Aeby Family

Family Photo shoot

2011-11-28T22:14:00.000-08:00

Here are just a few! More to come. I just needed to try and get as much as I can done in the seconds I have!!!

Long time no see

2011-08-26T10:11:00.000-07:00

Well... I have not posted in forever!! That is mostly due to my little stinkerbell ( that is a nickname that Ben came up with for when she is being a stinker) and trying to find time to do "productive" things when she is asleep. After so long of neglecting my blog it makes it way up on the productive list. SO here is a lot of pictures and updates. I will hopefully be able to get another post up about our camping trip before she wakes... but I'm not holding my breath on that one.

My best friend from high school Tess now lives in Boise with her husband Ryan and their adorable little guy Graham. They were in town and we had them over for a BBQ at Ben's parents place. I love seeing them!!

Payton LOVES to be outside. Night or day a sure way to get her to stop crying is to take her outside. Therefor she loves to go on walks. Which is great for me since I'm trying to lose those extra baby lbs. She just sits in her stroller and takes the world in. I love it!

The other day while I was babysitting a friend's kids we sat outside on their front lawn while they rode their bikes. The little girl gave her this headband to wear as part of a game we were playing. She is my little rainbow bright. I thought it was too cute not to take a picture of, but then again I haven't really found anything that isn't cute enough to take a picture of.

Grandma Aeby took her out to play in the grass for the first time. She loved it :)

Usually when in the car she falls asleep. Then when she wakes up she doesn't really know what to think. As I go to get her out it's like she suddenly realizes who I am and that I am there to get her. She just stares up at me like this. So cute!!!

My mom calls her a little wiggle worm and that she is. I used to not strap her down in this thing but I have since learned to always strap her down in everything!

She is so cute!!

This one I took this morning of her silly bed hair!

The next two are of her signing the words I love you. I have used this sign with her since birth and most stuff I have read on baby sign language says that they wont really sign till they are 6 months at the earliest... but I see her use this A LOT. so here are two pictures, you tell me :)

Well Payton has woken up. Thanks to some stranger knocking on our door and Ory barking her head off. Urrggggg..... I guess the camping pictures will have to be put back on the list! Till next time!

Videos of Payton!

2011-05-20T12:43:00.000-07:00

this is Payton and her cousin Eliza talkin' to each other. Payton is huge by the way. She is in the 97% for weight and 99% for length. It's weird because she doesn't seem that big. At 11 lbs and 23 in she is almost as big as Eliza who is 4 months old.

This one is so cute! the look she gives Ben at about a min in is so adorable!!

Payton Update

2011-04-25T19:19:00.000-07:00

With Payton asleep in the Baby Bjorn on my chest I am finally getting some things crossed off my to do list! Updating the blog is one of them. Hopefully I can get it done before she wakes up! The pictures are going to be in no particular order because I don't think I can get that done in time :) So here they are!!

First pictures! The nurse styled her hair in a Mohawk, which is funny. I think that is something she should have consulted me on first. But the first thing they said when they could get a glimpse of her was how much hair she had and she did have a lot! It is so much fun too!

When she was in the womb she had a "bowel movement" as they would put it and so to try and eliminate her breathing it in they took her right away to a little station by the bed and suctioned her lungs and throat out. It was sad to not be able to hold her right away but I knew it was necessary. I could see her though! I got to hold her really soon after.

I always wish I was going to be able to be one of those women who looked somewhat decent in their pictures after giving birth but then I was in labor for 20 hours and that wish went out the window. I really didn't care what I looked like at that point. Funny thing is, I don't care at all cause when I look at this picture all I think about is the first time I got to hold her and how much I love her and was so excited to finally meet her at that moment.

two weeks old. Got this picture right before she had a diaper blow out of epic proportions that required a wardrobe change.

One day old at the hospital. I am still amazed at how she changes every day.

My sister Sadie! She and Payton share the same birthday! This is weird to think about. My mom was due with her first (a girl) the same day as I was with Payton and then she too was also over due and had Sadie on the same day. I hope that made since. Basically for our firsts, we had the same due date and both went over our due dates to have them on the same day.

Grandma Brown meeting for the first time!

Grandpa Aeby

Meeting big sister Ory for the first time

Aunt Rachel

For Easter I made her this headband

I made me a matching one :)

Dad's got it figured out :)

Grandpa Brown snuggled up on her blessing day!

First bath!

Uncle Cameron

I call this face her "blue steel" impression.

her tiny hands.

Bath photo # 2 she is lifting her head in this one.

She doesn't quite have her thumb in this one but she has gotten it a few times.

Big sister Ory checking things out. She has been so good with her. It's so cute to watch her be so careful and protective around Payton.

Snuggle time with Grandma. My mom came over from Massachusetts about a week early and I got to spend a lot of time with her before Payton was born. Mostly we got ready to move and even painted Payton's room. We went on walks and took naps. It was so nice to have that time to spend with my mom. I really enjoyed it.

Daddy and Payton just checking each other out. Both are just happy to see one another.

Meeting Grandma Aeby

So that is it for now!! I did have to stop about half way through cause she woke up and wanted some entertainment :) I pretty much can't believe how much I love her. It is amazing and I am really enjoying being able to spend all day with her.

Introducing Payton!!

2011-04-13T20:58:00.000-07:00

She came on 4/4/11 after 20 hrs of labor at 8lbs and 19 inches. Lots of hair and is the most beautiful thin I've ever seen!! Got newborn photos done and here they are!! The photographer is a friend and is amazing! I highly recommend her to everyone. http://whiterabbitphoto.blogspot.com/p/newborn.html

Maternity Pictures

2011-03-31T21:16:00.000-07:00

These are a few of the pictures from my maternity photo shoot with my friends. These ones are from Crystal. I have the ones that Sara took but for some reason the CD wont upload onto my computer. I will post more as I get them. I think that they are amazing! I can't believe what talent they have. I sincerely hope they make a serious effort into making this into a business. I have already had one friend who wants to book them when she is pregnant! Great job girls!

Update: No baby...

2011-03-26T18:45:00.000-07:00

Well, Still no baby!! the doctor's visit last Wednesday said she still has some dropping to do and that I was only 1cm dilated. That was frustrating! mostly because my mom is here and we want her to get to be able to spend as much time with her as possible. Secondly we are trying to move here soon and the sooner she comes the easier it will make things. The doctor dicussed when she would induce and since my due date according to them is the 27th, she said she would do it on the 5th of April... That just wont do! I can't wait that long. I don't want to be induced at all so if she could kindly come on her own and quick that would be great. I know, I know. I am sure there are many reading and laughing cause being on her time is something I am going to get really use to, but it still doesn't make things easy. Maybe it is her teaching me a lesson. The good thing about her not coming yet was that I was able to take some maternity pictures! I have some friends who wanted to take them but with school I couldn't get a good time. They were awesome and were able to do them on a last minute notice. I have only seen 5 of them, but they are so great! I really love them! If you need photos taken, I highly recommend them. They are just starting out but I think they are really going to be so great! Sara Webb: http://thewildrumpus2.blogspot.com/2011/03/another-teaser-for-hannah.html Crystal Stowell: http://magicmythandmayhem.blogspot.com/2011/03/hannah-maternity-shoot-teaser.html They want to take baby Payton's picture and I can't wait!

