4th of July

We had an amazing 4th of July. We drove up to Idaho Falls to spend the day with Brad's wonderful Aunt Brenda and Uncle Val. We had such a great time catching up and hanging out all day. Then at about 9 pm we drove down to the river to watch them shoot off the fireworks. Apparently, this show is the biggest show west of the Mississippi! I was hoping that Ruth would just sleep through the whole thing, but since I had to get her up one hour after putting her down to bed, she was wide awake throughout the entire show. The funny thing is that she absolutely love watching the fireworks. She was just enchanted as she watched the different colors bursting in the sky. My favorite part of the show was that the fireworks were choreographed to patriotic music. If you look in the pictures you can see that we were sitting in the middle of the street (we were sitting on the double yellow lines).

I have also been quilting, which is my new favorite thing. This is a picture of my first 4 squares, they look uneven as though they aren't square, that's just because of the angle I took the picture so all 4 squares would fit in the picture. Each square is about 22 inches, and the entire quilt will include 12 squares. I have been learning from some ladies down town at a really cool, locally owned fabric shop.
Ruth has been enjoying new foods, such as: cottage cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes, dill pickles (yes she does ENJOY pickles), scrambled eggs with hot sauce, goldfish crackers, saltines, black beans, and yogurt pretzels (she made a HUGE mess with the yogurt pretzels). And this is my favorite picture of my favorite people.

David Poe

David,

First off, we appreciate your interest. We giggle like children every time you comment on our blog. We recently watched your performance on World Cafe live and loved it. We also caught word that you will be the lead in the upcoming "Whisperhouse" musical. Congratulations! If by then we can find some time and money we will definitely come to New York. We also await another record that we can glue in our players next to 'Love is Red.' We would just like you to know that you write wonderful music.

Brad and Katie

By the way, we are well aware that Idaho lacks the splendor and popular interest of the east coast but, maybe you could come and play the county fair! You know you'll have at least two fans and "You could meet my sister and her husband the bastard..." (Kristen and Nate, this is a song lyric, do not take this the wrong way)

Craig is My Favorite Person

After Brad and Ruth, of course, Craig has to be my favorite person in the entire world. Not that I've ever met him, but Craig and his list has saved me so much money I seriously love him to death! My most recent Craig's list purchases were this beautiful changing table ($15), which just so happens to match the rocking chair and crib in Ruth's room! (I'm also proud of myself because I put it together...we won't say how long that took!) And in the same morning I picked up Ruth's new Fisher Price Jumperoo ($20)! I am going to run the numbers like I always do:


WalMart had no changing tables, at least at the Jerome location. The new "gently used" kids store opening tomorrow has a changing table but they were asking $65 for a used one that wasn't even the right color. Other kids stores priced their changing tables from $120 - $400! So once again my purchase for $15 was a STEAL! Especially since it's in great condition.


The jumperoo I got for $20 was also the best deal around. The cheapest jumperoo at WalMart was $40, but the one that is comparable to this one was selling for $90. At Target the same Fisher Price Jumperoo was going for $120. At the used kids store opening up they were selling it for $35. SCORE!

Thank you Craig, wherever you are, who ever you are, thank you.

Goings On

Ruth is very proficient at rolling over now. She's now working on crawling. She lifts her bum up really high in the air while she has her hands and feet on the ground still. She also likes to cock her head to one side when she looks at things:


Also, I never thought the day would come that my child slept from 7 pm to 7 am (waking up 3 times in between) but that day has come, Yay.

Ruth has started helping me with my projects:

Sewing:

Whisking:

Potato Mashing:

She also loves to chew on carrots:

I've also been working on lots of sewing projects. I made a huge floor cushion to sit on while playing with Ruth. And now that she finally has a crib (I love Craig's list. I found her crib with a new mattress included, plus 2 sheets, a blanket and the bumpers for a total of $50!!!! Again anyone without kids here's the run-down: crib alone ranges $120-400; bedding ranges from $70-300; and mattresses range from $40-100. So this was a huge kill.) The only problem was the bedding didn't really match the purple curtains I hung in her room. So I got some purple fabric and added purple quilt squares onto the bumpers and the blanket so they match the curtains. I also got a $10 sheet from Target that had pink and purple polka-dots to tie everything together. It turned out really well.

This is the close-up of the purple squares and sheet:



I also made this wall decoration for her room, it brings the pink and purple across from the crib to the other side of the room:


The top center square is a big purple bow that you can't see very well in this picture. The other things are scrapbooking supplies in pink and purple that I had as well as some of her old pajamas that got stained so I cut out the little animals or flowers. I also used the extra purple fabric from the bumper/blanket project to back everything with and mounted it on cardboard from the 20" fan we bought the other day. This was really fun to make because it was like making a collage. I put her hospital bracelet on as well as the other things I already mentioned. This might sound weird, but my favorite part was cutting up her old pajamas...they still smelled like a newborn...kind of sweet smelling.

