Welcome Lis!

They are such a cute couple! They definitely look happy!

Claire was definitely fighting to be the center of attention. Lis says she didn't mind though. So that's good. It's a good thing Claire is darn cute!

There are tons of pictures, but I don't want to bore you all!

Congratulations Little Brother!
Welcome to the family Lis!

Our Home in 10 Days

We haven't been posting about our home during the past couple weeks, but oh how its grown!  Check it out:

Sweeeeeet!

- Peter

A Week in June

The week of June 16- 22 was crazy busy and full of events for us!

Sunday, of course, was Father's Day.
We celebrated with breakfast in bed (croissant, egg, bacon, and cheese sandwiches with fruit) for Peter and sloppy joes for dinner at his request.
Claire was super helpful in opening gifts. Surprised?

Tuesday was my birthday.
Peter made me breakfast in bed (McDonald's imitation McGriddles).
The day was pretty uneventful.
For dinner we had pulled pork sandwiches and Peter baked and frosted a cake just for me! Love that man!

Wednesday my mom and Nick arrived for their vacation and we went to Olive Garden to continue my birthday celebrations.

Friday was our 5th anniversary, but we postponed our celebrations until Saturday so that I could attend Lis's bridal shower in Ogden.

We played a few games, but first, Lis had to make a chocolate cake without a recipe.

Lis's sister Kathy hosted the party and did a GREAT job. These are pictures from guessing spices.

Then Saturday night Peter and I got a babysitter and went out on our anniversary date.

He took me to dinner at the hotel where we spent our first night together and we walked around temple square and finished with a horse-drawn carriage ride. He also bought me a wedding band.

And that was just one week in June.

It's June!

For the past two weeks (the beginning of June) I've been trying really hard to just DO stuff. And to use my time well--not necessarily efficiently. I've just been trying to get stuff done that needs to be done and stay away from time drains like Facebook and TV. I haven't even been reading my books like I was a few weeks ago.

So almost every day for the last two weeks I have been focusing on working out, getting outside, cleaning inside, keeping up with laundry, and making dinner. We have had a planned dinner every night and I worked out at least 3 times each week. We also went to the park 9 out of 10 days (we don't go on the weekends). 

Claire loves the park. She is getting really good at going up the ladders alone. PLUS This summer the city is giving lunches to children under 18yo. So I haven't made Claire lunch in a good while :- D

It definitely got hot enough for swimming!

And Daddy brought home his old toy trains for his little girl who also LOVES "choo choos."

Claire likes to help water the flowers. The water is really cold.

We stop to smell the roses every day. Mmmm!

We've been eating TONS of grapes.

And we went to visit our house together! This picture was taken on Tuesday the 11th. You can see our garage floor and the gravel where the driveway and sidewalk will be.

The is sideways but it's our basement floor and some plumbing and a window well to the back yard.

As of Friday, Peter reports that wood for framing had been delivered and was sitting on our property! Hooray! It's REALLY going to look like a house now!

They added that pole on the right and the tubes right in front.

 And look at that wood!

Claire got car sick on the ride down to the house so we made sure to let her have a good long break before we got back in the car. We stopped at our neighborhood city park and played for a while.

So those are our days. At night I've been editing photos and trying to organize myself enough to blog. I'm not really fast at any of that because I'm a total perfectionist--most of the time. Sometimes I just try to throw it together (like this post--I know what you're thinking, this is just thrown together? Yes--and it took me over an hour!) and it still takes forever. 

I've also generally just been planning and getting more things done--like gift buying and wrapping for Father's day and our anniversary and a very special WEDDING! These coming two weeks are going to be packed full of fun and excitement! The only problems: time off and money! Technically all extra money (and then some) is supposed to be going to the house, but we're suckers for presents and gift giving! I sure love us as a couple!

Also to mention, around Monday the 3rd Constance saw a commercial on TV and mentioned that she was interested in seeing Jersey Boys and I was SO excited and told her I wanted to go too! They were in town for two weeks only and shows started that week. So Constance dragged me along to the show on Thursday night and it was FABULOUS! If you don't know, it's about the boy group The Four Seasons and how they became famous and what happened to them. Amazing music. It was just a ton of fun. I still have the playbill, but no pictures. It was so good to 1) be out and 2) go be cultured and in a theatre again!

So...

Our summer sure is off to a great start!

Happy Father's Day!

We are so grateful for the dads in our lives and all of the hard work that they do and the sacrifices they make in order to provide for their families!

Today we are especially grateful for our very own daddy.

He's always there for us whenever we need him. He loves to help and play. He's our provider, protector, and priesthood holder.

We love you daddy!

The End of May

What an exciting week we've had!
We couldn't have asked for more perfect weather for Memorial Day!
There are a lot pictures here so I put in some collages to make things a bit more simple.
(In case you're wondering, I used fotor.com--completely free and easy)

Trains
Peter had the day off and we took the opportunity to go and see trains! (What else, seriously?)
We drove up to Heber to look try to catch a glimpse of Thomas the Train at the Heber Valley Railroad. We ended up paying to enter the impromptu fair to play with the toys and enjoy more of the train atmosphere.

Claire got a balloon shaped like a flower and she LOVED playing with the trains.

She has also added the words "Tahta" (Thomas) and "choo choo" (train) to her vocabulary. Cute.

We then went to dinner at Dairy Keen where everything screams trains! They have a Thomas model train running around the ceiling of the restaurant and a Harry Potter themed train scene inside of a huge fish tank. Their menu is train themed and so are the workers' outfits. They also have "best-in-state milkshakes." Yum. We tried the nutella and "thinnest mint" (like Girl Scout Cookie Thin Mints).

Cousins
On Friday Claire's cousins came over to Grandma's house while their parents went to a wedding.

It kinda felt like the house exploded. Those of you with multiple children, I hope you have dedicated play rooms!

This little ham was super shy at first. Then she decided that I was "mom" and didn't like Claire getting my attention. She was a little aggressive, but in a normal 2 year old kinda way.

I convinced them to play together. Claire was nervous at first--she had been pushed down one too many times :-) And as long as Claire didn't touch the blocks Erica wanted, everything was perfect.

They soon became friends and began a game of "do as I'm doing" which lasted through the weekend.

That evening I took their family pictures. I think we got some really cute shots.

Breakfast
Saturday morning we all headed down to the church where our ward held their annual June breakfast. This was the first time Claire had gotten her face painted. Claire also had a blast running around after all of the kids and weaving her way back to her parents through the crowd.

Her model pose and clips of her running away.Great game!

She also got to play with knobs and stand inside of a firetruck.

A progression of Claire's smile:

Birthday
That evening we had a surprise birthday party for Constance! Phillipa planned the whole thing so that Lydia and her family could participate before they traveled home again.
Dinner Guests:

Franccesco made dinner: gnocci.
And he brought gellato :-)

I made cake.

Claire did better with Erica this time. They had a blast burning off the sugar by jumping and running around in circles.

Claire also kept holding her hands up with her palms together (like in the bottom right picture here) and saying "cheese!" as she ran around the kitchen, living room, and dining room.
Oh to be almost two!