2011-03-21T13:12:00.000-07:00

Well the grades are in and I got two A's and one A- The A- of course came from my art class. I was expecting that since no one gets an A in art, but I am happy with the end result! This term was tough and I took one less class than I usually do. I am just happy that I was able to do my best. I am looking forward to spending the next 6 months with my little sweet pea and no school :)

Goodbye Smokers!

2011-03-17T13:21:00.001-07:00

So just thought I would share the news that we have just signed a lease for a little place! It is a three bedroom one bath house in Albany. Although the third bedroom is barely big enough to be a nursery. That's just fine though cause it is just enough room! The best part is that we will have a backyard of our own and no smoking neighbors!! Yay! That has been the biggest hassle and even after complaining 4 times and having the manager over to smell the smoke herself, nothing has been resolved. So we just decided that they really didn't want our money then.

I wish we were buying a place of our own, but that is for a later day... For now we will do what we always do, and that is to make this little place our home! Pictures will come when we move in, which is April 5th.

One more day...

2011-03-14T12:19:00.000-07:00

I have just one more day of studying and then two finals till I am done with this term :) Yay! Then I would just like it if I could get over this last bit of my cold and have my mom come into town before Payton arrives. That would be awesome. With all this attempt at planning, I have a feeling she is going to teach me a lesson and come late... That would be just my luck! But really, I cannot wait to meet her!!!! I just want to see her and hold her! She seems pretty happy right now, although I know she is cramped on space.

Last Art Project for the term :)

2011-03-08T23:22:00.000-08:00

The project was to do a self portrait (yay for pregnant fat face! grr....) and then I could use a triad color scheme to color it. That means that I use three different color hues, and equal distance apart from each other on the color wheel. I chose Yellow-orange, blue-green and red-purple. Within those hues I could do various tints, shades and saturations. I dunno if it looks too much like me, but it's done!! It's not a very good picture of it, but I am just so happy to be done with it and this class!!! Yay!!! Now all I have left are two finals on Tuesday and then it is baby time! I really hope she waits until then. She dropped about a week ago and Ben seems to think that she is going to come before the 13th.

The "other" side of Art

2011-03-02T23:06:00.000-08:00

In my Art 115 class we were assigned one of the most ridiculous assignments and given only one week to complete it. (this compared to the 2.5 weeks we had for a collage...) We were told to pick a famous work of art that she had printed off. This self portrait by Van Gogh caught my eye so I chose it. Then we were told to cut it in half and paint the missing side ourselves. The purpose of the assignment is to teach us how to color match and mix colors... I have a major problem with this because as I previously stated, this is a 100 level class. This is waayyy to advanced for a level 100 class. I have not taken a single painting class! I spent a total of 19 hours on this piece and to be honest I will most likely get a C on it. This is my major, major problem with art courses. I don't ask that they be easy, but I don't think that grades should reflect talent only. In any other class that I spent 19 hours on a project would earn me an A++. But not in art, nope...

Here is my finished product, which I am sure looks fine, but compare to the original and you will see many differences were I will get marked down on.... Whatever, I am tired and this is all I got.

One month to go...

2011-02-20T21:32:00.000-08:00

I really honestly cannot believe that there is only 4 weeks till I am due. I go back and forth between moments of panic and excitement. To be honest I have not had any moments of, "Get here already!!!" So far I have loved being pregnant. My little stint of morning sickness didn't last too long and I've already forgotten about it.
Mostly my moments of panic are due to not feeling I have anything ready, while still a lot of school needs to get done, and then there is the labor part that still gets me nervous. I just want that part to be over...
I have her room no where near ready, but I figure that's ok cause she most likely wont be in there for a little while. These are some ideas that I love and would like to incorporate into the room.

For the bed skirt I have some extra fabric my mom gave me left over from her quilt. I think I would like to make a patchwork bed skirt and maybe bumper. It would be pretty adventurous since I am not the greatest with the sewing machine. Maybe my mom or Johnna can help me with this. This is no where near the colors we have in her room, but I like the idea.

This is our crib. We got it at IKEA! When Ben and I took our first trip to Ikea in Germany we saw a room with this set up and loved it. We thought well maybe one day.... but I really didn't think it would still be around by the time the one day arrived. It is! I just like the natural wood. I think it is simple and classic.

We also got the matching dresser and changing table top

I would like to eventually get some of the matching shelves and have a set up like this. We have the shelf that goes across the top.

As for painting, I like this idea. I think we would do a pale purple and instead of pictures of sheep I have three panels that I am going to paint and put the initials P E A on them. Then there will be a sign above that says "Our little Sweet" I can't wait for that part!

I love this!! I am determined to make it myself though! I got a lamp shade and I just need to get some fabric and time.

Maybe one day her room will be complete! I am kind of hoping we move into a new place soon, so I think that is another major reason that I haven't done anything really with her room.

Art Care

2011-02-13T19:07:00.001-08:00

Surviving to Thriving!

I have had an interest in pursuing a career in art therapy eventually. At least incorporating it in my therapy sessions if I become a therapist later on. So when I found out that there is a healing arts program at the Good Samaritan Hospital in Corvallis and Albany and had an employed art therapist, I was all too eager to see if I could get involved. After months of emails I finally wiggled my way in to attend their sessions titled Surviving to Thriving. While this isn't art therapy per se. It is it the closest I have gotten and I was able to sit down with the art therapist and learn a lot.

It has been amazing. The women who are attending are such special people who have gone through things that have made them beautiful, strong women I admire greatly. The sessions start off with a poem reading by one of the women in charge and then a visiting artist explains what we will be doing and what they hope each will think about and get out of the project.

The first week I attended we did these dolls. We were asked to think about the women we were that day and just let inspiration come. This is what my doll ended up looking like.

Her lips are inspired by my mom, who i remember in church drawing doodles for me and their lips took on this heart shape. I also think of myself as a person who offers words of love and comfort as often as I can. Her eyes are purple simply because I have been seeing the color purple a lot in my life lately. It is one of my most favorite colors and has seemed to make its way into important events in my life. Especially my wedding and now my first born's nursery.

The lace and the flower give a vintage feel for me and I LOVE that. I growing up in a house that was older with glass door knobs and hard wood floors I feel I was raised to love all things vintage. The shoes are a special splash that show my love for shoes. I have a pair of red mary jane flats that I love (so much so I continue to wear them even though I know I will end up with blisters when I do).

I love this program and think it is so important. It is easy to get caught up in the science of psychology at school and I feel I am constantly surrounded by the need for proof, but there are somethings that are more important than that and these women will testify of the importance of a program like this. I feel blessed to be able to sit in. Look for more posts to come on this!

Cereal

2011-02-13T01:39:00.000-08:00

Yeah... It's about 2 am and I just came down stairs for a bowl of one of these

I cannot get enough! It may be a pregnancy thing, but I am loving me some cereal lately. Doesn't really matter what kind so long as its got some cold milk in there. I have NEVER been a big milk person either.

I remember in high school when the brother of a friend of mine would eat huge amounts of cereal in one giant bowl! I haven't gone as far as breaking out the salad bowl yet, but now it doesn't seem so crazy:)

Sisters!

2011-02-09T11:10:00.000-08:00

Sisters!

This last week was baby shower week!

It was so much fun and I loved everyone for their thoughtful and amazing gifts!

My mom is in town for the blessing of my brother's baby girl and she was able to come to both my showers. I had a family one in Troutdale and a church/friend one in Albany. My sister Sadie wasn't able to make it to the family one and so she came to the one in Albany. As usual we got many many comments on how much we look alike. But what was unexpected to me was the amount of comments on how much older I looked that her (she is my older sister). They may have been saying how young she looked but I just kept hearing how old I looked... Regardless, it caused me to reflect on my sisters and just how amazingly gorgeous they are. So I thought I would post a few pictures of them!

