Our Little Taryn

Our poor little cat, Taryn, is often overlooked because she's so independent and Maverick is so needy, but I wanted to share this picture of her. She has been enjoying the changing table my dad made for Micah. I put a pillow on the top to get it out of my way when I was organizing, and she claimed it as a bed. :)

Wallowa Lake Weekend

We went to Wallowa Lake last weekend with David's family. I got some fun pictures, and wanted to share some of them. This little dog lived across the street from the house we stayed at. He was a cute little corgi/border collie puppy, and loved the attention that we gave him.

We drove out to Imnaha on Saturday afternoon, where Paul's aunt and uncle live. They lived in a beautiful little valley, with a river flowing through it. This is the view from their backyard. A few miles further down the river is the old family home-place, where Paul's mom grew up. It was really beautiful, nestled up against the hillside, but I didn't get a picture of it.

Joseph is a fun little town, with a lot of little tourist stores. We went and walked around on Saturday morning. They have a bunch of bronze statues all around town, which were fun to see. It was a really nice day, very sunny, and I should have worn a short-sleeved shirt!

David and I are considering a move to this teepee in Joseph.

This is the river that was right behind the house we stayed in. It was a very soothing sound as we went to sleep with the window open each night.

This bull statue was across the street from the house we stayed at. I tried to get on it for a picture, but in my largeness I could only get up as high as his head... not quite as realistic. I think Barb got a picture of me on it, but I look like a dork sitting on the head....

25 Books of Summer

Because I don't have to work this summer and I don't want to waste all of my free time, I've set a goal for myself. I would like to read 25 books this summer. There are no criteria (except that picture books don't count...), but this began after Memorial Day. The list of finished books is posted on the left... we'll see if I can do it!

My first book for the list is On Becoming Babywise, by Gary Ezzo and Dr. Robert Bucknam... I was a little disillusioned by this book, and I'm not really sure what my opinion is. It's an interesting concept of being able to get your baby on a feeding schedule, but in talking to people and doing some research, I don't know how healthy and safe it is. Some of the principles seem like they'll be very helpful, but we won't be following Ezzo's plan.

A Weekend in Everson

Last weekend David and I made the long trip up to Everson to visit with my family and watch my little sister graduate from high school. This was our last trip until after we have the baby, and we really enjoyed the chances we had to visit with our family and some of good friends. Graduation was Friday night, and although the day started off pretty cloudy, it turned out to be a beautiful evening... almost too sunny!

Congratulations, Steph! You're done with high school! I can't even believe my little sister, who I still picture as about 7 years old, is 18 and graduated! She's going to Corban in the fall to study to be a teacher, and is pretty excited about it. :) (I am too...) I know she's going to really enjoy herself there.

On Saturday, I went to a baby shower for Katie and little Noah, who arrived in May. It's hard to believe that he's already 6 weeks old, which means it's not very long until little Micah is here! David and I got to spend some time with Justin and Katie, and Jen and Ryan on Saturday night, where David got to meet Noah. Seeing him hold the little guy makes me pretty excited for our own little boy to come. David's going to be such a good dad!

I spent most of the weekend making cakes, one for Steph's graduation party and one for Katie's baby shower. They both turned out pretty well, and it was fun to be able to make something for people I care a lot about. Steph's cake is, of course, purple and white, (Nooksack's colors), with the top layer looking like a graduation cap. Katie's was white with little animals on the sides, and cupcakes with the same animals on them. Unfortunately I forgot to take any pictures of the cake for Katie and Noah, but I'll get them from my mom and post later.

Maverick was exceptionally well behaved this weekend, and has further impressed us! He's such a great dog, and it's really nice that we don't have to worry about him all the time. He enjoyed Steph's graduation party as much as anyone... maybe more! The party was in my parents' back yard and he just walked around sniffing people's legs and plates if they let him.

Mav greeted everyone at the gate when they came in, and even found some friends to beg for food from. There were two little kids at the party, and they loved him! He spent a lot of time at the party just like this, chewing on a stick:

We both really enjoyed the weekend, but were really tired afterward. It was really nice to have a relaxing drive home...

