March

I haven't seen enough of this little miss in the first 2 months of her life, but when I do, I can't get enough of her!

I mean c'mon... look at that perfect, adorable face, hair, clothes, smile, etc. She is to die for.

We celebrated Tom, Cam and Teresa's birthday one Sunday and loved spending some time w/ the Call's and Raymond kids who we don't get to see nearly enough. We had fun playing two different games- Fruit Salad and Dutch Blitz. (this cutie between Teresa and Jake is Jake girlfriend Kylee! She's awesome and I love her hanging around our house so much)



With Jessica's help, I transformed this corner of my kitchen. I'm so happy with the results!

This is how much snow we had on March 1st. About a week later it was all gone, then the last week of March it was covered with 5-6" of snow again which was almost all gone by March 31st. Hopefully we've seen the last of snow for the year, but sadly, I doubt it.

Thanks to the ESL teacher that I'm an aide for, I was selected as one of the "educational support professional" for Mount Logan Middle School! I had to attend a faculty meeting where they made the announcement and 2 teachers (including the one I work with) said all sorts of nice things about me while I stood there feeling super uncomfortable. My picture in a plaque will grace the front entrance of the school for the next year, and I got a nice card from all three principals as well as a $40 restaurant gift card. I missed attending the school board meeting the next week, but at that I was presented a gift card to Cafe Sabor and a check for $100. Sweet!

These next pictures uploaded in the wrong order, so I'll tell about my trip to Seattle first, then my fun time in Portland even though Portland actually came first...I flew from Portland to Seattle on the 23rd to spend a week w/ the Hatch's. I just loving flying above the clouds.

This is Evan's face when he saw me at the airport. SOOO cute. Kylee had told him they were going to get me on the drive to the airport but he didn't really get it. Oh man- I just love this boy.

I took Evan with me one day to get some things from Fred Meyer. He loved riding in this cart although I did not love pushing it around...and therefore just did it in the parking lot for a minute after we were done :)

He loved to come into my room each morning and look at videos and pictures on my phone and lay on the "baby" pillow.

He loved getting into the car and playing with all the buttons and rolling the window up and down.

He got this little bike for Easter and although he's too little to ride it yet, he LOVED walking it around for hours inside and outside.

The weather was fabulous the whole time I was there- for the most part. One clear day I could see Mt. Rainier on my walk with Evan.
 
 From 7:30 am- 10:30 pm every day for a week, I was either playing with Evan or I was sanding or painting the bathroom as well as the kitchen cabinets and drawers. At times the painting and sanding felt never-ending, but the sense of accomplishment at the end, and knowing how much it helped Ky and Brody out,made it all worth it. I felt so happy that I could be of help to them. Here are some before and during shots. I'll put the after pictures on here next month when they're done with everything. 

Kylee got really good with the caulking gun and electric drill. Brody has gotten good at plumbing, electrical work, tiling, installing sinks, counter tops and bathtub linings, putting up trim and baseboards and anything else he's needed to do. I'm so impressed with both of them! (P.S.- these are not Kylee's working clothes.. she and Brody went out one night to dinner and to run errands and she just did a few quick things in her cute outfit when they got home)

Evan helped me for about 10 seconds, but long enough to snap this picture.

I was soooo sad to say goodbye to Evan (and Ky and Brody :) at the end of the week. I get so spoiled with seeing him every day, all day and then to go to not seeing him at all is really hard and sad. Luckily I know I'll be seeing him in two months when I go back for the birth of Owen- which I'm SO excited about.

Ann was driving to Portland to stay in a condo downtown for 3 weeks and invited her sisters to drive down with her, stay 3 nights and fly home. Von couldn't come at the last minute because she was in Phoenix with the Robertson's, so it was just the 4 of us. We had a great drive there, each taking turns driving for 2 hours. We had plenty of time once there to walk for 5 1/2 miles around downtown, do a little shopping and eat a tasty dinner at Cafe Yumm.

 
 That night we did some coloring and played a fun new dice game.

The next morning we walked to get a muffin and an carmel apple spice drink at Starbucks. We then got ready and went to Vancouver to have lunch with Todd, Stacey and Kennedy. I loved seeing their dream house again. We came back to Portland to go to a matinee, walk around and shop some more, then get Thai food from the food cart and took it back to the condo to eat then spent the evening relaxing and playing cards.

These were the lovely condos where we stayed. I loved walking down this charming street every day.

On Tuesday we spent most of the day at Cannon Beach. We had a tasty lunch at Mo's, walked along the beach (and got rained on...) and shopped in downtown, and ate a delicious crepe.

I was so impressed with Carol for wading in the FREEZING ocean. But now, looking at this picture, I kinda wish I had done it too!

That night we walked around the University of Portland which was close to our condo.

The next morning Janet and Carol flew back to SLC and I went to Seattle for my week with the Hatch's. I'm so happy I could spend these three days with these wonderful sisters of mine. They, along with Von have always been such a source of love and strength and friendship to me and I love them so much!