Bee Swarm

Our neighbors texted me on Thursday letting me know we had a bee swarm in our tree.  We immediately called a beekeeper to come get the bees!

Spoiled in Phoenix

I spent several days last week in Phoenix for a conference for work.  I felt so spoiled the entire trip.  We were at a document imaging conference, and the vendor really wants to make Boise State happy... For example, when we got down to the baggage claim area, there was a driver waiting for us.  He got our luggage off the baggage claim, took them to the car and loaded them for us, and drove us to the hotel - the beautiful Arizona Biltmore.  Another example - the second night we were there, they chartered a bus and took us to a fancy restaurant.  They brought out huge appetizers of prawns, lobster tail, and oysters, along with prosciutto wrapped mozzarella with roasted tomatoes.  Each of the entrees were at least $40, and then of course there was dessert.  It was so lovely.  Much better than hotel room service!

Speaking of the hotel, I had never heard of the hotel, but it was stunning with multiple pools, a putting green, shops, flower gardens, etc.  The hotel itself was designed in part by Frank Lloyd Wright!  The hotel gym was amazing, and the sunshine was beautiful (although I did get sunburned).  I got an "upgraded" room when I checked in, and got a room with a balcony and a view of some of the gardens.

It was a great conference.  I learned a lot and am looking forward to maybe managing a document imaging project this summer!

Happy Housewarming

Last week we had a little party to celebrate our new home.  We had over 50 friends and family come through in the two hours and we felt so loved!  I felt bad I didn't get to spend much time talking to everyone, but I was giving "tours" all night :-)  And of course there was food.

Thank you to those who came for sharing in our excitement with us.

Salad and Shootguns

For years I have enjoyed listening to my friends talk about the cute things their kids have said.  I think one of my favorites was when my friend Jami told me how when at church, her youngest son whispered, "Jesus' blood tastes a lot like grape juice."  Haha, I still laugh every time I think about that.  Another one of my favorites was one my brother-in-law TJ posted on facebook that my niece was describing a flower pot to her neighbors and told them her parents let her grow her very own pot.

I don't have a funny Kylee story to share, per se, but I did want to record a couple things that she's been saying or doing lately.  Matt got her a pink toy shotgun (her friend Katie had one and Kylee loved it).  Kylee calls it her "shootgun".  I love when she asks me, "Mommy, do you know where my shootgun is?"

I've always had Kylee eat whatever I made for our family for dinner - no special meals here... but for some reason I never gave her any salad.  I've been starting to have her try salad every once in a while now, and even though she might complain a little (as she seems to do with a lot of things before trying them) I think she actually likes it okay.  But what I love now is that any lettuce or spinach is "salad".  For example, a few weeks ago I was trying to get in 5 servings of vegetables a day.  That can be harder than it sounds!  In order to jump start my day, I added a serving of spinach to a fruit smoothie.  Kylee informed me she wanted her smoothie "without salad".

Finally, just thought I'd post a picture of some of Kylee's writing.  She still struggles with some of her letters, but I showed her how to write "MOMMY" and "DADDY" last week and she still remembered when she was "practicing her letters" this week.

Happy Birthday "Grandpa" Matt!

Happy birthday Matt!  Today we celebrated his 30th birthday.  I had told Kylee a couple weeks ago how old her dad was going to be and she said, "That's kind of like a grandpa!"  Haha, she is such a cutie.  Anyway, Matt was able to take the day off work so we were able to attend stake conference together (great talks!) and we had our family over for homemade sushi dinner.  Matt loves sushi... good thing because we have about 75 pieces left in the fridge!  We had no idea just how many rolls we would be able to make with the fish I bought.  We had eel, eel sauce, salmon, tuna, crab, spicy crab, cream cheese, avocado, spicy mayo, carrots, cucumber, wasabi, etc.  Everyone seemed to have a good time making the rolls - we'll definitely have to do this again.

