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Monday, July 28, 2008

Red Rocks, Rock!

We had a fun road trip this weekend. One of the cool things about living in Utah is the red rock and on Saturday we discovered a miniature Bryce Canyon about 60 miles from our home. It's called The Devils Kitchen and is a pretty awesome view.
We stopped along the way to stretch our legs and followed a few trails, one was around a small lake and Lilly was so excited to see the fish jumping.

Lilly and I give this trail four thumbs up :) Lilly was very proud that she could hike along the trail and climb over rocks all by herself. She is getting to be very independent, it's nice but it makes me a little sad to see my baby growing up so quickly. Lilly also wanted to try and cross the stream all by herself, but we decided she wasn't quite big enough to do it alone. Look at those long flexible legs, she is so bendy!We had a great time and love to play in mother natures playground :) I am so glad that Lilly enjoys hiking and being outside as much as we do. We are hoping to go on a few more hikes this summer and enjoy the beauty of the place we live. It's defiantly different terrain than Washington, but that is what I think is so cool about it. We do miss the evergreens and rain, but I think we are starting to find our adventurous groove here.

posted by mandamike at 1:53 PM 2 Comments

Friday, July 25, 2008

Foto Friday!

Lilly loves to paint! Here she is at her art table with a few of her very own paint brushes.

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posted by mandamike at 1:57 PM 0 Comments

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Fishers of Men

"There is no greater fan of fly fishing than the worm." ~Patrick F. McManus

This fish nearly got away :)

Mike and his good friend and fishing buddy Ben started Fly Fishing last summer. They didn't really ever catch anything, but kept trying to outsmart the fish. Finally this summer I think they've figured it out.

Last Friday Mike and Ben challenged the river yet again and they WON! Mike caught 4 fish and Ben caught a 16 incher! What I think is even better is Mike took pictures to prove that they just didn't figure out the art of a fisherman's tale :)






Ben getting ready to gut the 16" Brown trout. He cleans the fish at our house because his sweet wife is very sensitive and feels bad for the fishy. Notice also the gloves, Ben doesn't really want to touch the cutie :)




Here is the 13" Rainbow trout that Mike caught! He released it back into the river, maybe they will meet again.

I am so glad that Mike enjoys fishing and the outdoors. I love it too and it is something that we can share and teach our children to enjoy as well. Lilly bought Mike a set of fishing pants (Lilly call's them "Daddy's Dancing Pants") for father's day and it seems they have brought him luck. Plus it's much easier to fly fish when you aren't freezing in just your jeans in snow run-off river water. Fishing with Ben has been a really nice retreat for Mike from the stress of school and work, Mike you deserve it! I tried Mike's fly rod a few weeks ago and now I am itching to try it out for reals... it looks so cool and is such a classic sport.

posted by mandamike at 11:37 PM 0 Comments

Art Class

On Monday Lilly and I went to a Mommy and Me Monet class. It was really fun, Lilly loves to paint, so this class was right up her alley. Lilly got to finger paint and also paint on the windows! We are going to go to the art class for the next few weeks too. I love doing fun things like this with Lilly, the school that is hosting the class is hoping to continue with it in the fall, I sure hope so. I am also going to try and register her for tumbling again.Lilly needs some sort of outside the home stimulation and is totally ready for pre-school. Unfortunately she has an early birthday and so she will have to wait one more year before starting pre-school. I plan on trying to do a few pre-schoolish things with her next year at home, but that just isn't as fun :)

posted by mandamike at 2:03 PM 1 Comments

Monday, July 21, 2008

June Photo's

Hi! June photo's are finally up in our photo section. We had a fun June, we went to lots of cool places and had a great visit with Grandma C.

posted by mandamike at 2:05 PM 0 Comments

Friday, July 18, 2008

Foto Friday!

I think Lilly has a green thumb :) This zuke is HUGE! I'm not sure how we are going to cook it, but I can hardly wait to eat it.
Also notice that our pea plants are now taller than Lilly :)

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posted by mandamike at 2:08 PM 0 Comments

Monday, July 14, 2008

ADOPTION

Adoption something that is very special to me. We have grown our family because of adoption, and someday we will be blessed again because of adoption. Whether it is tomorrow or two years from now, it will happen. I try to keep in my heart that it will happen not because I want it to, but because of our hard work, constant prayer and most importantly Heavenly Father's eternal plan for us.

