His grandpa went to take him down to see Buster the Bronco....... which from a distance Quincy enjoyed pointing at..................this is what happened:

He was all but in tears when grandpa and him got close.

We had so much fun going out....................this is only the second part of our crazy week.

Busy, BUSY....BuSy!

Well, It's been a while hasn't it? The reason I've been absent form the blogging world for a week is that we've actually been doing things!

I know, it's a lame excuse... it just seemed like we were going from one event to the next event, never squeezing time in between for blogging updates. So I'll give you the highlights.

Last Monday Tyler's mom called to say that her boss had some extra tickets to the Steelheads game. They are the local Boise, Idaho Hockey League, I believe the league below the NHL. The only other hockey game we had ever been to before was in Jackson Hole while Tyler and I were dating at BYU-I. We thought it would be fun, Tyler was more persistent about going than I was.... but we all managed to have a good time.

Our seats were pretty awesome. We had a great view for some pretty sweet shots. The Steelheads played alright at first. They played a team from Nevada.....who put some points on the score board right off the bat. Although the Steelheads were slow to catch up, they didn't score until the end of the 2nd period, they managed to tie it up right before the 3rd period. Now, I don't know much about Hockey rules.... and Tyler's Hockey knowledge is limited also.... so we didn't know how it would turn out after they tied it at the time, that and we needed to get home. Unfortunately we didn't see how it turned out after the time ran out, but we had fun up until then!

The reason we didn't see the end was Quincy. Yeah, yeah, blame on the kid... only this time it WAS his fault. It was already 10:00PM and WaaaAAyyY passed his bedtime. We decided to leave early because he was pretty crabby. The only way we could entertain him was by blowing bubbles with out gum, as pictured above.

Notice the lack of enthusiasm in his face in this picture!

It was really fun.... even though we were kind of cold. And because of where our seats were, it sometimes felt like you were right in the action. Tyler was really hoping for some good fights... you know fists flying, teeth getting knocked out... blood gushing.... that kind of stuff. We only saw one fight, and to my surprise it was pretty mild. However, there were certain points in the game where you could feel the tension rising.
The part that Quincy liked most was the Zamboni. He thought it was really cool and even managed to laugh when it passed by us. The fact that it looked like a monster truck was an added bonus.

I tried to get a good shot, but between a glass wall and it zipping by us... this was the best I could manage.

All in all it was a fun family adventure... one that I'm sure Quincy would have enjoyed more if he wasn't so tired.

And thanks to Teesy's work for giving us those great tickets!