Family Reunion

We had a great week in Santa Fe for the Laws family reunion. We got to stay with wonderful Brian and Tia and Lydia and Ben. We went to the zoo, aquarium, Explora (discovery museum) Fuddruckers, pedicures for the ladies, an Isotopes baseball game, wandered around downtown, and my favorite thing of all we saw a concert at the zoo. It was so much fun! Here are some pictures of all the fun we had. We love you all and can't wait for next year.

Ruth, Morgand and I are sporting sun-glasses:





My two favorite people cuddling in bed: Ruth did not sleep well on this trip, she slept most nights with us...Brad loved it.


The following are the three boys: Joey, AJ and Ben, they are all about 18 months, born within 2 months of each other. They're so much fun.


The next pictures are from the botanical gardens, zoo and aquarium:







The next two are Brad with Ruth and Brad with Morgan at Explora.




The family picture of all of us at the picnic tree by Paula and Asa's house in Santa Fe.



I'm so glad I finally have sisters!

Hello Idaho

So long story short we are now living in Twin Falls, Idaho. Brad got a great job as the general manager of the Days Inn, 100% health benefits and all that. It's a real job and a great way for Brad to learn new skills. Neither of us have ever spent any time in Idaho and never pictured ourselves living here. But we got here Sunday and are totally in love with this small town. Aside from the extreme wind it's great. It's a medium sized town, about 30,000 people, and is very quaint. The best thing is that there are tons of natural sights to see. Last night for instance, we saw 4 guys jump off the Perrine bridge and float to safety on the bank of the Snake River. Today we saw the Malad gorge, Shoshone falls (50 feet longer than Niagra) and the Dierkes Lake.


We ate a picnic lunch and it was beautiful and relaxing and so much fun! We had time to do all this today because yesterday we found a beautiful new place to live. It's the nicest place we've lived since getting married. It's only 4 years old, 2 beds, 1 bath, patio with storage, walk in closet...we're so excited.

My family was obviously sad to see us go. We were sad to be moving away from them too. Here is a family picture we took when Matt visited a few weeks ago.

Our Weekend

We had a really great Saturday. First we drove around Mt. Hood with my parents (it was supposedly the "bloom festival" but none of the orchards had any flowers on them). Then we ate a big yummy lunch with pasta salad and mini sandwiches and strawberries and chocolate. Then we went to the Rhododendron garden near Reed College. It was so beautiful and we took lots of really great pictures. It was the perfect day too, which is lucky in Oregon; it was around 7o degrees and sunny! When we got back to my parent's house we ate home made sausage and mushroom pizza. Then they watched Ruth while Brad and I bummed around Wal-Mart and bought 188 diapers. We all watched Saboteur, a Hitchcock and then drove home. It was such a pleasant and relaxing day.

My Birthday

So it's been more than a week since my b-day but it was soooo wonderful so I have to write about it. The best was that Brad totally surprised me with tickets to WICKED! My mom and I went (Brad's not into musicals) and we had such a blast! I hadn't seen the show before and it was marvelous. We were worried when we heard the understudy was playing Glinda, but you wouldn't even know. But the star of the show is definitely Elpheba, her voice was incredible. I just got goosebumps when she sang. I loved at the end of Defying Gravity how she was lifted up into the air...wow. This show was definitely comparable to Mary Poppins in London. I was so in love with the music I had Brad download it as soon as I got home from the show. Thanks honey!

My parents also got me a beautiful pot of flowers (orange gerbers in the middle surrounded by little purple flowers) and some chairs to put on our deck...yay. Once it gets a little warmer it will be so nice to sit out there, especially since Brad got a grill for his graduation present!

I also got these great oil scents from my bro and sister in law which we've used up half of. Then my friend Katy Wall came into town for her spring break and she took me and Ruth to the zoo! We had so much fun looking at all the animals. My favorites were the sealions an the otters. Ruth liked the polar bears and we all loved the birds. It was so amazing. They were really tame and would fly right up to you and right in front of your face. I was just glad that none of them pooped on Ruth!

I also got my sewing machine and supplies, but that was more of a graduation present from Paula and Asa. I went to my sewing lesson to learn how my machine works and went right home and made a table cloth. It doesn't sound like it would be hard to make a table cloth but I wanted it to look really nice. I stitched over the edges so they won't fray when I wash it and then did a cool decorative stitch with contrasting thread. It looks really pretty.

Thank you everyone for such a great birthday! In other news, Ruth has continued to nap really well (1 to 2 1/2 hours for two or three times a day) and has started rolling over again!