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.