Kindergarten Girls Hitting Pinata

I should mention that Maverick was locked in our house during this time. He scared one of the first graders, and David couldn't hold him while he was swinging the pinata. At the end of this video, Maverick pushed the screen out of our bedroom window, and jumped off our bed into the back yard! Unfortunately I'm not very skilled at recording, and I missed it. :(

Summer is Here!

David and I had a busy couple of days last weekend, and I got behind on updating with the videos and pictures I wanted to share. So, it's only a few days later...

On Friday, our last official day of school, we had all of our students (minus the two graduated seniors) over for lunch, plus two of the parents. We ordered pizza from Dominos ( we ordered 10 thinking they'd eat a lot, and I'm still eating left overs, plus we have a whole pizza left in the refrigerator), and had fruit, veggies and brownies. We also filled up a pinata from Fiesta Foods and the kids got to take some whacks at it. They had never done a pinata before, and loved it! I had a good video of my kindergarten girls swinging at the pinata, but I couldn't get it to load. :( I'll keep trying and maybe soon I can post it.

Our good friends, Kayla and Aaron, were here Friday night until Saturday evening, with their little border collie, Benjamin Franklin. Once our dogs got acquainted with one another, they had a good time playing together. Benny is a year old and has a lot more energy than Maverick, the old-man 2-year old, but they ran and jumped around the yard a lot. We were even able to take them down to the nature trails at McNary Dam and let them swim in this stream area that was about 3 or 4 feet deep. It was a great visit with friends that we don't see nearly often enough!

Saturday was also my first baby shower! Marci put it on at our friend Felicia's house (it's newly remodeled and beautiful!) at 4:00, and a bunch of my friends were able to come. It was really a great time spent with friends, and I was so thankful that everyone had come to show they were excited about little Micah. He sure is going to be a well-loved little boy! I got some great gifts too, including a monitor, the diaper bag that I wanted so badly, many baby toiletries, toys, and supplies, and some very cute little clothes! David and I are so blessed to have great friends and family, and we're so thankful for them! I forgot to get out my camera at the shower... very typical, but Barb got some pictures luckily. :)

Kara and I, with Kirsten in the background. Kara made the great diaper cake on the table with the food. It had 95 disposable diapers in it, and some fun bath toys. On the top were some cute little onesies, some baby bath products and some more toys! :)

With Marci and Felicia, and Radar the kitten... he wasn't a shower gift unfortunately, but he sure was a sweet little kitty!

This is a picture of me with my cake, it's ice cream cake! My favorite! I got a little sunburned at the river...

Packwood

David and I had a great long weekend for Memorial Day. We spent the weekend, with his grandparents and aunt and uncle, in Packwood, WA. Bob and Lu, his grandparents, live there in a very cute cabin in the woods. We always love spending time there, and this weekend was no exception.



One of the fun features of Packwood on Memorial Day (and Labor Day, but I've never been) is the flea market that happens. The small town, which takes about 1 minute to drive through regularly, and has a few stores, becomes a crazily-busy thrift shopping extravaganza! It was packed with people, vendors, food smells, and hundreds of dogs of all shapes and sizes. We went down to the flea market twice, for a long while on Saturday, and a short trip Sunday when Maverick got to come with us, and we were very successful. We ended up walking away with: 12 articles of baby clothes (9 of which were brand new with the tags still on) for $12, 5 childrens/Disney movies for $15 (including Finding Nemo, one of my favorites), Scentsy wax for my burner, a brand new video game that sells for $60 but David got it for $12, a box of baseball cards for $5, popcorn, some kids' books, and a package of Bacon Cheddar dip mix. It was a very successful trip, and we both really enjoyed ourselves.



We were able to relax, put our feet up, go for a nice walk back to the waterfall (which was beautiful as always), and play some games with family. This was a much-needed relaxing weekend, and neither of us wanted to leave at the end. We even got a really nice basket full of baby supplies from Gramma and Papa as we were leaving, as a gift for my shower. Such a wonderful weekend! Thanks for letting us come!