Happy Birthday Daddy-O!

My dad's 51st birthday was this last tuesday, when we asked him what he wanted to do he had a very thought out distinct response! Which is weird, normally it would take him forever to make a decision and lots of brain storming on my part to come up with fun things we could do for his birthday. I was prepared! But no, he wanted to take the motorcycles up to Idaho city and get dessert at this place called Trudy's. Splendid!

Dad came in for his mani pedi earlier in the day, and funny story. I guess one of the ladies in the salon was asking about my dad, if he was single, saying he was really handsome!! WHAT? MY DAD?? HE'S OLD!! But I guess still pretty handsome:) My boss told her it was my dad and he was still happily married:) So funny.

Anyway, I had to work till 7 so my mom and dad met us there on the bike with Jay and Stacy Simmons and their bike and Sweet husband came to pick me up on ours. The ride up was sooo beautiful! It was a challenge trying to keep up with dad and Jay, they are crazy riders. But fun and gorgeous none the less. We even saw a ton of elk and deer! We got to Trudy's and had her world famous Pie! Stephen and I chose apple, a la mode:) MMmmmmMMMMM!! Then Trudy came out to talk with us and boy was she HILARIOUS! Typical small town country lovin red neck. Loved it. On the way back down it got pretty chilly and BUGGY!! My face became and bug sanctuary where many brave bug lives were lost. Even a few up my nose. Note to self: don't ride in the mountains at sun down. Luckily we didnt see any bears or deer on the road. We got back to boise and decided to continue the celebration at Ihop where we had breakfast for dinner. The end! And a very Happy Birthday to my DAD!

I really enjoy riding on the back of the motorcycle. You get to take in so much more that you miss out on when you're in a car. We always ride (when its nice out) on sundays to dinner at one of the parents houses. Yesterday was the best ride! Coming home from Boise there was the most beautiful vibrant sunset....in that moment I knew there was no where else I'd rather be, then on the back of a bike of someone who loves me squeezin on to him while riding off into the sunset. I have zero complaints! Life is good!

North San Juan, California!

This was a big highlight of the summer. We were able to road trip with Stephens sister Tiffany and her little boy Jaxon, who is 5 and hilarious! He kept us entertained with this

and singing in to Stephens empty rock star can:) Because he is a rock star!

We spent our days lounging on the beach and getting dragged behind boats and watching neices and nephews play in the water, and our nights eating great food and watching movies on the side of the barn and watching the stars. It was so great to spend time with the family.

Hangin our Ridin the party barge

Feeding the fish at bullards bar reservoir

Playin some ping pong in the barn

The Amazing Yuba river! My favorite place to be up there. It has huge boulders all up and down the river that create amazing falls and pools that we hike around and on. Such fun!

Tiff and I getting ready for "big kid tubing"....After I realized I'm not ready to be a big kid yet! I maxed out at 18mph and was still scared for my life! Haha I think Stephens max was 30! Crazy man.

My sexy swimmin man

Stephen and cousin Tyler (the pro water skier)






Rock jumping in the Yuba river

Holding on to my glasses so I wont loose them!

The most ridiculous contraption. They call it the wet bike? Apparently it was originally a dirt bike they converted to a jet ski. It was pretty fun!


Havin some lunch on the beach


Family is so important, and I'm very glad we were able to go spend time with Stephens family and get even closer to them. I'm so blessed with my in-law family! We had a great time! Cant wait for next year.

Summer 2011

Look babe, I match our bedroom!

He is so cute. We have been busy this spring and summer setting up our house! Its coming along, and I promise to post pictures when its complete, but until Stephen slows down with roofing and I can have my handy manny back....I am lost on my own. We are so busy with work in the summer time its nuts! But somehow, we've managed to have some fun. Work hard play hard....RIGHT??

We started off the summer with weddings! Both Stephens cousin Joe and his cousin Bryant were married. Unfortunately, we forgot the camera for cousin Joe's wedding in portland (which was a super quick and super fun trip in may) But fortunately, my talented sister was the photographer for cousin Bry's wedding in Mccall. It was beautiful and a blast.

