How could you...

Not smile at this little boy. I hope your day is filled with love and laughter.

A Great Weekend...

We had such a great weekend. In between Saturday's general conference sessions we headed up to the church for our stake's Easter egg hunt. It was so cute to watch Elai hunting the eggs. He was so amazed by all the eggs that he didn't want to put them in his basket, he wanted to hold them all. We were able to watch conference at home which was very nice. On Saturday night while Zech was at the priesthood meeting I attended the Deseret Book Womens Night with some ladies from my ward. Here are a few pictures we took.

Since the weather has been bad the Easter bunny set up a hunt in our living room. When Elai woke up and saw the eggs he started running around screaming with joy.

Elai got some bubbles from the Easter bunny. He loved them so much. He kept saying "Mo Mo."

Over all we had a great time. It was so nice to be able to hear from our church leaders and to be able to celebrate the resurrection of Christ.

Gdiapers

Now that Elai has finally got a little bigger it means it's time to buy bigger Gdiapers. This excites me very much. I don't know how many of you have tried these eco friendly diapers but they are amazing and so cute. You can buy them online or find them at local stores, our Fred Meyer has them. Here are the ones I just ordered!

Check out gdiapers.com for more. PS the little girls ones are super cute!

A Day in the Park..

My Picture of the day comes straight from the swing at the park.

Today was Zech's first day back to school after spring break. It was hard for Elai and I to let him go but we managed.

More Logan Photos...

Well on our trip to Logan we took a quick trip to the mall. Elai discovered the play land. I personally think it was a hideous toy area but Elai liked it.

Here is Elai playing on the spilt soda!

He really liked the ice cubes.

Have a great day!

Our Trip!

Yesterday Zech, Elai and I had an opportunity to take a little road trip to Logan, Ut. We had an interview for a summer job we are interested in. Since neither Zech or I had ever been to Logan we decided to make the most out of our trip and to do a little sight seeing.

Our first stop...the Logan temple.

WOW, it is so beautiful. It just amazes me that the whole temple was built by hand. It is truly a piece of art.

Next stop....the Logan tabernacle.

Again...amazing.

We ended our trip by stopping in Riverspring (I think). There we ran across this old church building.


I love seeing old church buildings. They are so pretty and so unique. We had a great trip and loved our little Utah adventure.

Girls Day~!~

Yesterday was a very eventful day. It started out by me being in charge of our enrichment meeting. There is a lady here in Pocatello that makes these temple pictures that are so gorgeous and really reasonably priced. So I decided to do a temple mod podge activity. All the girls loved how there pictures turned out. Here is what mine looks like.

After enrichment a friend and I took a trip down to the local scrapbook store. It was her birthday and the store was having an anniversary sale so we had to go. While there I saw the cutest necklace. I knew instantly that I had to have one so I picked out some bead and made my own. What do you think?

The best part is that I used lobster claws to hook on the beads to the chain so they are interchangeable! I can't wait to go back and buy more beads!

I also made these earrings! The bottom ones are made out of the leftover chain that I used for the necklace.

This treat box was a make and take. It definitely put me in the Easter mood!

This scrapbook page was another make and take. We used the new cosmo cricut paper line. It just came out, I loved it so much I bought all of it.

Over all I would say we had a great girls day out. There is nothing better then spending the day making things.

debt...

Today i had the opportunity to go to lunch with a friend. She was explaining some of their financial burdens to me. After realizing her and her husband are over $60,000 in debt it make me think about my life. I might not have a nice big house, or be able to go out and buy new clothes all the time and we have a very stick budget that doesn't allow us to go out very often. But we have financial freedom! We aren't in debt. We don't have to worry about making tons of monthly payments. So I have decided our lives are pretty darn good!

Elai's First Birthday!

Saturday started bright and early for us. Elai decided to start his birthday celebration at 6am. Since I had just about everything ready for his party we sat and read books until about 8am when he decided to go back to bed. We had some of our close friends (with the exception of the Rankins) come over at 1pm for our first bbq of the year, in the snow. It turned out great! Here are some photos from the party.

Elai loved his cupcake. He was very upset when it was all gone.