Baby Sister Kezi who never ceases to amaze me with her outgoing talents and overall awesome personality. Every time I see her she gets more and more beautiful!

Little sister Kate who's shy and calm demeanor is complementary to her mesmerizingly green eyes. She too gets more and more beautiful every time I see her. I cannot believe she will be off to college next year!

My "twin" sister Sadie who never seems to age. I wonder where she found the fountain of youth or if she has frequent flyer miles to neverland saved up! Regardless I hope to follow in her footsteps :)

And I cannot forget to mention my other sisters who I love and are equally amazing and beautiful!!

Beautiful and Strong sister in law Johnna who I always could spend hours talking to. It has been a great time being pregnant together and being able to learn from her as she is diligent in educating herself in all the important details.

And Rachel! Who has a one in a million smile and is one of the most giving and caring people I know! I love being able to spend any time I possible can with her and could lose a week just hanging out.

Of course (now being pregnant and thinking about being a mom!) all these beautiful women could not be possible without our mothers! Thank you to them who gave everything to us including their complete love and devotion!

New Years and Anniversary

2011-01-03T18:02:00.000-08:00

2010 was a lot of fun. Many new milestones! Ben and I completed a year at OSU. Ben did an excellent job with College Works Painting and was National Manager of the Year. I got to go to camp. I got knocked up! Ben and I celebrated our 6th year wedding anniversary. And there is more that I am sure I am not thinking of.

This is a picture of me at almost 28 weeks and the day of our anniversary.

For our anniversary we went to Portland City Grill which is where we had our first date! We love it when we save enough to go there. The sushi is amazing! I was sad that I was limited to just the roles with smoked salmon but it was still good. They are super cute and had a table with a card signed by the staff that said happy anniversary and then gave us a delicious dessert on the house. The restaurant is on the 3oth floor of the US Bank building in Portland and it has amazing views. Its a special place for us and we love to go.

News years was a blast this year. We went up to visit Ben's sister and her fiance in Tacoma Washington. They recently moved into a cute place that I LOVE. It had original hard wood floors and glass door knobs. It really made us want to move again... I go through the urge to move about once a month and I quickly hopped onto craigslist to see what was available. On the way home, Ben and I switched back into logical mode and since a move to a house would be at least $250 more a month we decided to add that extra amount to our savings account every month and see how well we handle the budget cuts to our extra spending. If we really want it then we will cut some things out and be extra thrifty! We decided to revisit the moving idea in a couple months after we see how we do.
Ben has been obsessed with the idea of a Nerf gun war ever since he heard the idea from my older brother Isaac and his wife. Her family has one every year during Christmas. So I picked him up a Nerf gun for Christmas and we made plans to make it a New Years tradition. It goes something similar to this but with Nerf guns instead of knives and no pills.

We actually watched this clip before and did the jammie shuffle. Well... Rachel and I did. Then we turned off the lights and turned on some ambient war sounds. It was a blast! Of course we had to stock up on ammo and guns so we made a trip to Target and spent waaayyy too much on Nerf guns. So much for trying to limit our extra spending :) Actually this was before we decided that so I guess Ben is off the hook.

We couldn't find glow stick necklaces so we made our own.

Josh was self named the Mole.

It was so much fun!!! We played it a couple of nights and I am sure that Rachel and Josh will be finding Nerf bullets for a couple months.

Christmas brings...

2010-12-26T21:55:00.000-08:00

My third trimester!!! It was official Christmas day. I have 13 weeks left! I cannot believe it! It seems like it is going by so fast. With school starting up the first week in January, I feel like it is going to go by even faster. We went to the Strebin's for Christmas day and got to hang out with the Guthrie side of the family. Ben's cousin Amy is also pregnant and is due about 10 weeks after me. It is fun to have so many people pregnant :) I won a Gap gift card for the family Christmas exchange that I am going to try and spend on me, but lets be serious... it will most likely get spend on little baby Payton. It's just so hard not to!

We hung out with Sadie and the kidlets for a couple of hours on Christmas eve. I wish we could have spent more time with them. They are so much fun! Miriam was dancing and singing "We wish you a merry Christmas" very beautifully. We got the girls some makeup and little boxes to keep it in that I wrote out their names on. They had a lot of fun putting it on. I tried to get Emma more grown up make up. I think she liked that. Then Johnny got some Spider man and Wolverine bionacles. He was pretty excited. I can't believe how fast they are growing up! I want them to stay this little forever!

We opened up Christmas presents on Christmas eve since Rachel (Ben's sister) and Josh (her fiance) had to drive up to Tacoma that night so Josh could work the next day. We got to hang our with them all week and play Settlers of Katan. It was such a fun week! I love those guys. I wish we lived closer together! Ben and I got each other bags for Christmas. I got him a Timbuk2 messenger bag that I customized to have an orange logo and be orange on the inside. It is a very nice bag that he really wanted.

Ben got me a Petunia Pickle Bottom diaper bag. (Which I now realize it not exactly the one pictured, but its really close and moving pictures around on this thing is annoying so I'm not going to change it.) It is pretty sweet! I am super excited about it. My mom and dad got me a really cute bag/purse that is HUGE and I can also use for a diaper bag, so I am set :)

Those were our major gifts. We got lots of great stuff from friends and family. It's pretty crazy to think that next Christmas we will have a little 9 month old. I can't wait!!!

Another football post

2010-12-15T22:12:00.000-08:00

I know I know.... I am weird and I love football, but this year has the potential to be the worst year in football ever. With the Beavers not going to a bowl game and the Ducks having the potential to win it all, I would usually rely on my trusty Colts. Unfortunately they are in danger of not making it to the playoffs! Add to that the Patriots are getting picked as a team to win the super bowl and that is my nightmare! Regardless, I have total faith in the Colts. They are going to make it to the playoffs. Even if they have many injuries and Clark is out for the season. Although I am contemplating that this is the universes way of forcing me to stop getting so stressed out and excited every Sunday. If that is the case, universe... I promise to calm down! Well who am I kidding. I can't make that promise!

One season over while another begins...

2010-12-05T16:03:00.000-08:00

If you didn't know this years Civil War was a big one. The University of Oregon Ducks were/are ranked #2 and a win meant they would go to the BCS national championship game. The Oregon State Beavers had to win to go to a bowl game at all. In the beginning of the year there were high hopes for the Beavs. The schedule set us up to play some big teams (Boise State and TCU) out of conference. Unfortunately we lost both. Add to that one of our key players

James Rodgers tore his knee.

and our first year QB struggled at times.

Last year the winner went to the Rose Bowl and the Ducks won. As Beavers we felt it was our game and it was taken from us. So this year we wanted nothing more than to take the big one away from the Ducks. I was hoping to see something like this...

But alas... The Ducks won 37 to 20. and it looked more like this.

It was pretty disappointing. The loss meant that our season was over. No more football for us. Needless to say, Ben and I are sore losers and will be cheering for the Auburn Tigers when they face the Ducks this January. With the Colts in playoff jeopardy, this has not been a good year in football for me. But I still have hope for the Colts. I always have hope :)

The good news is that the Christmas Season is here!! Ben and I went out and bought our Christmas tree yesterday and decorated today.

I love this time of year!. We had one day of snow already and it made the campus beautiful! Although I would consider it a light dusting :)

It's she Lovely!!

