That's my girl!

The funniest thing happened when we went out to Chili's for dinner this weekend. In the car on the way to the restaurant, we told Hope that if she was a good girl, we would order chips and salsa, because she loves them, and so do we. When we first got there, the waitress came over and took our drink order. Then she left and the manager came over just to check on us. As she was standing there, the manager looked right at Hope and was saying how cute she was. Hope looked at the manager and said, "Um water, chips" just ordering exactly what she wanted. Several of the tables right around us were laughing right along with us. It just cracked me up how much she is growing up and willing to just speak up for herself! The bribery worked, because she was really good the whole dinner.

Headstone Update.

Just thought I might post an update about Gunners headstone. We are so grateful to be able to have ordered the headstone. They are trying to get it ready to be placed by memorial day. We are so happy with the design, and hope that it comes out as planned. I am pretty sure that the headstone designer thinks we are downright insane. In fact, when we went to sit down with her to finalize things, I made a comment that we are probably the craziest people that she has ever worked with. She said that there was a family about 20 years ago that was almost as "particular" as us. I can see after spending an hour measuring every single element for Eric, why she might think that we are a little "particular"! That is just they way Eric is, nothing less than the best for those he loves.

I have been having a strong urge recently to find a way to feel Gunner close. We were planning on going up to Estes this last weekend, but the weather didn't cooperate. So, in the next couple of weeks I need to find a way to get to the temple, or up to Estes. I tried to prepare Eric for the idea that I may just drive myself and Hope up to Estes one of these days. I know he wants to go too, but I have a NEED to feel Gunner close to me. It seems that it has been a decade since I have felt him near.

Easter 2010

In addition to the fun of Easter this year, we were able to listen to conference. I thought it was incredible, and I was pretty sure that the whole conference was given just for me. I can honestly say that I want to be a better person because of what was said during many of the talks.

We had our Easter service the week before, so Hope had the chance to wear her new Easter dress. Unfortunately we took pictures while her hair was still wet and not done, but she looks pretty cute anyway, I think.

This was her Easter basket. Ignore the mess of toys shoved in the corner of the living room. The play room down stairs won't be done soon enough I am afraid.

The funniest thing was when she saw the trail of jelly beans to her basket she said "Oh no! Mess!" then tried to get it all cleaned up until she saw the eggs and realized that this could be pretty fun. We call this straight-from-bed-head.

She shakes when she gets excited, and that is what she is doing here. If you notice the lovely pj's, it is out of necessity that they are #1-boys pj's (75%off, and since we were just going to cut them up...) #2-feet cut out so that we can zip them up the back. When we got home from the hospital, she started taking ALL of her clothes off, including her diaper every chance she got. It got to the point that we were having to go in 5-8 times a night to get her dressed, change bedding etc etc. So for the sake of my SANITY we came up with a way to prevent her from climbing out of her pj's. Hence backwards Pj's! Eric thought that duct taping her diaper on seemed too cruel, so he came up with this modification. Works great FYI!

The first pair of Pj's that Eric artistically modified!

Hope was able to have another egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpas house after conference. As soon as we pulled up to the house and she saw the balloons and eggs hiding she started shaking all over again. Hope everyone had a great Easter!

Our remodel project

For the few of you that know what a mess we are in right now, I thought that I would share a few pics from our basement remodel. We live in an older home, and love the big established trees, that is until they start invading the plumbing. Long story short, we had a sewer main break in our basement, so my incredibly talented husband decided that he (and my dad of course) will do most of the work and we will re-do the WHOLE 1200 sq feet of our basement. I think I will just let the pictures tell the story. Can I tell you that after a LONG day of hauling brick, concrete and destroying whatever he can get his hands on, my husband also spends 2-3 hours cleaning the upstairs so that Hope and I can come home to a clean home. Eric is truly incredible, and I am so blessed to have him!



All of the windows used to be the small 1'x 2' windows, but we cut into the foundation to make some of the windows 4'x4'. It is such a huge improvement, I wish we could have done all of the windows!

Hope is 2!

Hope turned 2 a few weeks ago, and I can't believe how time has slipped by! Can I just say that I am CRAZY about this girl. She is so much fun, and is so pleasant to have around (okay, 98% of the time!) She lives to have Eric and I close by. She is such a little sponge. We told her how to spell her name twice, and she still remembers, she is doing great with her numbers and is saying more and more everyday. Hope LOVES to dance, and read books. She is a great helper, and as long as I let her help with everything I am doing, all goes smoothly. Recently she says "I want to hold you" which actually means "I want you to hold ME". That's okay, she'll get it right sometime. She is so loving and happy. Here are a few pictures from her birthday. We had a last minute party at Grandma and Grandpas, because of our basement (which I will post pictures of later). Hope has picked up on Dora, so we went with that since it was an easy theme. I wasn't quite feeling up to doing anything big this year.

We went to meet Eric at work for lunch and headed to the new Cafe Rio (our new favorite!) This was on our way.


The lady cleaning the tables found out it was Hopes birthday and had everyone serving sing happy birthday while she brought out a little cake for Hope. I wish they wouldn't have done that because I would have never known how incredible the tres leches cake is!

This is what she did while we all sang Happy Birthday! She was showing her shy side.

So happy!