One of Matt's birthday gifts was the new Ice Age movie in 3D (I decided we needed to add to our 3D movie collection, and got him a movie he could watch with Kylee!)... I gave Matt a reprieve from helping with the dishes so he and Kylee could go watch the movie.  I went upstairs to see how things were going and found our sweet little one looking so cute I had to snap a picture.  I sure love my little family.

Oh, and just for fun, here's a pic of Matt and me last week watching the Avengers in 3D.

"The temple is special. Do you know how I know?"

I had the sweetest moment with Kylee this week.  We were driving to the gym and Kylee pointed out a church that was on the corner of Chinden and Locust Grove.  She said, "Look mom, it's like a castle or a temple!"  I told her it was a church, and she responded by telling me that people get married there.  I told her she was right, but reminded her about the temple and that that's where we want to get married.  She told me, "The temple is special.  Do you know how I know?  Because I can feel Heavenly Father's spirit there.  Heavenly Father has two homes - the temple and the church."  My heart melted, as I looked at my beaming four-year-old.  I am so proud of her and am happy that she loves going to church and learning in primary.  I am happy that she enjoys reading scripture stories with us for Family Home Evenings.  It is fun to see her learn and grow.  I feel so blessed every day to have her in my life.

BO-GLO 5K

Have you ever heard of an evening "glow" race?  I hadn't, and thought the idea was totally cool when my co-worker and fellow BYP member Jordan Morales told me about his idea and a race that he and his buddies were organizing.  The glow race idea was a catchy way to grab people's attention and educate them on the cause of the race - Cushings disease.  Jordan's mom has been diagnosed with Cushings disease, so he was looking for a way to raise awareness and raise money in support of Cushings research.  They did an awesome job, and had over 600 participants for this first annual BO-GLO 5k race.

I spent the first couple hours volunteering at packet pickup with fellow BYP members, and then was able to run the race - an easy course along the Boise greenbelt.  They made the entire event a party with bands before and after the race, food trucks, lit-up underpasses with colorful lights, tons of glow necklaces/glasses/bracelets/etc.  Nice work Jordan... looking forward to next year!

Me - after the race!

Time to Study, Study, Study

I have been wanting to get my Project Management Professional (PMP) certification for a few years now.  I originally started my application back when I was still in the Registrar's Office, but never quite finished it.  You see, the application is a big part of the process - you have to document 4500 hours of project management work, dividing each project out into the different phases of project management (initiating, planning, executing, monitoring & controlling, and closing).  You also have to document 35 hours of professional training courses certified by the Project Management Institute.  Anyway, it takes quite some time to put all that together.  And back then, I was taking a bunch of courses to try and get up to my 35 hours.

I started up seriously again in Fall of 2011.  In September or October, I had scheduled a November PMP bootcamp class through work, which would get my my 35 hours of training.  I had intended to complete everything by the end of the year, or early 2012 at the latest.  Well, as you know, I ended up getting engaged the end of October, and then life got in the way.  Wedding planning, getting married, becoming a wife and a mom, getting super busy with my project at work, building a house... it was hard to fit in the time to work toward my PMP!

Life is finally at a point where I am starting back up again!  I completed my PMP application a couple weeks ago and heard back last Monday that it was accepted!  Hooray!  One part of the equation is out of the way.  Now I have a ton of studying to do for the exam.  I have talked to many people who say it is the worst test they have ever taken.  I have also heard that only 43% pass the exam the first time they take it.  Ugh.  I really don't want to have to take the test more than once, but that means I need to really kick it in gear and dedicate the time necessary to studying.  Anyway, if we're in the middle of a conversation and I start muttering equations or definitions or whatever, bear with me :-)  I'm planning to take the test next month!

