Catch Up

Our Computer is Finally fixed and here is the catch up. My mom and two of my Aunts that came to my sister Lisa's baby shower for her first little boy. We are so excited for her!
I got to see my sister Sarah's darlene little girl Eliza for the first time. I miss her already!

Shaun with Eliza and Colbie after the 4th of July parade. Alexis collected alot of candy!
Barbeque with my family after parade

Fishing at the fish farm

My dad with Tanner (my sister Stacie's baby) and Arienna (my brother Mike's little girl)

Attempting a maching outfit grandkid picture

Colbie loved this swimming pool

Alexis at the Relief Society Potluck in Nebraska

Sister Jones's house Relief Society Potluck

Some of the kids from our branch swimming at the potluck

My new haircut. It is quite a bit shorter than photo I showed her. I was freaking out for a week but am now getting used to it. I haven't had it like this for 13 years!

One of the 4 toads we have caught in our yard this summer. This one I let Alexis keep for a day in our swimming pool. It was fun to watch it swim.

4th of July firworks we set off in our yard for fun

Toad

Colbie our dish helper.

The update on the flowers for family who wants to see them growing

Alexis got excited to see the soybeens being sprayed

Happy Fathers day photos

Finished ceramics we made for Shaun's mom. It took us a few years to finish these completely

Another growing plant picture for the fam to see
We have potatoes, peas, tomatoes, roma tomatoes, corn, zuchini, peppers, cantolope, watermelon, and honey dew melon

Alexis dancing at the lawnchairs on the square in town. She is on the far right

Happy 28th Birthday to me! not the best picture. We had a peanut butter icecream cake.

Eating at the Pizza machine buffet.

The Lauritzen Garden's relaxing in the bird sanctuary

bowling at the pizza machine

Alexis gripping the car around the first turn on the go-karts for her first ride ever

A lady playing the bells at the Lauritzen Garden's in Omaha

Peonies at gardens

Missouri River and Pedestrian Bridge in Omaha

Exploring Old Market shops

Heartland Fountain

Japanese Garden

Qoi pond at the gardens

Listening to bells at gardens

Awesome train display at the gardens

Alexis took our picture in the rose garden

Relaxing in Heartland Park

Alexis at the Lauritzan Gardens

Happy Memorial Day photo on our trip in Omaha

We went to this fun old fashion ice cream place in the Old Market area

Cool garden walkthrough in the old market shopping area

shopping in Old Market

The Coco Key Water Resort in Omaha was a blast and perfect for the kids

So this is a bit of what we have been up to. I will be posting more regularly now that our computer is working. Love you all!

Summer has begun!

When Colbie gets really happy or excited she smiles with her eyes closed we call it the "squint"

Matching Romper outfits

Colbie always like to dump the whole box of toys out.

Our sprinklers are half way done and it rained again! Last night we had a classic Nebraska thunderstorm with lightning lighting up the sky 360'. If it would stop raining we could get some yard in one of these days.

So far with Alexis out of school we have just been hanging out. She went in for her kindergarten checkup and had shots while having a cold. She had some bad asthma that just about had her in the hospital. She was on a nebulizer and steroids for 4 days.

Colbie says "ma ma, da, da, up, all done, bye bye, night night, and Alexis. She crawls pretty fast now so I have to watch out. She has also started to pull herself up to standing on all the furniture. On Sunday she was trying to sing with me to the hymns and today she was making train noises because we could hear trains outside. She is such a sweet happy baby who likes to be held and cuddled and held some more (and cuddled some more!) I love it that! I took Alexis and Colbie to the park by the school and let Colbie play in the sand for the first time. At first she just squished her hands in it then just as I thought she would she put a big clump in her mouth and started rapidly chewing. It was really fun to see how excited she was and to build a sand castle with Alexis.

Over the weekend it got up to 86' and very humid. It seems so weird after growing up in a desert where it cools off at night and when it storms to have a windy overcast day but have it be so hot and humid outside. I love the beautiful green landscape in Nebraska. Spring has been lovely here, I especially like the trees.