2010-11-13T23:00:00.001-08:00

Introducing Payton Elizabeth Aeby

I know that I am biased but she is so cute! This particular shot was a little difficult to get as she just wanted to curl up and sleep at this point but I'm glad we got it. Her hand is up by her chin and she was moving it downward so it seems like there might be two, but it's just the one caught in action.

She was so good. At first she was moving around stretching out (which was crazy to watch) but then she decided she had enough and wanted a nap. So I had to keep turning from side to side to get her to move. It was pretty crazy to watch her adjust to a more comfortable position every time I did.

For almost the whole pregnancy both Ben and I thought we were having a boy. I was confused about it but I never got the feeling we were having a girl, so I thought I must then be a boy. Then about 2 weeks ago I had a dream that I was holding an adorable blue eyed, brown curly haired little girl. It started me doubting my convictions in it being a boy. Still, other than the dream I had no inklings of a girl.

When we were in the doctors office getting the ultra sound, the technician knew we wanted to know the sex and had been informing us all along the way of what she was doing. She would let us know that she was measuring the femur length and the cranium and checking to make sure she was opening and closing her mouth. So when she got to the gender it was a shock when without telling us she was looking for the gender at all, she mentioned she had girly parts and was in fact a girl. It took us a second to realize what she had just told us and Ben said, "Wait, did you just say she is a girl?"

It was so exciting! There SHE was! She was very shy and didn't want to show off too much, but she gave us a good enough look to make sure there was no doubt. It took me a while to adjust to the idea of a girl, and now I can't think of anything else.

As for the name, we have gotten lots of questions about it so I thought I would post how we got the name. I like girl names that could also be boy names. As Ben and I were going over some of them, Sam, Taylor, Jessie, etc... we came upon Payton. I loved it! And no... not because of Peyton Manning (although it doesn't hurt any). Then we thought about middle names and we wanted it to be something in the family. Ben's sister has a middle name Elizabeth and we liked the sound of that. Then Ben mentioned her initials would be PEA and we could call her our little sweet pea. I was set. I loved it. Sweet peas are beautiful and smell absolutely amazing and one of my favorites. I thought this was a special name. So that is it.

I cannot wait to meet her!!!

Trip to the East Coast - NY city

2010-06-14T12:42:00.000-07:00

I LOVED NY City!! I now understand why my dad always thought I would live there. It was so much fun. Don't get me wrong. I want to live my days in the clean Oregon open airs, but I wouldn't mind spending a few years in the hustle and bustle of a city like New York.

When Kate and Kez came out to visit me last summer in Oregon I introduced them to the Orange Dream at Jamba Juice and there are not Jamba Juices in sight in Mass. So of course we had to go when we were in NYC!

Times square at night. So cool.

We ate at an amazing place in Little Italy that had the most authentic Italian food. It was exactly what I have been craving since I left Rome :)

The Subways were a fun time!

Times square with my dad during the day.

The most amazing thing is just how tall the buildings are. And running in between them in some places is like eight lanes of traffic. It is craziness.

We went to ground zero and I have to say that was tough. It was hard to see that and remember what a horrible day that was.

I know that it means a lot to my dad. Especially since he served his mission here.

And what a cute dad he is! This is on the Staton Island Ferry

If you look reeeaallly carefully you can see the statue of Liberty to the left.

Me and Kez on the ferry.

The statue

Cute Kez. She is getting so big!!

Me and dad in Grand Central Station

Trip to the East Coast - Boston

2010-06-14T11:50:00.001-07:00

Yay for School being out for the summer!! I get to actually update my blog. Although I should be cleaning... Oh well!! :)
Over spring break I went to visit my parents and siblings who recently moved to Mass. (I'm not going to spell it our cause I would totally ruin it)
It was a ton of fun!!!! I had a blast and would love to spend much more time over there. The first posting is going to be of our trip to Boston. I didn't know how much I would like it with their team being the Patriots and all... but I didn't see too much of that stuff so it was ok. It was actually a lot of fun. I got to see the "Bawstan Haba" and had some "clam chowda" and walked around "Havad Yahd". By the end of the day I couldn't say Havard correctly. It kept coming out Havad. Their accent catches rather quickly!!

Here is me and Mom in from of the new old north church

A huge statue that Kez got attached to

This one is a good one. I caught them right at the right moment. We were eating gelato and it was sunny but windy. We were in the shade and I think we just got a cold gust of wind cause their faces are awesome. Whats even better is the statue is looking at Kezi all weird too :)

Kate's new Boyfriend :) I like him better.

This was what people would pay for and sit in for church. This is in the old north church where the whole "one by land, two by sea" story happened with the lanterns. It is pretty cool. A spot like this one would have been like $200,000 to rent for the year. So they were high rollers :) They could decorate it however they wanted too.

When they would purchase or rent a box they would get their name on the outside and some people shared. We found one with the name Brown! Even though it's spelled wrong :/

Here is me. mom and Kez in the Brown box :)

This was outside the Old North Church and it was pretty cool. I was a memorial for the soldiers who have given their lives. These were blank dog tags that were like chimes in the wind.

This was kate and kez having fun in the fountain.

Quick update... again

2010-03-08T23:41:00.000-08:00

I will admit it... I am an awful blogger. But when life gets too busy, the blog is the thing that gets left out. Here is a quick update for anyone who stops by every now and then to check up.
Ben and I are doing great! We are still students and will be for a while. I am working part time at Old Navy and full time student. I applied to the Honors College for next year. I am crossing my fingers.
Ben is busy, busy, busy. He is also full time with school and is also in an internship. It is called college works painting and he basically runs his own painting company for the summer under the umbrella of a national company. He is doing amazing so far and making lots of money so I couldn't be more proud! He also met with his counselor and decided he could get a double degree. So in about two years he will have a Bachelors in Arts and a Bachelors in Science. The BS will be for business and the BA will be History. He is really having a good time and we are both loving this time in our lives.
I get to go to see the family in MA over spring break! I am really excited about it. We had some flyer $ with southwest that were about to run out so I decided to spend them seeing my families new state.
That is all for now, time to get some sleep!

Long time!

2009-11-03T23:41:00.000-08:00

Well, it has been a while since I have been able to post. Basically that has been because if I am not in class, then I am working or at church. I have been working 25 to 36 hours on top of school full time, and it has sucked. Good news is that I am changing jobs. I got a job at Old Navy so that hopefully will take care of the over hours. I am loving my classes though. I was late in registering so my classes are mostly electives.
I am taking a Writing 222 class which is an argumentative essay class. I love this class. My lastest master piece is an essay on why Horatio Caine is the most annoying TV character ever! If you need proof simply youtube "horatio caine one liners" and watch.
Other classes are Anthropology 110 which is my least favorite, Sociology 205, which I like a lot and finally Art 310 which is a drawing classes. I love it. I am getting better :) I will have to take some pictures of my art work and post.
Ben is also going full time but lucky guys isn't working right now. He is taking a health and human sciences, history, econ and statisitics. He really likes his history class, the others he is more or less doing to get out of the way.
Well, that is it for now.
Hopefully I will find some time to post more soon!
Hannah

Home Made Sushi

2009-09-10T20:26:00.000-07:00

I was browsing the good old Albany Heritage Mall the other day and wandered into the Walden Book Store. They had a clearance shelf of all cook books and I LOVE cook books so I got pretty excited. Then I saw that they were by two get one free and I knew that I had to get some. I ended up getting a Sushi making kit as one of my buys and was stoked at the idea of making my own sushi. We have made friends with a guy that lives in our apartments and his girlfriend and they mentioned that they too have wanted to try making sushi. This is our result :) I have to say that I think we did a good job! Ben took the pictures so they are just of me and our neighbor. Tip #1 make sure the layer of rice is very thin. Ben was the 1st to go and his is too thick with rice. You will see his end product at the end of the post.