Personalized Bronco Rock

 

Some of you might remember a couple years ago when I bought a Bronco Rock.  I was so excited.  I had it in my corner landscaping and it made me smile every day as I drove by... so I was super bummed a couple months later when it was stolen.  I have wanted to get another one ever since, but wanted some way to deter potential thiefs.  A couple ideas were to  put my name or address on it - well, back in 2011 I didn't want to do either, hoping I wouldn't have the same last name and address forever :-)

 

Well lucky me, I now have a name I will keep forever!  We went last week and picked out our rock and design and got a call yesterday that it was ready.  We were all excited, even Kylee who has been asking for a couple months if we could get a Bronco Rock - without even any discussion from me or Matt!  She had seen one at a house down the street and has been wanting one since.

I picked the rock up last night on my way home from work, and Matt immediately got to work at clearing a spot for it near our front door.  Isn't it beautiful?  I think it just makes our house even that much cooler :-)

Scrumptious Salads

With the warmer weather we've been having (and the fact that Brandee wants me to get 5 servings of vegetables and 2 servings of fruit every day this week), we've been trying some new salad recipes.

First, I loosely followed a recipe for a Barbecue Chicken Cobb salad from Our Best Bites with their homemade Blue Cheese Salad Dressing.  We actually broiled the chicken with some BBQ sauce on top for 12 minutes on each side.  The chicken was so moist and delicious!  We decided broiling is the way to go for meat!  Oh, and we also decided homemade salad dressing is almost always better than store bought :-)

The other salad we tried recently that we both really liked was this Summer Layered Chicken Salad.  I love anything sweet, so the strawberries made this salad for me!

I have plenty more salads on my pinterest board... looking forward to more new salad recipes of the coming months!

Married to you

As I was perusing facebook over lunch today, I shared a photo on Matt's "wall" about a new upcoming season of one of his favorite shows - Arrested Development.  I wanted to make a comment on the photo I had just shared, so opened up Matt's page.  The phrase "Married to you" jumped right out at me.  I love how facebook knows that.  But what I love even more is how happy and excited that little phrase made me. I truly feel lucky and blessed to be married to Matt.  Happy day... happy life.... happy eternity!

Sprucing up our Yard

As much as I loved the mature landscaping at our old house (I will miss the shade!!!), I know that it will be nice to have a break from major yard work for a few years.  We won't have much beyond mowing this year because everything is so new and so little.  We are enjoying the transformation in our yard already, though.  The curbing guys came today, and we are super happy with what we picked out - a brownish color of concrete with a very subtle stamp to give it a little dimension/character.  Additionally, the back fence will be up by the end of the week, we ordered our new Bronco Rock (complete with our name this time so hopefully it won't be stolen again), and are looking to getting a few other large landscape rocks for the front of the house.  Everything is coming together!

Easter Sunday

We had a beautiful Easter Sunday... it was beautiful in every way!  We woke up Sunday morning to a little girl who was so happy that the Easter Bunny had come.  She cried out with excitement every time she spotted another egg.  Our lucky only child got to find all forty eggs herself... needless to say, we will be rationing the candy over the next few months :-)  Kylee's favorite eggs though were those with money - smart girl!

Before church we met with a member of our bishopric who extended us callings to be team teachers in the Primary.  I knew we would likely get called to Primary... Have you ever heard of a ward with 250 primary kids???  Crazy, right?  There are three primaries.  I am expecting the ward will be split sometime soon!  I am excited to be able to serve with Matt in this capacity.  We found out today we will be teaching the 8-year-olds.  I am looking forward to it.  It will sure be a change from Young Womens!

Church was lovely.  The choir performed for the sacrament meeting program, and Sunday School and the joint Relief Society/Priesthood meeting was excellent.  It was neat for us to try and teach Kylee why we have Easter and why it's so special.

After church, we had our first family gathering at our home, with both my family and Matt's family.  It was so lovely having everyone over.  And it was amazing how easy dinner was when everyone pitched in.  All we provided was the meat and a fruit tray!

We had beautiful weather all day, so we ended the evening with a walk around the neighborhood and a stop at the park.  A perfect end to a perfect day.