Bryant and Kori's wedding

Another sweet baby Stephen couldnt keep his hands off of at the wedding



Over the 4th of July we were able to attend the baby blessings of the triplets (James, Wilson and Quinn) as well as Ainslees little Trey. The next week Stephens brother Nathan and his wife Sherry came with the triplets and their 3 year olds (Hazel and Claire) we had such a great time with them and seriously got our baby fix!! I miss those sweet babies every day. I even painted little Quinnys toes!!

If there is a baby near, this guy will find it!


We were able to go to the opening day of Harry Potter!! It was so cool. We doubled with Camber and Andrew, went shopping and bought the boys grey suits! They are fabulous. Then hit up U Swirl and the movie. Great date. Camber and I are clearly excited...


Next there was my mothers 50TH BIRTHDAY BASH!!! It was great fun, we missed Riley and his family but still had a great time with the friends and family that were able to come.

They call me the baby wisperer... this is one of 4 times I put him to sleep that day! precious. I have never met a baby that looked more like an old man. Love it.



I can sure make this baby boy laugh! He loves when I tickle his face with the ends of my hair:)


RIGHT after Mom's party we headed to Yellowstone to spend some time with the family and my Aunt Shellie's family! It was so fun to spend a few days with everyone. Stephen and I had never been before! It was defiantly cool, and we were able to check one more thing of our bucket list of things we should have done when we were 9:) Ok, I'm the only one who has that list. DISNEY land or world is next on the list for sure.
Aunt Sinee...my eyes!! How I LOVE that hinder. It was especially fun to see this kid light up at the sight of all these fun animals! I think that was the best part.

We even "floated" a river up in Island park. It was a level down from the Boise river float if that tells you anything about how eventful it was:) Still fun, and we saw a huge moose!

I told you, baby FOUND. My cousin Bethanie's baby girl.


I'm so glad to have such a wonderful family who loves me and cares about me. I'm glad we are able to spend time together and do so many fun things! I look forward to the day I will get to bring my kids and watch them light up as they experience these things for the first time. I think that will be one of the most rewarding things as a parent. But I can wait:)

The place we call HOME.

Sometimes while driving through our neighborhood I see people that make me feel good about where we live. Safe. Secure. All that good stuff. The people I want to be at my door in my dreams when Stephen is gone. You know, Like families

small children...

Pretty birds....

Joggers...

And pretty flowers

Other times (Much like today) I see people who look like Russel Brand

riding a razor scooter (not cool motorized one) at 9 AM on a monday morning Smoking a cigar. WHAT? He was wearing hip hugger girl pants that had a serious flare at the bottom. It was nuts. Then I saw the creepy Lawn care guys and the Mail man....and all my happy family Jogger thoughts were filled with these villans showing up to my door. I'm not sure why but I have recurring nightmares when Stephen is gone that I open the door and its someone frightening. So we are having a peep hole installed:) So I can scope them out before I let them in. Because as of now, when someone comes to the door and I'm home by myself I just dont answer it. I know, pathetic. But if you saw my dreams and this guy on the scooter today, you wouldnt either! So I apologize if I dont open the door for you, just text or call and I will let you in:) It really is a great area to be living in and we love it. I just always have to check, double check, triple check doors windows and blinds before I can sleep here alone:)

Wallow in self pitty? check.

Dentist? Or DEVIL? I'm not too sure these days. I'm going to go ahead and take a moment to feel sorry for myself and be okay with it:) I usually don't like to be a debby downer but I'm willing to make an exception.