We had two types of sushi. The one I made here has cream cheese, smoked salmon and avocado.

The other was a California roll with fake crab, cucumber and avocado. Yum Yum!

Here is my roll! I was one of the last to go, so I got to see what worked and didn't work so mine turned out pretty good.

These are Ben's. Like I said earlier, he used a little too much rice. It still tasted wonderful!

This is Caleb and his sticky hands. It gets pretty messy.

Huggle

2009-08-27T20:45:00.000-07:00

My three year old niece Miriam has always said huggle in place of snuggle and it is so dang cute we haven't ever corrected her. So the other night I fell asleep with my lamp on and woke up to turn it off only to have this image in my face. Ory is the greatest huggling dog ever. When Ben was in the Army he would have to go to the field on many occasions for days at a time. This left me home alone at night. So to help me feel safe I let Ory sleep with me and taught her how to huggle up. So now she sneaks her way in between Ben and I at night and this is what we get.

Hike to the top of Table Rock

2009-08-20T19:11:00.000-07:00

Ben, and I decided to take Ory and go hiking on one of his days off. It was going to be a sunny day outside and was too beautiful to waste sitting inside. Ben had wanted to go on this hike for a little while and the timing was perfect. It wasn't too big of a hike. It was four miles to the top so eight mile round trip and we climbed just over 1000 feet in elevation. The view from the top was pretty amazing. There were a few sketchy areas, but overall it was a very nice trail.

We will hike to the top of this cliff you can see here. Ory has on her back pack! Everyone carries their own lunch in our family :)

At the top! It was quite a steep hike but it was beautiful. If you want to see a crazy hike, then you should check out my friends Kenna and Jason's blog. They recently hike to the top of the German Alps. Their blog is linked on mine, Awesomeblog 5000 I believe it is called. Crazy stuff!

One more step and I literally would walk right off the cliff. I was making Ben just a little nervous here.

Ory had so much fun! They say that for every mile we hike, dogs hike four. I believe it. Ory would always be running ahead and then come back to check on us only to take off again. She had so much fun. She really loves the outdoors.

Wedding Season

2009-08-14T23:47:00.000-07:00

This summer has been filled with weddings! I have really enjoyed it. I love being there to see couples start their lives together. It reminds me how it was only 4 1/2 years ago that Ben and I started our marriage and I have loved every moment do far. He is so sweet and the best husband I could ask for. I just wanted to give him a little thanks for all that he is and does and how much he loves me.
Thank you!

Quick Update

2009-08-06T23:10:00.000-07:00

Hey! I know that it has been a while and even though I have nothing too interesting to write about, I thought the few that check in every once and a while might like an update.
Ben and I moved into our new place. We are happy to have our stuff accessible. Ben is working and registered for the fall at OSU. I am waiting to hear back about a part time job at Macy's and then I will register for school as well.
More to come!

Katelyn's 16th birthday cake

2009-07-07T14:50:00.000-07:00

The family was going to be in Utah for Kaite's birthday (which is today, Happy Birthday Katie!) and I really wanted to make her a birthday cake, so we decided to do a little celebration while we were at the park for the 4th of July. This is the cake I made! The bottom tier was roads on a green background.

The top tier was clouds on a blue sky with traffic signals placed randomly.

I made a few stop signs and some little cars to go on the cake.

The topper was this sun that had the number 16 on it.

And here it is! It turned out pretty cute! The only things that bothers me is that i didn't bring frosting to cover up the cake board between the tiers. Oh well, it still turned out cute.

us singing happy birthday and it all lit up.

Miriam could not wait to "eat one of the cars." She had her eye on them as soon as she knew they were edible.

After we ate some of the cake we reassembled the half eaten cars to make a car wreck scene, with the added touches of flames from the sun. It is pretty funny.

Wedding cake post 2

2009-07-07T14:27:00.001-07:00

Here I am! Getting ready to make a wedding cake in my cute apron! I had to show it off because I love it. I am a sucker for cute aprons. I wish I could buy them all!

This is the fondant that I had to roll out. It is quite a workout! The other two pictures are of the layers wrapped and ready for transport.

This is the finished product. Similar to the pictures posted in the last post. There were a few more roses added to the top where you can see it needed some on the bottom right.

These are the roses I made out of gum paste. I tried to make some red ones but red is a hard color to get and it kept coming out in this rust red instead of a rose red. The white ones looked really great though.

Wedding cake!

2009-07-06T23:42:00.001-07:00

Well I have seemed to have misplaced the cord that goes from my new camera to the computer. Oops! I will find it soon I hope, but in the meantime I have had a lot of people asking me to post some pictures of the wedding cake. So here are some that my sister took. It was a lot of fun doing this cake and everyone who got to try it said it was Delicious! The red flowers are real flowers and the white ones are gum paste flowers that I made myself! Its a chocolate cake with marionberry cream filling and white fondant frosting. I hope to post more pictures of the whole process as soon as I can.

Happy Mothers Day

2009-05-09T22:23:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to let all you beautiful, amazing and inspirational mothers how much I love you all! Thank you for all you do!

These are just some of the cards I made for a few of the mothers in my life.

Cake Class

2009-05-08T14:36:00.001-07:00

Isaac and Johnna asked me if I would make their wedding cake, and while I am super excited at the opportunity! I am also very scared that I will mess it all up. So in order to get some practice I signed up for a cake decorating class. It has been so much fun!!!! Thankfully the last half of the class we slow down on the cakes themselves and are just working with decoration. A cake every week is a little much!

I wanted to post my progress and to be honest, show off a little cause I am so excited and proud of how far I've come! So this is the flowers that I made out of frosting. I love them I think it turned out beautiful.

The other cake pictures are on my phone so I will have to upload them and then share them.

Going on Bear Hunt

2009-05-07T14:09:00.001-07:00

Ben wanted to share his hunting story with the family and the blog was the easiest way to do that. I am pretty excited that he decided to join in on the blogging fun! Maybe I can get him to do it more often on things other than killing animals!

Going on a Bear Hunt

Recently I (Ben the one on the right) went Bear hunting with Ben Miller (left) we were obviously very succesful and pleased. Ben Miller acted as the guide and I was the shooter for this paticular hunt. We spotted him at about 630 pm on the 30th April and decided he was a good bear and worth making a stalk on. We stalked within 50 yards and I made a clean shot through his chest. The bear weighs and estimated 200 lbs. and is about 3 years old. Has a very rubbed spring coat but some good characteristics (scars) on his muzzle that I am sure could tell a good story.

