Families are Forever:

While we've been here Quincy's had some sort of obsession with saying Karter's name. He calls him Uncle Kar Kar. I thought I'd post this picture of Kar Kar. Obviously he was tired from staying up until 2:00AM to watch the championship HS basketball game, Columbia River vs. Franklin.

Today we all went to church together. It is always fun to go to church with the whole family.... we take up a whole row. Of course we took a picture afterwards, like we always do after church -- it's kind of sad for me since Tyler's hardly ever able to come here with us, he misses out on doing things with my family. I'll just pretend that he's next to me in the picture. --

Church was the usual. Quincy was having a difficult time since my parent's ward starts at 1:00PM. It's right at the time when he's usually taking a nap. Although church with Quincy started something like this, sweet and innocent:

It ended up like this, tantrums and meltdowns:

This is after he calmed down from the melt down.

These are my parents:

Quincy fell asleep for like 20 minutes during sacrament meeting... he got woke up prematurely, which is why we had the melt downs, but shortly he forgot all about being woken up and started posing for the camera.

Johnothon and I give a quick smile for the camera:

And more smiling for the camera with Great Grandma Rena.

I love my Family! We will miss them so much when we leave tomorrow.

Fun at Grammie and Grandpa's House

Quincy and I have been having all sorts of fun.

He's been playing the piano...... the little maestro that he is:

I have been shopping.... and doing lots of it. It's amazing how much shopping my brother's and I did on Saturday. I only paid an average of $7.50 a shirt... pretty sweet huh?

I have also been tanning... can you tell? Probably not. I started on thursday.... I forgot how nice it feels to lay in that warm bed. Oh, and I highlighted my hair. It looks nice.

Quincy's been having lots of fun making messes with all the new toys here:

All of this was accomplished in only a few minutes... it looks like the Tasmanian devil came through:

"Uh oh.... did I make all that noise?"

Here Quincy is adding his own rendition to Uncle Scotty's music.

Doesn't that face look so sweet and innocent?

Quincy loves to pretend text on his calculator with Uncle Spencer and read the morning paper:

Quincy definitely loved watching his great grandma Rena make bread.

Here is Quincy's classic 'cheese' face. Every time the camera comes out Quincy makes this facing while sweetly saying 'cheese'. He's a pro now....

I think that Quincy was fascinated by this whole bread making process. It's funny how much he's always loved helping out in the kitchen. Maybe he'll become a famous chef or baker when he grows up.

So much FUN, Fun, FUN!

A day of Work:

Well, we're arrived in Washington and everything has been a blur. Thursday after arriving in Portland we went to lunch at Quiznos and I had a retainer check up in the afternoon. We pretty much just hung out for the rest of the day and visited.

Friday my brothers and I went to help work as servers for the Dr. Croft doctor appreciation party. My mom had to be there to help so we all agreed we'd help out.... not mention we would get paid. I thought, hey why not?

The party turned out well. The only disappointment was that the number of people who actually came wasn't as many as they had hoped would come. We didn't have to work terribly hard and it was fun being there with my mom and brothers. This picture was taken after we had finished cleaning.

Left to Right: Spencer (21), Scott (18), Me (23), Karter (16), and our Mom (you get the idea).

Farewell Elder Russell

Last night my Aunt, Uncle and cousins, Sarah and Logan, came to stay the night at our house. My cousin Logan is leaving for the MTC today. He was called to serve a 2 year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Russia. I'm bad with names... so I can't remember the name of the city he'll be serving in, but it is the south eastern part of the county.

He said that the area is large.... 1300 miles east to west and 1000 miles north to south. The best part is that the winters are below -30* without windchill, and summers are somewhere around 103* with high humidity....and if all that wasn't enough did I mention they don't have bikes or cars? Looks like Logan will be getting in great shape. Hopefully he's able to keep some meat on his bones, since he's not too big of a boy in the first place!

We are so proud of the decision Logan has made to serve a mission. He has made one of the most difficult choices to put forth his heart, might, mind and strength to spread the gospel to people who deserve to hear it. He is a great example for his family and for my family as well. His influence for others has been tremendous. I know he will make a wonderful missionary.

We wish him the best of luck!

Farewell Elder Russell we will miss you!

Our (little) G. Q.

Kelly's wedding is May 1st and we just happened to get a steal of a deal on this little boys tuxedo. Quincy wore the jacket and pants to church, like a little suit. Everyone gave lots of compliments on his outfit. He did look pretty studly! Check him out.

He wasn't to thrilled about having to wear the jacket, but eventually warmed up to the idea of an extra article of clothing on his body.

He thinks it's pretty funny when we say 'cheese' to make this face.

Don't you just love his teeth? How he is still missing the bottom ones. Uggg.... he's been working for the past few weeks on getting the rest of his teeth to fill in his bottom half, but STILL hasn't had any come through. It's been a painful experience for us and him.

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!