The Temple

Steven and I have the opportunity to go to the temple today, and I just wanted to say how grateful I am for this blessing. Something always seems to come up on the days we schedule to go, so today the fact that we are able to go is really exciting.

I am grateful to have been born into the church, but also to have had wonderful parents who guided our family. I can't measure how important it was for them to teach me about the temple, and now to have a patient husband who does the same. I am excited for the opportunity to go, and although it starts to sound like the "starving people in China" metaphor, I am very grateful that we have such ready access to a temple here in Spokane.

I didn't want this to be overly cheesy, but as I sit at work thinking about it, I am extremely grateful. I'm so glad that I get to be with my family forever, I can't imagine a future without them. (Even though I would venture out and say about half of them are crazy...)

I have a testimony of temples, and will always be grateful for the spirit I feel there.

It's Getting Closer...

The talk around our house lately has been about babies. We are so excited for our own, but have also been excited to find out that more family is expecting, and strangely what seems like every celebrity as well. As we discuss what we think having a newborn will be like, I'm starting to realize that my view is very (very) optimistic. I am excited for all the things that I associate with having a brand new little one. Most specifically getting to come home for the first time as a family, having family around when we come home, bundling the baby in blankets....etc.

I want to know what the more realistic view is. What are the unexpectedly fun things new parents experience? What are the surprising (not fun) moments?

Steven has decided that the best way to deal with middle of the night baby situations is to put a fresh plate of cookies in the baby's room each night. So that when it's his turn he's happy about waking up and going in the baby's room. Awesome.

So, as you can see, we are trying to think of the future.

Any input?

Bravo!

I think it is safe to say that I am a Bravo channel addict.

I love all the shows on Bravo. From Top Chef, Real Housewives, Project Runway...anything! Steven is not such a fan of T.V. He lobbied most of our first year of marriage to do without, I of course was unwillingly. Most recently, I have mostly been watching Bravo. It doesn't matter if it is a new show or an entire season that I have seen before. I turn the T.V. off with Bravo on, and when I turn it back on, amazingly, Bravo is still there!

This was all well and good until Steven realized that his Dad appreciates some of the shows on Bravo. Since this discovery, Steven has been a bit more curious. For example, I will be sitting on the couch watching, and I can feel a presence behind me. The longer I sit still and quiet, the longer he stands and watches. I think the worst moments for Steven are when he has been watching and has a question, but he doesn't want to acknowledge that he...

A. Knows what the challenge is

B. Knows the characters names

C. Is prejudiced against one character or another but doesn't want to show he is rooting for anyone in particular.

So, this last week I was watching Project Runway, and I turn around to kiss my husband goodbye before he leaves for scouts, and this was what I discovered.

When I of course told him he couldn't leave the house in this ensemble (that's my coat), he retorted with, "I've seen them wear stuff like this on the show!"

So, everybody. I have a problem.

Do I continue to watch Bravo and watch my husband lose his wife-inflicted sense of style? Or do I stop watching and hope that all that he now thinks is stylish goes away?

Something tells me that it really doesn't matter...

Blizzard Walks

I don't have much new to theorize about, or much witty to say, so instead my post today is of a walk we took last night with Tim and Brother. Tim is working really hard to get in shape, and since he was staying with us last night, he was required to get 30 minutes of exercise in somehow. He was not too thrilled about our elliptical machine, so the walk was our next choice. We planned to go on our walk right after dinner, and right before "The Biggest Loser", which we all love. So, here are a few pictures from our adventure out into the blizzard we had last night. (It literally snowed all night, I know, I was awake!)

I have a bunch of great pictures of Brother, but whenever he looked right into the camera, it made his eyes look like C-3PO's. It's actually very disturbing, so enjoy the profile shots!

I don't know how well you will able to see that Brother's back is absolutely coated with snow. He was so in his element...he loved it! On a side note, Steve was horrified when he realized that these pictures were going to be posted of him walking our ultra-masculine mountain dog with a pink leash. Oh well!

I want to have a miniscule whine and say, when is my face going to go back to normal! I have always had chipmunk cheeks, but this is out of control! I did have a great time out with the boys, but of course the minute we got out of our house I had to go to the bathroom.

Everyone just ignore the leash, IGNORE THE LEASH!

We have had such an awesome winter this year, we hope everyone else is too!

Trooper

Okay, we know we are crazy about our dogs. We love them. Recently we have been teaching them each about being in the house, (meaning) how to stay in the kitchen and go nowhere else...We have been wildly successful with Trooper. He is the best boy. His personality is very calm and I know this sounds incredibly corny, but he actually helps me to feel calm while Steven is gone. (That sentence seems to imply that I things are calm when Steven is home....what the?)