Garden Fun

Here is our garden it took us 3 1/2 hours to plant 2 rows of potatoes and one row of peas. We now have a row of onions planted and they are starting to sprout. This used to be a cornfield so we'll see what happens with the plants. To plant the rest we will need a rototiller because the soil has so much clay it is rock hard to dig in even with adding water. The water just turns it into a muddy mess and it is still hard to dig. "Working the Land" has a whole other meaning to me now. I told my mom I was realizing the joy of digging in her nice soil.

I put the dark pink and purple petunias around the perennials. Looking from the front the pink petunias will be in the middle and the purple on the sides. I hope they spread out and fill in a bit this summer. The perennials have a year guarantee so if they die I can still replace them. So far so good!

They have been through a few rough rainstorms and wind but are still holding up. My potted plants

The promised couch pictures and I finally hung a few pictures

and put up some vinyl lettering on my wall.

I crocheted a bee for Alexis she named it "bee"

Colbie learned how to crawl backwards

and crawled under the crib to play with her mobile

Alexis all ready for her dance recital

"polka-dot bikini" and "rubber ducky your the one" dances

What else is new?

-Colbie learned how to crawl forward last Sunday and is getting around eating little bits mostly paper if she can find it.

-Alexis got a two wheel bike for her 5 year old birthday and is learning how to ride it.

-Shaun is getting his "black belt" this year at work (not karate it's basically business training classes in lean manufacturing and statistics).

-4 baptisms last Saturday in our branch 3 of which were Spanish speaking Shaun has been able to help teach some of these people because he knows Spanish from his mission to Uruguay.

-2 kids twice the messes and twice as much less time

-4 new houses going in on our street

Our attempts at a Spring family picture. We didn't really catch a photo where all of us were looking at the camera with eyes opened. Here are some just for fun!

Love this of Colbie enjoying the wind.

Precious

New Hippo P.J.'s

spitting at the camera

Alexis got to feed Colbie a bottle

Colbie's favorite: Bath time

She tries so hard to pull this metal piece off

We took a drive over Easter break to see Lake North. Alexis and Colbie fell asleep. Both kids love to sleep in the car wherever we go even to the grocery store unfortunately they wake up when we stop and then are cranky. Long drives are better drives that's my motto.

A beautiful farm

Lake North. Could be a fun place to go if we had a boat This edge slopes slightly down and then drops off about 6 feet straight down to the water super dangerous for kids! We had fun throwing rocks in from a distance.

Easter fun

Eggs!

Eggs that Alexis couldn't find. I guess they were just out of her line of sight! Funny!

Alexis and I got a dual pedicure together. It was a first for both of us. We will definitely do it again. It was a super fun mother daughter date! Alexis loved sitting in the fancy massage chair and they put Cars the movie up on the giant plasma flat screen t.v. for her to watch.

The Easter Egg hunt

Love this hidden egg

Our tradition of coloring eggs. We take them and turn them into potato salad for our Sunday ham dinner.

Well it has been forever since I have been able to have a minute to get on the computer so I'm playing catch up. Lately the weather has been awesome so we have gone outside. Over Easter we barbecued and flew kites at the park. Shaun even got the f-18 kite flying. It was really fun to enjoy some time together. We listened to conference (a semi-annual church broadcast) on our computer and took a relaxing drive. Yesterday we potted some plants for our front yard. I will post the pics for those too. We are getting ready to put in some sprinklers and yard. I think we have narrowed down who we want to put in the sprinklers. We might try to do the yard ourselves. All of our new neighbors are so great and friendly. As far as our church responsibilities...The missionary work here continues to move forward at a quick rate. We have had some Spanish speaking missionaries sent to the area and have already seen 3 baptisms. Shaun was able to help in translating and teaching some of the church investigators. Our branch is now offering some Spanish speaking classes and translating for meetings. This Saturday there are 3 more baptisms. It is amazing to see the miracle of it and the way the gospel has changed the lives of these new members. We are so grateful to be here and to have work to support our family. We feel truly blessed. Family we miss you!!!!