Now lets talk about the Charcoal Black Bear. My father Rich was able to come out on friday just in time to see that Ben and I had finished packing out the my bear. Luckily for my father before spotting my bear we had spotted a bear prior to mine in a drainage or two over feeding in the bottom of a bowl like drainage. The bear Ben and myself saw was a good bear, but he was too deep and on the wrong side of an already bad ridge so we decided to make our way back to camp. A few days later Dad and decided to hike in after the bear Ben and I saw cause we weren't having succes anywhere else.Dad shot his bear on the 4th of May, we spotted the bear heading up canyon and watched him head into a thicket for cover. Dad and I made our move on the bear and closed a 300 yard shot to a 75 yard shot. After we caught our breath we decided it was getting too late for us to wait the bear out and so throwing rocks into the bottom of the canyon seemed pretty reasonable. The bear slowly came out to see what the comotion was and Dad got him. This is obviously a much bigger and older bear, I think that Dad's bear make mine look like a puppy. ODFW estimated his weight at 325 but they didn't pack the animal out, Dad and I put the bear at a solid 350. Although that may be a bias opinion. He has a gray muzzle, some missing teeth, and a white triangle on his chest. From snout to tail he is easily over 6 foot in length and has an amazing coat for a spring bear. ODFW said that he was at least 6 years old possibly 7 but we won't know for sure till we get the results back from the teeth. We would love to tell everyone where we were, but giving away secrets isn't like a hunter, general location, we were in the Hell's Canyon Recreation area, it's steep, it's rocky but if you are willing to put forth some effort trophies can be found.

Dad and I are both very pleased with how this hunt turned out, aside from the two bear, we saw a cougar at about 30 yards but he was quick to not allow a shot. We caught countless crappie and bass out of the Snake River and tried our luck at some Turkey hunting but the birds just weren't cooperating this year. It was a great trip with some really good memories.

My Invite

2009-04-13T17:41:00.000-07:00

I have been able to do some invites and things for people since I have been home. I took pictures of this one, so I thought I would post it. I like it. It is for a bridal shower for Ben's cousin's fiance that Kim is throwing. I also did some Christmas hot cocoa packs for a friend and some graduation invitation mock ups. I will post some pictures of those if they choose to use them. It's been a lot of fun, but I really wish I had all my stuff here instead of it being boxed up in California! I just keep thinking, "Man, if I had my stuff then I could do this, or I could do that!" Oh well they turned out ok anyways.

Mohawk

2009-04-13T17:15:00.001-07:00

Being out of the Army has its perks and two of them is that you are no longer required to keep you hair at a certian length and you are able to grow facial hair. At first Ben kept it pretty short because he had some job interviews. Since there have been no job interviews as of late, he hasn't cut it. So while he was playing on the computer, I thought I would have some fun! I got out the gel and a comb and did this to him. It is pretty funny! I think he might cut it soon if I keep this kind of stuff up.

Hunting Pictures

2009-04-12T23:02:00.000-07:00

When we moved back to Oregon after being away for so long, Ben had to get back to his love of hunting. Since he didn't have a job or school he saw no reason why he couldn't go every day! Well, one day I went with him to see what all the fuss was about and to take some pictures of our dog Ory in action. I thought they turned out pretty good so I thought I would share them. Some are a little blurry but I couldn't use the flash. (I am sorry about the dead bird, but it was hunting after all.)

Cute nephew and niece pictures!

2009-04-12T15:02:00.000-07:00

The Kidlets!

I thought these were worth posting. I know that they aren't my kids but they are still too cute not to post and I love them with all my heart. I am so happy to be closer to them and get to see them more often. Last month Sadie went out of town for 5 days and I got to watch them. At first I thought, what did I get myself into? I love to sleep in and I can barely remember to feed myself somedays. But it was a blast! I really enjoyed it! Well on the last night, they all got sick and threw up everywhere but, at least now I know that I can handle it!

Mimzy

Emma

Johnny

Got Some Computer Time!

2009-03-17T22:28:00.001-07:00

Yay! I got some precious minutes on the computer! I needed to update me resume for a job (keep sending your prayers!) and thought I would sneak on over to my blog to give a better post. Life still goes on and it isn't always the way we think it should go but that's ok. I am learning to accept my surroundings and love them. The Aeby's are great people who love us and we enjoy keeping them company. We don't have jobs but that has allowed us to get back in shape and get see lots of family! I will hopefully be starting classes this next semester to finish all my pre classes to be able to transfer to OSU and I love the ward and my calling as cabin mom!!! So there are just a few blessings from our current living conditions! Honestly, it has been such a blessing and we really are just grateful to have what we have. Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers and we love and think about all of you often!
Till next time!
~ Hannah and Ben

going back to girls camp!!!

2009-03-16T18:45:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I haven't posted in forever because we are still living with the Aeby and that means one computer for all of us. With both Ben and Cameron play world of Warcraft I never get to see it. So I had the thought to try and use my blackberry to post an update! This is working so far but also takes forever and will most likely be full of spelling mistakes, so please accept my apologies in advanced. I just wanted to let you all know of my super exciting calling!!! I am camp director/cabin mom for my ward! Yay! I am so excited and will post more when I can actually get on a real computer.

Awesome gift exchange

2009-01-16T12:53:00.000-08:00

AS SEEN ON TV

gift exchange

This year I was sitting on the couch in Ft. Irwin California watching my favorite show The Office when on came a rather annoying commercial break. During this particular commercial break the Sham Wow ad came on. I know all of you know what I am talking about... I was sitting there wanting a Sham Wow, nay, NEEDING a Sham Wow and knowing I would never pick up that phone. So I pondered. . . How could I get someone else to buy me that Sham Wow for me, while saving myself the embarrassment of asking someone to get it for me. That is when it came to me! Of course! An as seen on TV gift exchange. I knew that there had to be others out there like me with a need for something they'd seen but were too embarrassed to ask for it or get it for themselves. This was a perfect way to make it not only ok to finally buy those products, but actually fun! So I purposed the idea to the family and they loved it! Yes!

So here is how the gift exchange went. Everyone chose a gift from under the tree, going from oldest to youngest. Then we all took a peek at our wrapped gift just enough to know what it was. If we were happy with our gift then you could sit there completely content, as Ben did. If you didn't get what you wanted then you were open to try and convince someone to trade with you. After a while of bargaining we all opened them one by one and showed the rest of the family our prizes! It was a lot of fun and I totally recommend it!

Here are some photos

Never will Grandpa have to worry about getting out of the shower and slipping again. Why you ask? Well that's because Grandpa got the handle that attaches anywhere!!! Grandma got the HD sun glasses and her life will never be the same! Uncle Brad got the extended arm that allows you to pick up anything and never have to bend over again! Kim got the amazing dryer balls! Marcene will never have to worry about drying her bras in the dryer now that she has the bra genie and just think of how much time Jenny will save now that she can sweep her floors just by walking around her house!

Rachel will have to forget everything she has ever known about push ups now that she has the perfect push up!

And Ben got exactly what he set out to get, the Sham Wow! And yes they really are amazing!

Grandma in her HD vision sunglasses! So Stylish!

And the two of them being just about a awesome as it gets!

Hope you all enjoyed a glimpse of our AS SEEN ON TV gift exchange. We really missed everyone who we weren't able to see this Christmas and we hope you had a great holiday season.

It's been a while

2009-01-16T11:12:00.001-08:00

~GREETINGS~

I haven't wanted to really write anything because there hasn't been much to report on as far as jobs, school and a place to call our own go... BUT I guess It would be nice to post something so those of you (if there are any left) who read my blog, know that yes... we are alive!

This was the first Christmas that we actually didn't have to drive a long way to be with family, so of course this is the year that family went to Colorado for the holidays! Regardless it was a good time for all of us. We stayed in some very nice cabins in Estes Park CO and enjoyed being out of the snow that hit the Oregon area. We stayed nice an cozy inside, only venturing out to get Starbucks coffee for Rachel and Hot cocoa for me. We also tried to make a daily trip to Rocky Mountain National Park to look at all the wildlife there, and there was so much! Every time you saw a ton of Elk and Ben even got to see some big horn sheep. We wanted to see a moose but couldn't find one. Oh well... these are some of the pictures we got of the animals. Pretty amazing.

