Idaho: Best State Ever

We love when family comes to visit.

When Grandma's around I get a break.

And somebody gets spoiled...

all week long.

But we really like going to Idaho

We love the scenic drives.

Especially when the passengers are in a good mood.



And how could she not be with all this attention?

But Idaho is just the best state. A little because of stuff like this.

But what I really love most....

is a visit with my brothers.

Call me biased but I love their music.

Help yourself to a sampling. This is "Shape of a Ghost."

Note: when they make it big, I am guessing I won't be their camera person.

A Birthday Girl Turns One!

I woke up one day and realized I have a little girl who's one year old.

~Marie, despite the fact I have not slept one night through since I was pregnant, this has been the best year of my life. Thanks for being my best little buddy. ~

But what do you do for a one year old? Do you not give them presents? Let's face it, they don't care. I could give her an empty box of wipes and that would keep her thrilled for hours (and I often do). Why bake her a cake when she's happy eating her wipes. Speaking of gross things, she just ate a bean off the floor. Gross Marie, seriously.
But the real question is, why wouldn't you celebrate this little girl?

So we had a pool party! I invited 50 people, ( i kind of got carried away at church) but luckily 20 of my favorite people showed up. I must list them now for sentimental purposes: Stefani Stelman (co-party planner and cake decorator), Allison and Sadie Nelson (Marie's best friend- yes we know she's too young, but they take great pictures together). The Miller family (our first friends in Vacaville. They have super cute kids who we also keep around for aesthetic purposes), Amber Lehman (visiting teacher/built-in friend) and kids, Ethan Miller (one of my favorite boys in my CTR 8 class, aka he has no emotional breakdowns and has not once caused me to emotionally break in the middle of church), and two new girls that I just met the day before, Katie and Amy who each brought their husband and son.

Sadie and Marie on the couch SHE picked out for her birthday. I think Marie looks kind of nervous excited to have her best friend sitting next to her on her favorite couch...

...as you can tell she LOVES this couch. She sits and talks to the princesses forever.

Marie: drunken with presents

I didn't do this party for gifts. I just really like hosting (and cake making). The invitations said "no presents please," but I understand better than anyone the temptation to buy for a one year old girl. Just ask Walmart and every cheaply priced disney princess toy in a 100 mile radius. She REALLY likes those disney princesses. I am kind of disappointed. I ask her often why she doesn't want to be culturally diverse like Dora the Explorer, why she doesn't want to work on leadership skills with the Wonder Pets, or even appreciate the complexities of spandex and techno music by learning from Yo Gabba Gabba. But at least it's not those Bratz dolls she likes.

What really helped "make the day special" was how Brett got called into work the night before at 11pm. That seems bad, but he was able to come home by 8am, sleep for 5 hours and then wake up for her pool party at 2. That all just happened spontaneously, so it was a really a blessing that I felt "inspired" to plan the party at 2pm. I'm just so darn righteous that good things happen to me like that.

I am going to pretend that we waited until she was one to give her things like cake and ice cream. Here is me pretending "AW! SO cute! She LOVES this ChoColate cake! What a SILLY girl!"

In reality she had a twizzler at four months of age and it just kind of went down hill from there.

The party lasted until 5 and wore out the babies thuroughly. Here is Sadie ready to pass out.

We had the whole pool to ourselves! On a day when it was 106 degrees outside! What a miracle. I was so scared my apartment would get mad that I invited alot of people and was serving cake around the pool, but luckily not a soul found out!

These cakes would not have been done without Brett (who babysat) and my buddy Stefani (who babysat and helped me do the green cake).
Thanks to Christen Millburn for the idea! Ok, this is the last picture of the cake, lest there be more pictures of cakes than my baby.

After the party, Brett went back to work, I dropped Marie off at Sadie's while I picked up my parents at the airport. We all came back and ate sushi while Marie played with chop sticks. My parents spoiled her and all was well with the world. What a great day!

What you've all been waiting for... Marie's stats:
Marie at one year: 16.8 lbs.

Thats it.
She weighs .4 lbs more than 3 months ago. Hmm. And she won't take pediasure, or carnation instant breakfast, let alone milk. And we stopped nursing one week before her birthday (HAAAALELUYAH!) So any advice is welcome. But she "seems" healthy. Crawling everywhere. Standing (if she doesn't think about it) and babbling up a storm. At the moment(we're in Emmett now) she is dropping macaroni and cheese all over my parents Chihuahuas and laughin' her head off. But I wouldn't mind her to gain a few pounds before the next dr. appt.

Lastly, here we are singing "happy birthday" to Marie. You can guess how well half the kids know Marie, considering they sing to a "Mia" or "Maria." But you can tell she's just trying to figure out who the heck we are singing to.

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl! We Love You!

Snails & Puppy Dog Tails

Call him Bond.... Max Bond. No, seriously, do because it's his name. And I will never ever get sick of that joke, so I'll apologize to him now. But he won't care, because he's an infant. A new baby infant born to my older brother Jesse. My brother Jesse whose birthday is July 12th. Max was born July 11th, at 11:56 pm. Who can blame him? Everybody has got to have their own birthday!

I dare say he looks like a Maxwell Bond. An intelligent child that enjoys reading large pictureless books about French history or Economic forecasts. That is when he's not on dangerous 007 missions.

It's nice to see a baby whose healthy and ready to take on the world. You may remember his sister was not so lucky. But she is doing well and ready take care of her brother.

Big Sister Beth!

This is Maresa who (I hear) is doing well. Another long pregnancy, but this time she was rewarded with a "quick" delivery. It's great to have such a strong sister-in-law. Good job on producing two adorable babies!

Welcome to the world Max!

Don't it always seem to go

They took all the trees, and put em in a tree museum.
And they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got till it's gone
They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot

Well, if our murdered tomatoes are any indication, the trees were probably murdered too and not put in a tree museum. Our garden was leveled, along with the rest of the shrubbery paradise, and a fence was suddenly erected. We found out what is happening with our once proud garden. It is being turned into a parking lot. I haven't heard if they'll let the homeless and their tents remain or not. Hopefully the one homeless man who we think is probably the Zodiac Killer will not be allowed to stay.

The Secret Garden is Dead

For the last 2 months Brett and I have been hauling 8-12 liters of water from our apartment across the street to an abandoned orchard. That is where we keep our secret garden.
1 cherry tomato plant, 1 chili pepper plant, and 1 large hot house tomato plant.
This weekend it was murdered.


This is what the lot looks like now. Before it was thick with orange trees. Now it's a mess. They mowed right over our little garden.
A big selling point for living where we do was this scenic orchard. Even though it was inhabited on and off by homeless, they were harmless homeless. I was told the city "promised" not to build on the land. But that was before California realized they actually had to use a budget. It seems in California they "subtracted" the arithmetic in school, especially for politicians. ZING!

Brett pointed out that the field is probably being thinned for fire season. And even though the best job I ever had was marking timber for loggers to cut, I have to say I was pretty incensed. (that means I was mad)
But if it's for safety than I guess I can deal.





Marie was a sport about watching me from the stroller as I dumped 6 pop bottles full of water in the middle of field. The more I think about it... the more I think Marie called the city and made this happen! Marie!!!!!!!! I'm totally confiscating her toy phone.

Stephanie's kids make good props.

In a picture, it's said a person with an animal next to them is more likeable than a person without. I guess that a person with a cute baby would be more loveable?

Preston & John

Cassie & John's Wedding 2009


Stockton & Brett
Christen & Mikes Wedding 2003?

The more I think about this, the more I think it's not a coincedence. Maybe?