THE MONTH OF MAY
I was a crazy woman. My dentist told me I needed a crown and my Doctor told me I needed a colonoscopy. So what do I do? Schedule them back to back. Why spread out the torture? Thats what I was thinking, not knowing that it would be spread out no matter what I did. Well that was May 16 & 17. Two weeks after doing a crown prep on my tooth #30, It was time to place the real live crown (mind you I went in 3 whole times during these two weeks to let them know it was still hurting). I sat in the chair. The assistant reaches for the pliers and proceeds to yank out my temporary crown. Bloody murder is what I yelled. Oh wow, you mean when you try to pull off my tooth it hurts?! Weird. So she decides she is going to go ahead and numb me up to yank again. ahem. Last time you stuck a needle in my mouth I was HEAVILY sedated and taking long deep breaths of nitrus oxide! But go ahead, just shoot me up cold turkey. I was a big girl, kinda. Between sobs. YANK. OH MY GOSH I almost punched her in the nose. You mean you numbed me and I can still feel it? Weird. Ok time to get the doc, oh you think we should do an x ray? Great idea. Oh what? Its completely infected? Ohhhhh, so thats why its killing me. Really people?? We didnt think to do this before the yanking? Or at least after the first? Well. Seems to be a pretty bad case, so they sent me to the Endodontist (root canal specialist) off I went. We had a lovely consult, I cried through most of it. I think I scared him a little which is good. He agreed to again HEAVILY sedate me and give me that sweet breathin nitrus oxide. Monday, June 6th rolls around. Root canal day. It went lovely, I dont remember a thing. I was clear up on cloud 9 with my I pod in (really is the way to do dentistry) after we finished, got some bad news. I have a very interestingly stubborn tooth. Turns out the normal tooth has 2 roots, pretty standard. Mine has SIX. Six roots, one tooth. Two of which were still too infected to drill out. One of which he broke off a piece of his drill for a little souvenir:) So I get to go back TWO more times to get drilled on. Each appointment will be 2 weeks apart so I have time to heal. Then 30 days till they can place the crown. Not to mention, I let my pain meds laps, was in excruciating pain so I called the doc and he told me to take 15 milligrams of Hydrocodine. My body said tooooooooo much! And not only was I still in excruciating pain but I was puking every other minute not able to keep anything, let alone pain meds, down. Rough day. Had to miss work a second day because of the 21 throw ups. I even got one of the pills stuck in my throat and had to shove it down with my finger. Too graphic?:) Brutal. So doc uped my pain meds to Oxycodone which is working out lovely. I still only get to take Ibu during the day so I can work and drive, but oh boy do I look forward to coming home to that sweet stuff:) Life will get better. I'm lucky I am able to be so heavily medicated. Dental work is the Pitts! For my first root canal, this sure was a doosy. Better luck the next TWO times!

New Additions

WHO IS AMAZING??
Mallory Hurst.

Gorgeous, Perfect, Precious little Triplets. Wilson August, Quinn Rebecca and James Gordon.

Proud big sisters Hazel Dawn & Claire Christine

Whole Happy Family!!

Here is sweet Trey Jacoby Larsen

JJ

Kylee Leilani


I'm so grateful to have such an amazingly talented photographer for a sister! I cant wait to have sweet children and have her capture their perfect little personalities. I love these photos and will cherish them always, as will their mommies and daddies. Thank you so much Mallory!!

This about sums up Yesterday and Today for me...

My stomach issues have been stumping doctors for over a year now. After 2 emergency room visits, wasteful allergy testing, and other research...My gastroenterologist suggested a COLONOSCOPY. At which point I believe I lost all coloring in my face. Colonoscopy?? yeah right! I'm 22, not a 50 year old man! Absurd. I will not do it. Well, at 2 PM today I will have it done. So the first half of this story is my reality, the second part doesnt seem as bad:) Stephen is the most caring and considerate husband there is. He wanted to have true empathy for me so he is cleansing with me! What a guy. No food from sunday night till today (tuesday) after 3 pm. My mom emailed this to me with the attachment "sorry you're having such a poopy time!" not funny yet mom. :) Hope you enjoy! Its pretty hilarious.

Dave Barry's colonoscopy journal:
======================
I called my friend Andy Sable, a gastroenterologist, to make an appointment for a colonoscopy.
A few days later, in his office, Andy showed me a color diagram of the colon, a lengthy organ that appears to go all over the place, at one point passing briefly through Minneapolis .