These guys were eating out of these bird feeders. It was pretty amazing to watch!

While we remained toasty inside we filled our time with puzzles and games. Lots of fun!

I will post about our exciting gift exchange this year... idea courtesy of yours truly! and also some of my hunting adventures with Ben and Ory (yes I went!!!)

That is all for now though. Hope everyone is doing well and feel free to drop me a line of greetings!

~ Hannah

We've got our orders

2008-10-02T11:30:00.000-07:00

Well, it is as officially as ut gets. We got our orders yesterday and we leave Ft Irwin on October 16th! Our things get picked up on the 9th and 10th so we will be a few days without our things, but we are driving up to Oregon so we will be able to keep the air mattress and a few things to cook with. It will be interesting to travel with our dog and cat but we will make it work. We tease Modoc our cat whenever he starts acting up by saying, "You know cat, we are leaving soon and you might not make the trip" Of course everyone who knows me and if you don't, it's quite obvious by the fact that I talk to my cat, that I could never do that. For the moment I am feeling a little overwhelmed by all that needs to get done in such a short period of time, but as Ben is constantly reminding me, everything will be fine. Well, I need to go and clean up and organize a few rooms while I have a day off!

What... How long?

2008-09-22T23:03:00.000-07:00

Well, it is official. Ben's med board came through and we are moving forward. It just needs to make it through Walter Reed and then we will have our clearing orders to leave the post. They told him it should take 3 to 5 weeks. That is a lot shorter than what I was told to expect by pretty much everyone I talked to, so needless to say I almost started to hyperventilate when I got the news. I am excited but I just thought we would have some time to prepare. I guess this is what is suppose to happen.

Let there be cake!

2008-09-10T00:25:00.000-07:00

Well, it's not perfect but at least there will be cake. My cake crumbled when I was trying to frost it (even with it being cold from the fridge) and left me with a pretty lumpy cake but at least my friend will have a baby shower cake. I really hope I get better at this before I am supposed to do a wedding cake for my brother. If any of you do cakes and have some tips for me that would be great. I try and use cake mixes out of the box because they are moist and yummy, but they always seem to be lumpy and not uniform enough. I tried fondant this time. The one below I did a few months back and I tried just frosting it. I hope I am not scaring my brother and Johnna with these pictures. I'll be better I promise!

I would be Sleepy... for sure

2008-08-27T11:31:00.000-07:00

So, to play off my seven dwarfs title a few days ago I thought I would post what is not new to most of you, but it would sure make me feel better to find someone out there who is the same as me!
Once upon a time.....
I had all intentions of waking up this morning at 6:45 and heading to the pool to swim for some exercises. 6:45 came and went and I stayed in bed. Then at 9:00 (yes 9:00) I woke to someone knocking on my door. I ran down to check who it was and it was just the water tester guy who had already headed across the street. So you would think that I stayed up and got started with my day right? Nope. I went back up stairs and went right back to bed! I slept until 11:00!!!!! How can someone sleep that late? And this is not the first time! Granted I worked all day and went to bed around 1:00am. However, that is 10 hours of sleep! What is wrong with me?
My family all knows this about me because they have had to live with my crankiness and sleepiness. I would like to say that I am no longer rude or mean when woken up. Which I know my family still wont believe because of how awful I was while growing up. But I promise I have changed in that regard. Grumpy has moved. For good :)
My mom's recent medical problems have made me think though. I know that her anemia is not genetic, but I just feel so tired all the time and I wonder if there could be something to that. I had surgery about a year ago and I would think that they would have caught it then if was anemia.
Well, I just thought I would check with some family and friends and get your thoughts. Am I normal? I know it is different when you have children cause you can't sleep till 11:00 but some of you have to have some stories like mine. Right?!?

~The end~

(Happily ever after yet to be determined)

James Taylor

2008-08-24T21:04:00.000-07:00

So I was checking out my good friend Lori's blog and I thought that mine was pretty crappy in comparison and I decided to finally take on the task of committing to making mine cute, gosh darn it!!!! I think I did ok. I decided to add some music seeing as how "everyone is doing it!" and then came the task of deciding what music would represent me the best. I went through and browsed a little. I thought of my best friend Kenna and how she got me to listen Tom Petty and I knew I had to add him on there. Then that led me to some Steve Miller band and then I came to James Taylor, who I forgot how much I love! Every single song reminds me of my dad and I know that Nickleback is his favorite band now, but I can't help but think of snuggling up with him on the water bed in our old house in Estacada while he reads a National Geographic and having James Taylor playing softly in the background. It made me wish that I would have played Only One for our father daughter dance at my reception. Then I remembered how much I cried when I danced with dad and I knew that this song would have sent me over the edge. So maybe it was a good thing we kept it to Butterfly Kisses.
After all was said and done and I felt like I had enough songs on my list I took a look at it and realized what a strange soon to be 23 year old I am! My tastes in music certainly don't fit my age with the acception of maybe Cold Play and The Killers. It was at that point that I was ok with not adding Starland Vocal Band to my list as that would have been just the icing on the cake. ( afternoon delight!)
So I hope you enjoy my crazy collection of songs! And who knows maybe you will remember just how much you too love Jimmy Buffett and Rilo Kiley.

Hi Ho! Hi Ho! ...

2008-08-24T20:27:00.000-07:00

Well there you have it! If you look closely you can see at the top where it says, YOUR CASHIER TODAY IS Hannah A. And that is that. I have started working at the Commissary and it has been good so far. Actually I was surprised at how easy it is. Right now I am a cashier. There is the possibility that I might become a teller which means I would have more responsibility and what not. Mostly it fills up my time here and that is a good thing. Ben can tell what happens when I have nothing to do. You'd think my house would be spotless and dinner ready at five everyday, but it's the opposite. If I have all day to do something then I take all day to do it and then it usually doesn't get done. Instead, if I keep myself busy then I come home and actually get things done. So I think keeping my days full is a good thing.

Next Update

2008-08-13T20:55:00.001-07:00

Well time for an update. I didn't post this earlier because I didn't want to jinx anything, but the process has started so I thought it safe to post. Ben is going through the medical boarding process. We figure it will take at the very least a year or so to complete if he is medically released from the Army. This is actually ok since we will be wanting to go right to school and the new awesome GI bill will not take until August '09. Also I will have completed my Associate and then some. I contacted OSU and they said that my credits will transfer which is a huge relief. Keeps us in your prayers as we start this process. For those who have been praying for my mom and her surgery I just wanted to say thanks! Things went as well as they possible could. She is home now and doing really well.

Diaper Dog Days of Summer

2008-07-24T13:50:00.000-07:00

Well, It is that time of the six months again for Ory. I know that is a little too much info for most of you and kinda weird to post about. But she looks so funny in her depends diapers that I had to post.

She looks so embarrassed in this one.