Adoption is on my mind daily. It's constant work, it takes time, focus, money, preparation, prayer, and a ton of Faith! Some days it is easy to move forward, working towards our goals and some days are completely emotional and exhausting. I feel deep in my heart that another little spirit belongs in our family and I can hardly wait to meet them.

A few months ago I posted about how we were blessed with Lilly, incase you missed it here is a link http://mandamike.com/blog/2008/04/my-train-ride-to-lilly_22.html

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posted by mandamike at 11:52 PM 2 Comments

Foto Friday (Video)

video

This video was taken about a month ago when Grandma C. came to visit. Lilly is pretty good at knowing her ABC's by sight and is also learning the sounds of the letters. She actually can sound out a few words, Lilly is one smart cookie :) This is the best game ever to help Lilly learn her alphabet.

posted by mandamike at 1:34 PM 0 Comments

Friday, July 11, 2008

previous posts

About a month ago we updated the look of the website and also added a new feature to the blog.
You can now go back to archived posts by selecting the month at the bottom of the blog page, or you can select the month or year on the right hand side of the page. Its pretty awesome that I have written in this blog since the very begining of 2006. My writing style has improved (I think) and it is something that I have enjoyed.

posted by mandamike at 10:13 PM 0 Comments

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Lilly Fun!

It's been a while since I listed things that Lilly has said. She has quite the vocabulary, sometimes I forget that she is only two.

I can tell that Lilly is read to A LOT. Lately she has been talking in third person, her conversation usually goes something like this: "I want some milk, Lilly says" or I will ask her to sit down or something and I will hear a little Lilly voice say "mommy said" it's pretty funny that she is thinking her words in written form.

She's also been trying different angles on how to get her binki besides at bed/nap time. The other day she kept saying "I'm sooooo sleepy" so of course I suggested that she go lay in her bed and take a rest. Apparently that wasn't what she wanted so she said "I want to sleep in Mommy's arms, not in my bed." and then she has to throw in the charm and she says "pllllllleeeeeeease" in her nice sweet voice. You bet it worked on me too :) She was actually tired and fell asleep after I held her and sang her a few songs.

Lilly has also been making up her own version's of songs, she will sing "Mary had a little Daddy!" and look at Mike for a reaction. Mike always puts on a good show for her too, she will giggle and do it over and over an over.

Lilly is such a fun smart little girl, she is a jokester and also can take a good tease.

posted by mandamike at 10:50 PM 0 Comments

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

A Masterpiece

I wanted to let everyone know that Mike posted in the 'Mike's Art' section of the website his two new completed art pieces.

I have to say that the oil painting of Lilly is my FAVORITE piece that he has done. The graphite on paper that he finished is pretty awesome too, you have to see it in person to really enjoy it, though. See if you can find the lizard crawling around in it. Also a link is posted to an article about the memorial mural Mike painted for Airlift Northwest. Unfortunately, we can't find a good picture of the mural, so the article and tiny picture in it will have to do for now.

Mike is meeting with the BYU Art Department this week. I am so proud that he is going for it and trying to use his amazing talent for his future career wish him luck!

posted by mandamike at 9:53 PM 1 Comments

Friday, July 4, 2008

Foto Friday!

Lilly was focused trying to break the rocket, she couldn't hold the 'real' bat so she got to swing with her plastic bat :)
Jacob busted open the pinata and all the cousin's went nuts gathering up the loot! :)

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posted by mandamike at 8:33 AM 0 Comments

Thursday, July 3, 2008

Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy!

I love summer time, I have wonderful memories of summers spent playing in the backyard with my siblings, going camping, family reunions, the hometown parade how I love it all!

I am excited for Independence Day this year. We are having a Pool/BBQ party at my house to celebrate with family. We started a tradition this year at our family Christmas party, one word: Pinata!!!! Lilly and I picked out a pinata today and fun things to fill it with, Mike decided that it was A LOT of work to make our own this time around so we forked out the $10.00 and bought one :) Although, I made Mike keep the snowman pinata he made for Christmas, I am using it as a decoration for the years to come, it is awesome.
Last weekend we purchased a swimming pool. We've been using it all week in the 100 degree weather, it's been a nice way to cool down. The water was REALLY cold when we first filled it, but Mike figured out how to hook up our kitchen tap to the hose and we added hot water to the mix and it's much nicer now.

I bought this blow up dragon, it is the silliest thing! Lilly rides on it in the pool and also on land :) When Lilly saw it the first thing she did was point at the horns and say "Look at it's horns, they are so silly!"

I hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July!

posted by mandamike at 10:42 PM 0 Comments