Then Andy explained the colonoscopy procedure to me in a thorough, reassuring and patient manner.
I nodded thoughtfully, but I didn't really hear anything he said, because my brain was shrieking, quote, 'HE'S GOING TO STICK A TUBE 17,000 FEET UP YOUR BEHIND!'
I left Andy's office with some written instructions, and a prescription for a product called 'MoviPrep,' which comes in a box large enough to hold a microwave oven.
I will discuss MoviPrep in detail later; for now suffice it to say that we must never allow it to fall into the hands of America's enemies.
I spent the next several days productively sitting around being nervous.
Then, on the day before my colonoscopy, I began my preparation.
In accordance with my instructions, I didn't eat any solid food that day; all I had was chicken broth, which is basically water, only with less flavor.
Then, in the evening , I took the MoviPrep. You mix two packets of powder together in a one-liter plastic jug, then you fill it with lukewarm water. (For those unfamiliar with the metric system, a liter is about 32 gallons). Then you have to drink the whole jug. This takes about an hour, because MoviPrep tastes - and here I am being kind - like a mixture of goat spit and urinal cleanser, with just a hint of lemon.
The instructions for MoviPrep, clearly written by somebody with a great sense of humor, state that after you drink it, 'a loose, watery bowel movement may result'.
This is kind of like saying that after you jump off your roof, you may experience contact with the ground.
MoviPrep is a nuclear laxative. I don't want to be too graphic, here, but: have you ever seen a space-shuttle launch? This is pretty much the MoviPrep experience, with you as the shuttle. There are times when you wish the commode had a seat belt. You spend several hours pretty much confined to the bathroom, spurting violently. You eliminate everything. And then, when you figure you must be totally empty, you have to drink another liter of MoviPrep, at which point, as far as I can tell, your bowels travel into the future and start eliminating food that you have not even eaten yet.
After an action-packed evening, I finally got to sleep.
The next morning my wife drove me to the clinic. I was very nervous. Not only was I worried about the procedure, but I had been experiencing occasional return bouts of MoviPrep spurtage. I was thinking, 'What if I spurt on Andy?' How do you apologize to a friend for something like that? Flowers would not be enough.
At the clinic I had to sign many forms acknowledging that I understood and totally agreed with whatever the heck the forms said. Then they led me to a room full of other colonoscopy people, where I went inside a little curtained space and took off my clothes and put on one of those hospital garments designed by sadist perverts; the kind that, when you put it on, makes you feel even more naked than when you are actually naked.
Then a nurse named Eddie put a little needle in a vein in my left hand. Ordinarily I would have fainted, but Eddie was very good, and I was already lying down. Eddie also told me that some people put vodka in their MoviPrep.
At first I was ticked off that I hadn't thought of this, but then I pondered what would happen if you got yourself too tipsy to make it to the bathroom, so you were staggering around in full Fire Hose Mode. You would have no choice but to burn your house.
When everything was ready, Eddie wheeled me into the procedure room, where Andy was waiting with a nurse and an anesthesiologist. I did not see the 17,000-foot tube, but I knew Andy had it hidden around there somewhere. I was seriously nervous at this point.
Andy had me roll over on my left side, and the anesthesiologist began hooking something up to the needle in my hand.
There was music playing in the room, and I realized that the song was 'Dancing Queen' by ABBA. I remarked to Andy that, of all the songs that could be playing during this particular procedure, 'Dancing Queen' had to be the least appropriate.
'You want me to turn it up?' said Andy, from somewhere behind me.
'Ha ha,' I said. And then it was time; the moment I had been dreading for more than a decade. If you are squeamish, prepare yourself, because I am going to tell you, in explicit detail, exactly what it was like.
I have no idea! Really! I slept through it! One moment, ABBA was yelling, 'Dancing Queen, feel the beat of the tambourine,' and the next moment, I was back in the other room, waking up in a very mellow mood.
Andy was looking down at me and asking me how I felt. I felt excellent. I felt even more excellent when Andy told me that It was all over, and that my colon had passed with flying colors. I have never been prouder of an internal organ.

HAHAHA ok its pretty funny. Hopefully I pass! Or Hopefully they find out whats wrong with me already!!!