Ben Update

2008-07-18T17:49:00.000-07:00

So do you want and update on Ben? Here it is anyways. He went in this last Thursday and was given a shot of steroids and other stuff as a way to make sure they know where the pain is and what is causing it. The doctor said that since the shoulder has sat in the wrong position for so long, his bones have adjusted to that position and now that it is sitting in the right position, he is rubbing bone together. So he needs a surgery to go in and shave some bone. The doctor here has done this surgery 5 times and 2 of the times the person came out of it with no pain and the other people 3 came out with the same or worse pain. I think Ben wants to do the surgery. One, to see if it will help and two, because he thinks that if he was to go to the med board to get out then they would ask if everything that could be done was done and the doctor would say that there is still this surgery that could be done. My feeling is that I want to get out and I am afraid that this will only make it worse. However, Ben is right in that, even if we did try to med board out now they would want him to do the surgery anyways. So either he will come out of it fixed and we stay in till 2011 or still in pain or possible more pain and we get out. It has been no secret that I want to get out but not at the cost of him in pain his whole life so we are hoping it works. He goes in on the 1st of August to set up the surgery and we don't know what the recovery time will be this time. Since it isn't dealing with muscle and more with bone Ben hopes it will be shorter this time. But he will still get one month off for leave to recover.

Family Reunions

2008-07-17T16:18:00.000-07:00

The Cox and Brown family Reunions were a ton of fun this year and I got just a few photos because my camera ran out of batteries. I wish I could have gotten some of the Brown family reunion. Well, I learned my lesson. At both reunions we had pork sandwiches which were good but I was glad to have something else after I got back home. All the salads were delicious and I could not decide so I ending up with a plate full of salads and not much room for anything else. At the Brown family reunion we play a game of baseball with the older cousin's verses the younger cousins. The older cousins won, of course. It really was no contest, but Joel did hit both Isaac and I for outs that stung quite a bit. We each got a turn at revenge. Then a game of croquette started up and I was called over to look at some of Grandma's old cake decorating stuff. I took home a few things and some pictures and am excited to have a little bit of Grandma Brown in my home. It was a lot of fun and even though it was short, it was so good to see both sides of the family. The pictures below are what I was able to take at the Cox family reunion.

Candy Game

This is the candy game for the little ones. There was candy buried under the sawdust and one kid from each team had 30 seconds to try and get as much candy as they could. The team with the most candy in the end won! Johnny and the rest of the yellow team took the approach of scooping up as much as their arms could hold including saw dust .In the picture below we see him there with Emma in the background casually picking out what she wanted while resting her head on her hand.

After a while they just decided to jump on in and really get into it

Soccer? (i don't know what it was called)

This game was a ton of fun. We basically had to play a game of soccer while in the crab position with a huge ball. It was hot and hard but there were a lot of laughs. Mom decided she would just hang out in the back when our team was up, but then the ball kept coming her way and she was the only thing between the ball and the goal. I almost wanted to get up and yell at her to stop playing since she had just gotten out of the hospital but she was fine and had fun.

The Rockets

The last competition was to build a rocket and see whose went the highest. It was a lot of fun. Ours did good but Joel's rocket won in the end. This is about the time my camera ran out of batteries.

China Town

2008-07-09T21:59:00.000-07:00

These are not recent but I thought I should still post them. While visiting last summer I took a trip with Sadie and the kids to China town and the whole way Johnny thought we were going to actual China. He would look outside and say, " I can see it! I can see China!" They are pretty cute and I thought I would post them no matter my tardiness. And I know, I know what you all are thinking but no, I am not a professional photographer but they are pretty good.

Johnny looking in the water at the fishes

You can't see us very well and we wouldn't get Johnny and Emma to look up at the camera.

Johnny exploring in his own little world

I love this one! Look at how beautiful Mirium is!

My camera didn't work to well in this room, but I love the face Johnny is making and Emma with her monkey backpack that she fought us on the whole time. We had a really good time here and I thought the Sadie and mom and dad would like to see them. Sorry it took me so long to get them to you~ Love you all!

Ben's Birthday Cake

2008-07-02T10:18:00.001-07:00

My friend Lori always does fun cakes for her families birthday's and she know how much I enjoy it too, so when I am at her house she shows me some ideas she gets out of a magazine she receives. She had this one (not knowing just how much Ben and I love sushi) and it was perfect! Ben really liked it and thought I put way too much effort into it as usual. It was so fun to make and way easy too! I thought it was a perfect amount of cake for just the two of us. Usually birthday cake ends up in the garbage because we can't eat it all. If you wanted it to feed more people, I am sure you could make the plate out of cake as well.

Kim's surprise!!

2008-06-26T11:34:00.000-07:00

Mother and son

Yay!!!! we managed to pull off the 50th Birthday surprise!!! She had no idea. It was great and a lot of people were able to make it!

Mike, Rachel Jeanie and Jeff

Grandpa Guthrie. We were so happy they made the trip!!

Ben with Jackson and Steven. Too cute!
Look at that smile.

Ya, I can see why people say we look alike
Johnna and Isaac, the newly engaged couple!!!!
Everyone like to take a ride on Uncle Ben

Gone Fishin"

2008-06-26T11:24:00.001-07:00

Johnny came to stay with us over at the Aeby's and we went fishing both days. Here he is reeling in a big one!
Ben taught he what he knows and Johnny was all ears. Every time he would start to real one in he would start yelling, "get the net!! Get the net!!" he also kept us entertained by singing, " you get a line, I'll get a pole, we'll go fishin in the crocadole (craw fish hole). He was a lot of fun.
He went shopping with Ben before fishing to get a new hat and you can't see the front but it says Fish R Die. You can kind of see it better in the nest picture.
Of course we had to start the day off with a big breakfast! It didn't stop Johnny from being "so hungry he could eat the whole outer space" though later on the boat.

Wow!!! This is one of Johnny's BIG catches. He caught two of the largest fish, one for each day.

Ory going down the big slide

2008-06-01T17:45:00.000-07:00

This is for Kenna and her family that came to visit. We went to the park with her little niece and Kenna pushed Ory down the small slide and we have since upgraded to the big one. She loves it! Thanks guys, we have fun :)

Ory

2008-06-01T08:57:00.000-07:00

We started out with all the intentions of having some fun in the back yard. Our tiny rectangle of grass can seem like an oasis in comparison to the dry landscape that surrounds us.

But all to soon Ory wears herself out and can't help but dose off to sleep. She is so sweet.

Tiny Jimmy

2008-06-01T08:52:00.000-07:00

It's a tiny Jimmy Buffett! He came to California and we got to go to his concert. It was out doors and awesome. As you can see we didn't have the best seats, but we had a grand time anyways!

School

2008-05-31T18:33:00.001-07:00

I know, I know, I am tooting my own horn here, but this class was probably the hardest I have had thus far and I managed with all my very hard work (which Ben can attest to) to get a 102.5 out of a 100 on my final. (there were three extra credit questions) I think this teacher couldn't bare to give anyone a perfect score but I will take my 102.5! I still have a 4.0 and hope to keep it there. I am taking a much needed summer off so we can travel up to Oregon and Utah for the family reunion. Ok ok enough with that. Thanks for listening :)

If Kenna and Jason can do it!

2008-05-31T18:21:00.001-07:00

Ok so I guess if our BFF's can do it and do it so well (don't expect me to be that good at this) then we can try it out.... I will add it to my favs and try to update it. I started it out as a way to get people info on what projects I would be demonstrating for my Stamping stuff, but I think I will use this one for friends and family since it has Ben's name in it (not that he will ever use this or probably see it!) So thanks for the inspiration friends! We miss you all! Hope this keeps you up to date:)

June Stampin' Up!

2008-05-05T18:10:00.000-07:00

This is the page layout for this months Stampin' Up party! It is so cute! Hope everyone can make it!