Everyone was calling him the "HULK" and he almost wore the hulk costume to church on Sunday because the green frosting died his skin.

This is my first cake from scratch. Thanks to Martha Stewart and my friend Karlee, I was able to pull it off.

Elai loves Old McDonald, so in light of that we had an Old McDonald birthday. We decorated with pom poms, animals and Elai's favorite-tractors!

Now that it's over and I have time to breathe I can't believe that my baby is one. Just one year ago I held Elai for the first time. I love being his mom and I am grateful to my Heavenly Father for giving me the opportunity to be a mother.

climbing...

Elai has discovered he can climb on things. Not only that but he can push his toy basket around. So this morning I found this...

Elai pushed his basket over to the piano and climbed on it so that he could reach the keys better. It doesn't stop there, next it was over to the couch. I think I am have an acrobat on my hands.

Family Photos

Here is a sneak peak at a few of our favorite family photos that we just had done for Elai's birthday.

Another First...

Here is Elai enjoying his first ice cream cone. Can you believe his birthday is next Saturday. Where has the time went?

A Day At The Park

A friend of mine is due in two days with her first child. She is trying everything she can think of to make her baby come. So today I thought I would help her out and go on a walk with her. We walked around the park that is right by our house. Elai discovered he likes the swings. He was so excited that he didn't know which way to look; up, down or sideways. I tried repeatedly to get a good picture but he wouldn't pay attention to me so this is as good as it gets.

My gift...

My greatest gift, my hands. As my grandmother last breathes draw closer some of my family members are already fighting over what possessions of hers they get. I was also asked if there is anything that I would like to have. Well after pondering the question a while I have come to realize I have the best gift she could give. When I look down I see my grandmothers hands. So no matter where I'm at or what I'm doing I will always have a piece of her with me.

How?

Can you not love this face?

My picture of the day comes straight from the bathtub, which just happens to be Elai's favorite place in the house.

Going to the Library

My photo of the day was taken at the library.

Elai and I have just started to attend baby story time on Tuesday mornings at the library. I love being able to go and Elai loves picking out new books to bring home. But today we discovered all the animal pillows. Elai was having a blast playing with them. Who said you can't have fun without spending any money? Actually it is all the free things that we find to do that Elai ends up enjoying the most.

It's catch up time

After being gone for two weeks and coming home to a husband who has the flu, a sick baby and then me getting the flu I have gotten a bit behind on things. So today will be a busy day of catch up. But before I get started I wanted to share my photo of the day.

Elai still isn't too sure if he likes his sun glasses or not.

First Hair Cut!

We are busy planning Elai's first birthday party here. It has been so much fun and I'm looking forward to it. Thanks to Martha Stewart's ideas it should be a success! On Friday we took care of a very important thing on our birthday to do list. Elai got his hair cut! He did great. It was so cute. He was fascinated with the water bottle and the combs. Here are a few photos.

And here is the after shot with Elai's books all over the floor in the background! Now that the hair cut is done we can go get his pictures. Of course we will have a cute Mohawk for them!

Fruit Tart

I was walking through Fred Meyer the other day and noticed a beautiful fruit tart in the bakery case. It made me think that a fruit tart would be the perfect summer desert, you don't have to stand over the stove or use the oven on a hot summer day. So I bought some different berries and kiwis and ran home to find a recipe. It was a success. I will definitely be adding fruit tarts to our summer menu. And just look how pretty they are!

Best Dinner Ever

I love pasta, I really do. I could eat it every day of the week. However because of the carbs I do try and limit myself. A few days ago while at my moms house I came across a recipe for stuffed meatballs. Since I don't like meat in my spaghetti but Zech has to have it in his I decided to make some of these meatballs. They were wonderful! Sausage stuffed with bite size mozzarella cheese! YUM! I definitely recommend trying them and the best part is that they are super easy to make. These meatballs paired with spaghetti noodles, asparagus and salad make the best dinner ever!



Meatballs:
1lbs sausage (yields six meatballs)
2 bite size mozzarella balls quartered
olive oil for sprinkling on top

Wrap the sausage around the cheese and bake at 400 degrees for 20 minutes.