This is the Troopster the first night we brought him home from the shelter. We went to the shelter because we had read about different puppies in the paper, and when we got there they told us they also had a few other puppies that had been tossed out of a car the night before. So, a few short minutes later Steven was holding Trooper and crying. I'll never forget those tears.

Crazy Line. I think she actually taught Trooper how to be calm and submissive. I remember her first few nights visiting the puppies. I couldn't believe how still he was sitting for her, and then I saw how her knuckles were white, and it became clear just how tight she was holding on to him. Since those days, all he wants to do is sit in someones lap and be squeezed. Thanks Line!

Notice the lap sitting? It was fun when he was a baby, but it isn't so comfortable when someone weighs 80 lbs, and has "wandering limbs" and not a lot of finesse about the whole process.

Really stereotypical of Troop. I am constantly tripping over him because he is always right behind me. He is such a good boy and we love him so much.

So, I'm sure some of you are wondering...aren't there more dogs over there? To quote Tim, "Indeed you are correct sir!"

We are still working on the other dogs being in the house. With the baby coming, we are trying to establish that the house is a very calm and quiet sort of place. So, Troop is the best at it, and the others are learning. And let me tell you, it isn't a process you really want to see on film.

We love this guy.

The Extras

For Christmas last year, Bernard gave Steven and I sets of Christmas ducks to give away for this Christmas. We sent out the duck sets a few weeks before Christmas, and enjoyed how cute they were ourselves. We thanked Bernard for the ducks, and days later I recieved all the "misfit" ducks, ducks that hadn't matched a full set, the leftovers. They have since been sitting on our counter, probably wondering what was going to become of them.

So, Steven treated them to a night at our house. (Each picture was set by Steven, so consider

this a window into that crazy mind.)Let it be known that we have about thirty of these little guys, and not all ducks are in each scene. (Like extras in the movies, each had a few opportunities for a few scenes...)

The ducks arriving...

Enjoying the scenery outside...(Notice the chaperone ducks in the back)

Snacks. Steven wanted this picture to be entitled "C.H.I.P.S."

Warming themselves by the fire...



The Ducks heading off to bed. The official end of their evening... and then the real fun began!

Lemmings


A Christmas Duck in some sort of jail. (Pre-Civil War?)

Sacrifice.

Suicide Mission

(Let it be known that originally we were trying to set these up and Trooper showed some interest, but was told that he wasn't allowed to touch them. So, this picture is actually Trooper eating Rice Krispies from around the duck.)

Now that everyone knows that we torture toys here, I wanted to put the ducks up for adoption. I thought that maybe for someone's school class or something next Christmas...let me know and we will ship!

A New Year

As I pondered what to post to start the new year, I had many lame ideas...resolutions(scripture study), touching stories from the past year, (potential barf), so instead I decided to post some of my favorite pictures from the last year. It was hard to choose, but here are some of my favorite pictures from 2007, an amazing year for our little family.

We were married a little over a year ago, but I decided that it still counted. This is us with my family outside the Spokane Temple on Novemer 4th 2006.



And again with the Daines clan.

Newlyweds...

A few months after we were married, we added Cherry and Trooper to our family. Having the dogs has definitely been a learning experience for Steven and I, but we love our dogs so much, it's hard to imagine the year without them.




Easter at the Maile's. We hid so many eggs and had such a blast with all the hunting. We really miss living in Utah, we have a lot of people there that we love, and we miss them everyday.

Our first camping trip as a marrieds. We loved it! We went to Dinosaur National Park in Utah. This is Steven helping Addie on our hike. I've always loved this picture because it so describes Steven to me. He is always taking care of someone, but usually distracted by something else.




This is Steven with our dogs right before we left Utah for Idaho. You might notice that there are three in this picture. We added Brother about a week before we left. I love the comparable sizes, because Brother is now twice as big as both of the other dogs. Another telling picture for Steven, where is his other shoe? Anyone?

Moving into our very first house. Tim was such help to us. This is him carrying in a bag of clothes that he later informed us, "Must have had a hole in it."




Fourth of July. I love this picture because I love Brother, but I secretly love how healthy my flowers were in the background. (They were healthy about a week)

Pumpkin carving. I have such a wonderful husband. He did all the inside scraping, my most hated part.



This picture sums up how I feel about this year. It was completely exhausting, but happy. We are looking forward to the next year and all the trials and blessings that are coming our way. (Hopefully a lot more of the latter!)

Happy New Year!